Grain-Aware Video Quality Assessment and Encoding Optimization in Streaming Media Applications

Analog and digitally synthesized film grain is widely seen in pristine visual content as part of the creative intent of content producers. However, in streaming media applications such as online video-on-demand and live video broadcasting, grain demands excessive amounts of bandwidth to transmit the video streams from the server to the consumer devices while maintaining the quality-of-experience of end viewers. This MITACS project aims to largely reduce the bandwidth requirement to transmit such content by a series of studies on grain-aware video quality assessment and encoding optimization by exploiting a mixture of methodologies including perceptual and statistical modeling, and artificial intelligence. Six internship students from University of Waterloo will work closely with the technical staff members at SSIMWAVE Inc., an IMAX company based in Ontario, to develop novel technologies. The research outcome is expected to help strengthen SSIMWAVE and IMAX’s global leadership in the media and entertainment industry.

Faculty Supervisor:

Zhou Wang

Student:

Partner:

SSIMWAVE Inc;IMAX Corporation

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Information and cultural industries

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: