Course ELEN 6881

Advanced Topics in Signal Processing - Video Coding and Communications

Digital video has become pervasive in our current lives especially terms of both consumer entertainment as well as enterprise applications. These include all forms of digital cinema, digital TV, DVDs, internet video (Youtube, IPTV), video on handheld devices (laptops, ipods, cellphones), video in online gaming and virtual environments, as well as video in enterprise communications (videoconferencing), E-commerce or surveillance, and in several other emerging applications. This has been made possible by the confluence of several technologies for video capture and display, video processing and coding, and video communication mechanisms and infrastructure.
In this course, we will focus on some of these enabling technologies for video coding and communications, especially compression, error resilience, and video networking. We will build an understanding of the underlying fundamental principles and theory, and identify the emerging applications and standards in the space. Since this is a graduate course, we will also spend time exploring the emerging areas of interest, as well as the research challenges in this space. Students will be encouraged to develop exploratory projects to experience hands on these concepts in practice. The specific topics that will be covered in this course include the following.

Signal Processing and Information Theory:
Transform coding, Quantization, Entropy coding, Motion estimation and compensation, Scalable coding, Joint source-channel coding, Distributed source coding, Multiple description coding

Networking:
Packetization and streaming, Bandwidth adaptation, Path diversity, Wireless streaming, P2P streaming

Instructor
Deepak S. Turaga
IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
19 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne NY 10532.
Email: turaga at us dot ibm.com

Course Prerequisites

Digital Signal Processing
Linear Algebra
Probability
Familiarity with image processing tools and programming language (Matlab, Java, or C/C++) will be useful.

Course Logistics
Homework: Problem sets will be assigned every week in class, and will be due in class, on the following week (before the lecture). A component of the homework will be computer assignments for building components that may be used later in the projects.
Seminars: Students will form groups to survey the state of the art in video coding and communications research. Each group will present their work in class.
Projects: Students will also form groups to explore emerging technologies and research areas in video coding and communications. Each group will prepare a written report and present their work in class. These presentations will be scheduled in the final two weeks. Additionally, each group can also schedule a time slot with the instructor and TA to demonstrate the project results.
Programming Exercises: The emphasis in this course will be hands on understanding of the algorithms, through programming exercises. Students will be required to complete programming assignments for individual homeworks as well as group projects. The use of C/C++, Java, and Matlab is encouraged. If you plan to use other programming languages, please discuss it with the instructor.
Grading: Homework – 30%, Midterm – 20%, Seminar – 20%, Final Project – 30%
Class Slot: The regular class time slot will be Wednesday 4:10-6:40. Instructor will be available for office hours on Wednesday 3:00-4:00 before class, or by appointment. Questions via email are welcome.

Reference Texts and Material
Required Text: Y. Wang, J. Ostermann, and Y-Q.Zhang, "Video processing and communications," Prentice Hall, 2001.
M. van der Schaar and P. Chou, "Multimedia over IP and Wireless Networks: Compression, Networking, and Systems," Elsevier, 2007.
Papers on current topics

Lecture Schedule and Detailed Topics

Additional Useful Links
Some useful links on research, paper writing and Matlab are available from Prof. Shih-Fu Chang's site.

Course Material