Published on Nov 30, 2023
The charter of the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) at the University of Southern California (USC) is to investigate new methods and technologies that combine multiple modalities into highly effective, immersive technologies, applications and environments. One of the results of these research efforts is the Remote Media Immersion (RMI) system.
The goal of the RMI is to create and develop a complete aural and visual environment that places a participant or group of participants in a virtual space where they can experience events that occurred in different physical locations. RMI technology can effectively overcome the barriers of time and space to enable, on demand, the realistic recreation of visual and aural cues recorded in widely separated locations [MNNS99]. The focus of the RMI effort is to enable the most realistic recreation of an event possible while streaming the data over the Internet. Therefore, we push the technological boundaries much beyond what current video-on-demand or streaming media systems can deliver.
As a consequence, high-end rendering equipment and significant transmission bandwidth are required. However, we trust that advances in electronics, compression and residential broadband technologies will make such a system feasible first in commercial settings and later at home in the not too distant future. Some of the indicators that support this assumption are, for example, that the next generation of the DVD specification calls for network access of DVD players Furthermore, Forrester Research forecasts that almost 15 per cent of films will be viewed by on demand services rather than by DVD or video by 2005 [Ric03a].
The infrastructure necessary for these services is gradually being built as is demonstrated in Utah, where 17 cities are planning to construct an ultra-high speed network for both businesses and residents [Ric03b]. The RMI project integrates several technologies that are the result of research efforts at IMSC. The current operational version is based on four major components that are responsible for the acquisition, storage, transmission, and rendering of high quality media.
This authoring component is an important part of the overall chain to ensure the high quality of the rendering result as experienced by users at a later time. As the saying "garbage in, garbage out" implies, no amount of quality control in later stages of the delivery chain can make up for poorly acquired media. In the current RMI version, authoring is an offline process and involves its own set of technologies. Because of space constraints, we will not focus on this part.
The Yima [SZFY02] Scalable Streaming Media Architecture provides real-time storage, retrieval and transmission capabilities. The Yima server is based on a scalable cluster design. Each cluster node is an off-the-shelf personal computer with attached storage devices and, for example, a Fast or Gigabit Ethernet connection. The Yima server software manages the storage and network resources to provide real-time service to the multiple clients that are requesting media streams. Media types include,but are not limited to, MPEG-2 at NTSC and HDTV resolutions, multi channel audio (e.g., 10.2 channel immersive audio), and MPEG-4.
A selective data retransmission scheme improves playback quality while maintaining real time properties. A flow control component reduces network traffic variability and enables streams of various characteristics to be synchronized at the rendering location. Industry standard networking protocols such as Real-Time Protocol (RTP) and Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) provide compatibility with commercial systems.
Immersive audio is a technique developed at IMSC for capturing the audio environment at a remote site and accurately reproducing the complete audio sensation and ambience at the client location with full fidelity, dynamic range and directionality for a group of listeners (16 channels of uncompressed linear PCM at a data rate of up to 17.6Mb/s).
The RMI video is rendered in HDTV resolutions (1080i or 720p format) and transmitted at a rate of up to 45 Mb/s. In this report we detail some of these components and the techniques that are employed within each. The hope is that our advances in digital media delivery will enable new applications in the future, be that in the entertainment sector (sports bars, digital cinemas, and eventually the home theater), distance education, or others. We will focus mainly on the transmission and rendering aspects.
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