Seeking Informativeness in Multimedia Data
Amarnath Gupta, University of California San Diego, United States
Why is Zoom So Much More Popular than Standards-based Videoconferencing?
Henning Schulzrinne, Columbia University, United States
From Research to Practice and Back Again: The Role and Benefits of Testbeds for Computer Vision
Noel E. O’Connor, Dublin City University, Ireland
Brief Bio
Amarnath Gupta received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Jadavpur University in India. He is currently a full Research Scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center of UC San Diego, and directs the Advanced Query Processing Lab. His primary areas of research include semantic information integration, large-scale graph databases, ontology management, event data management and query processing techniques. Before joining UC San Diego, he was the Chief Scientist at Virage, Inc., a startup company in multimedia information systems. Dr. Gupta has authored over 100 papers and a book on Event Modeling, holds 13 patents and is a recipient of the 2011 ACM Distinguished Scientist award.
Abstract
What makes an image or a video more or less informative? Is there a way to generate an informative image or video? Unlike information theory which is based on the statistical properties of a data item, informativeness is a utilitarian concept. that deeply depends on the contextual information associated with visual objects. This presentation will explore the concept of informativeness for multimedia by adapting an idea from natural language processing. It will make the case that studying information substitutability may give us a clue of evaluating the relative informativeness of multimedia objects, and hence may provide an insight into the generation of synthetic multimedia items.
Brief Bio
Prof. Henning Schulzrinne, Levi Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Massachusetts. He was an MTS at AT&T Bell Laboratories and an associate department head at GMD-Fokus (Berlin), before joining the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments at Columbia University. He served as chair of the Department of Computer Science from 2004 to 2009, as Engineering Fellow, Technology Advisor and Chief Technology Officer at the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2010 to 2017. In 2019-2020, he worked as a Technology Fellow in the US Senate. He has published more than 250 journal and conference papers, and more than 70 Internet RFCs. Protocols co-developed by him, such as RTP, RTSP and SIP, are used by almost all Internet telephony and multimedia applications. He is a Fellow of the ACM and IEEE, has received the New York City Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, the VON Pioneer Award, TCCC service award, IEEE Internet Award, IEEE Region 1 William Terry Award for Lifetime Distinguished Service to IEEE, the UMass Computer Science Outstanding Alumni recognition, and is a member of the Internet Hall of Fame.
Abstract
Video conferencing has been around since the 1990s, first based on ISDN for digital phone systems, then H.323, and then SIP for the Internet. The underlying assumption was that phone calls and group communications would all rely on the same standards, creating a universal and seamless user experience. But even as COVID-19 made Zoom a generic term, these standards-based solutions never got much traction. Even for the popular applications, WebRTC seems to have made modest inroads. In this talk, I'll try to reflect on the reasons for this development, and why we other standards-based internet applications such as web browsers and email have been more successful. Video conferencing also shares this "fate" with text-based chat, where standards-based solutions are competing with WhatsApp, Slack and other proprietary platforms. I believe that transition from (room) hardware to downloadable software, control protocol complexity, industry structure and communication patterns are at least partial explanations for this development. Finally, I will speculate on how video interaction might evolve in the next few years.
Brief Bio
Noel E. O’Connor is a Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering at DCU and the Academic Director of the Research and Enterprise Hub on Information Technology and the Digital Society. He is a Funded Investigator (FI) in Insight, Ireland’s national Centre for Data Analytics funded by Science Foundation Ireland. Since 1999 Prof. O’Connor has published over 180 peer-reviewed publications, made 11 standards submissions and filed 6 patents. He has graduated 16 Ph.D students and 3 Masters students. He is an Area Editor for Signal Processing: Image Communication (Elsevier) and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Image and Video Processing (Springer). He has edited 6 journal special issues, including Signal Processing: Image Communication, Multimedia Tools and Applications, the Journal of Web Semantics and the Journal of Embedded Systems. He was awarded the DCU President’s Research Award for Science and Engineering in 2010. Also in 2010, he was awarded Enterprise Ireland’s National Commercialization Award for ICT. He is a member of the IEEE, Engineers Ireland and the IET.
Abstract
Functional testbeds can be hugely important in helping to drive forward progress in certain research disciplines, with topics such as future telecommunications networks and the Internet of Things being notable examples of success in this regard. A testbed's primary role from the perspective of a researcher is typically as a means to make data available to fuel an existing research agenda. However, the opportunity for testbeds to influence research agendas is often overlooked, but when this happens it can lead to a "virtuous cycle" of innovation that can benefit multiple stakeholders. Arguably computer vision has not been well served by testbeds to date, for a variety of practical reasons, not least of which are those that arise due to privacy and GDPR concerns. In this talk I will describe a successful example of how Croke Park, an Irish sports stadium, and the 3rd largest sports arena in Europe, was used as a computer vision testbed and how this experience positively influenced the research agenda in my group. The experience has led not just to high quality publications but also to successful collaborations in other sectors, including helping our airports deal with Covid-19, and a spin out company, where all work is carried out in strict adherence to GDPR and privacy concerns.