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Framework:
- Start: 01/01/2010
- End: 31/12/2011
- Project partners: Belgacom Telindus, Barco, VUB-ETRO, VUB-SMIT, KULeuven-COSIC, UGent-IBCN
Project leader: Kris Van Bruwaene
ICON project
Watermarking is the encryption of a hidden reference mark in a video signal. The video signal can be retrieved and analyzed by means of detection methods. AQUA aims to develop a quality detection system where a watermark is hidden in the original data of a perceptual hash. This hash contains information on the quality of the video signal. Once retrieved, the quality can be compared with the initial quality as encrypted in the hash of the original data.
Thus a computerized quality control and authentication of a video chain can be established. The advantage of this generic technology lies in the fact that it allows quality measurement using a great number of metrics for quality evaluation. Moreover, access to the original data is not required for this application.
The combination of watermarks and perceptual hashes can also be considered as an authentication mechanism and the results of a quality measurement can be interpreted as an integrity measurement.
For the further development of this technology, AQUA sets out the following objectives:
• Computerized quality control: content providers must be able to verify that the multimedia content the end users receive is of adequate quality (preservation of aspect ratio, detect coding errors and discoloring)
• Quality based streaming adaptation: the streaming server can automatically adjust a number of transmission parameters in order to offer quality content and, at the same time, optimize the use of resources
• Quality aware transcoding: guarantee the encoding and transcoding of multimedia by means of computerized quality monitoring
• Scalable billing: introducing a fair delivery system so users receiving poor quality media pay less than users who receive high quality media
• Computerized authentication: computerized source and integrity control