How do people really interact with TV?

Nowadays, security of valuable and secret assets is very important for large organization. Need of an efficient and reliable security system arises due to limitation of human resources and manpower. In such systems, video surveillance systems have their own significance. Although some people don’t like the idea of being monitored, surveillance systems improve the public security, allowing the system to detect dangers. Multimedia data typically means digital imagesaudio, video, animation and graphics together with text data. The acquisition, generation, storage and processing of multimedia data in computers and transmission over networks have grown tremendously in the recent past. In video surveillance, motion detection refers to the capability of the surveillance system to detect motion, identify the activity and capture the events while preventing the negligible activities. Motion detection is usually a software-based monitoring algorithm which, when it detects motions will signal the surveillance camera to begin capturing the event. Also called activity detection. An advanced motion detection surveillance system can analyze the type of motion to see if it warrants an alarm. In this research, we propose a novel motion detection algorithm for digital video recording (DVR) system using a Fuzzy Rule Based System that detects the motion in the running video intelligently.

The acoustic behaviour of the European spiny lobster Palinurus elephas (Fabricius, 1787) was examined in the absence or presence of predators or conspecifics. Observations were conducted in a tank equipped with digital video and acoustic monitoring and recording systems using 25 adult lobsters and 5 common octopuses Octopus vulgaris. Single lobsters or groups of 4 lobsters were studied for 2 h. These were left alone during the first hour and exposed to a single specimen of the common octopus during the second hour. The lobsters' signals were acoustically analysed. Signal duration, number of pulses per signal, pulse rate, bandwidth, peak intensity, and peak frequency were measured. Single lobsters emitted a higher number of signals than lobsters belonging to a group. The signal (rasp) was audible to humans only in the presence of a predator and was always associated with specific behavioural events. In the absence of a predator, the lobsters produced ultrasound signals (screech) having lower duration, number of pulses per signal, bandwidth, and peak intensity and higher pulse rate and peak frequency. Audible rasps were produced in an anti-predator context, whereas the ultrasound screeches were also emitted under non-stressful conditions. Thus, these signals may play a role in intraspecific communication.

Nowadays, chip multi-processors (CMP) are being widely used in embedded systems due to their superior performance for parallel computing. However, they also incur significantly large power consumption. To solve this issue, designers of embedded operating system must provide an efficient thread scheduling algorithm, which not only maximizes the system performance, but also minimizes the energy consumption. Further, if the scheduler makes decisions without considering the precedence relationships among threads, the decisions could conflict with the thread behavior which could result in poor performance and large energy consumption. In this paper, we propose a synchronization-aware dynamic thread scheduling algorithm (SA), which reduces the busy-waiting time caused by spinlock, and with performance improvement and energy saving. SA has two major objectives, including (1) overall high performance, in terms of less completion time and less turnaround time, and (2) low energy consumption for all threads. The experimental results show that SA indeed improves performance and reduces energy consumption compared to the original scheduling algorithm of Linux kernel version 2.6. In a real-world case, the Digital Video Recording (DVR) system, SA achieves performance speedup by at most 1.21 and saves the energy consumption by at most 28.6%.

This chapter demonstrates how high-level code is automatically generated for multi-core processors. The code generation capability of the Verifiable Embedded Real-Time Application Framework (VERTAF) was extended to support multi-core processors in the new VERTAF/Multi-Core (VMC) framework for embedded systems. After users specify embedded software requirements via SysML models along with parallel task, parallel data, and parallel dataflow specifications, the code generator automatically generates parallel code. Using the digital video recording (DVR) system as a case study, we show the correctness and advantages of the VMC code generator. The main inputs of VMC code generator include the block definition diagrams, state machine diagrams, and requirement diagrams of the system to be designed. The proposed code generation in VMC not only significantly decreases the amount of manually-written code, but also provides a formal procedure for model-conforming code generation of multi-core embedded software.

In a digital TV system, the Conditional Access (CA) system is essential to protect programs from unauthorized access. However, the encryption technique alone is not sufficient to protect or control the use of contents after decryption. To provide flexible and complete Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection on the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) programs, we propose a method that adapts the MPEG- 21 REL technology and integrates it into a DVB-T system. By extending the Service Information (SI) section of a DVB stream to include an REL license, the transmitted content can be conveniently consumed and legally protected. Our design is verified by an experimental hardware system. The results show that the proposed method can provide both the conditional access functionality and the usage control of broadcasted contents.

Image coding plays a very important role in a digital TV system. In this paper we focus on the discussion of the image compression in DTV systems. We propose a regular, efficient algorithm, which has effectively much lower complexity. Our algorithm would require only 12 bits of coefficient wordlengths to achieve the CCITT/ISO specification. But the traditional method would need 12~18 bits to achieve the same specification. The hardware cost is about 35% higher than the traditional method. But the input block length to our design is 64, which is much higher than traditional algorithm, whose block length is generally between 8 and 16. This dictates that the throughput of our algorithm is about 2 to 4 time higher than the traditional algorithms.

With the advent of personal video recorders (PVRs), the way people watch TV is rapidly changing. By recording or time-shifting live TV programs into the embedded-disk storage of a PVR, people can watch what they want independent of the broadcasting schedule. Furthermore, peer-to-peer networking technology provides an additional TV content distribution channel to unidirectional broadcasting. However, due to the current limited broadband bandwidth, it is difficult to support high-quality TV content streaming between PVRs on the Internet. In this article we propose novel integrated network/storage architecture to provide the streaming of high-quality broadcast TV contents over fast network connections. To take full advantage of our system resources, we also develop efficient sharing schemes such as matching of a communication pair and channel assignment for extensive time-shifting.

The ’’Digital Video Recording system (DVR)” has achieved the storage capacity of 9.2GByte on 12cm optical disc with a red laser by a high numerical aperture (NA=0.85) lens and thin cover layer.

Due to economic and ecological reasons the energy consumption of consumer electronics products like TVs and set-top boxes (STBs) is of increasing importance. As nowadays also Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) are widely used, the question is raised, how time-shifted TV affects the energy use of such devices. In this paper a framework for analyzing the impact of recording and later playback of TV content on the energy consumption of a PVR is presented. The underlying method allows taking the viewing habits of users into account. The framework is used to analyze the energy consumption of a recommender-based PVR that, based on personalized recommendations, automatically records TV content for the user. Further, a study of an approach for an energy efficient PVR design, which allows deactivating peripheral PVR components when not needed, is analyzed w/r/t potential energy savings.

This paper describes a new digital NTSC TV and audio signal transmission system in which circuit configurations are simplified and made more inexpensive than MPEG 2 on the basis of the subjective evaluation of the picture quality. An NTSC TV signal and an audio signal can easily be transmitted to the receiver at the same time, since the transmission rate is kept unchanged due to the insertion of the digital audio signal into the horizontal sync pulse of the digital NTSC TV signal. The proposed system has three features. Firstly, the system could give a satisfactory picture quality for consumer-use visual appliances even though the quality of the reproduced pictures is lower than that of the normal digital NTSC TV picture codes obtained at a sampling frequency of 4.00/spl times/fsc with a quantisation level of 8 bits. Secondly, the system can satisfactorily transmit NTSC TV picture codes at a low transmission rate of 50 Mbps even if such an advanced compression technique as MPEG 2 has not been used. Thirdly, the system is used for transmission of the digital audio signals which are inserted into the horizontal sync pulse of the digital NTSC TV signal. A combination of edge-emitting LEDs (ELEDs) and single-mode (SM) optical fibers enables the system to easily transmit a digital NTSC TV picture signal together with digital audio signals over a distance of 10 km through the SM optical fibers.

Broadcasting has always been limited by interference between signals. With the introduction of digital terrestrial television broadcasting (DTTB) in the existing analog TV channels, interference remains a limiting factor in the post-transition era after analog signals are turned off and the spectrum is repacked. The use of first adjacent channels and the "UHF taboo channels" in the same community without transmitter spacing limits is unprecedented, and is a challenge to digital television (DTV) receiver designers. This paper discusses the nature of interference between DTV signals on adjacent and UHF taboo channels, and propose some solutions to receiver designers to mitigate the problem.

At the present, the digital TV allows the access to a greater amount of content and to execute interactive applications. The remote control used to control the digital TV systems is, in most cases, still solved by the traditional infrared remote control, which has become a limiting factor on the user interaction with the TV. This paper introduces the design and development of an interaction device for use in the context of digital TV in Argentina. The proposed device can be considered an evolution of the classic remote control, in which the functionality of hand gesture recognition is implemented as a natural and friendly interface for controlling digital TV systems of the home. A gestural dictionary of 20 types of gestures was adopted. The recognized gestures are translated into control commands for digital TV systems. As the hand gesture recognition is a pattern classification problem, two techniques based on artificial neural networks were explored, in order to compare results and to select the tool that best fits the problem in question. The pattern classifier design was described in detail, in order to properly select the hardware platform, fulfilling requirements of low-cost and fast execution of pattern classification algorithms. An interaction device of low-cost and excellent recognition precision was developed, for enhancing and enriching the user experience.

Out of the confusion of delivery technologies for domestic digital video, the function of a Personal Video Recorder (PVR) that has a content management system based on an electronic program guide emerges as a key component of a home entertainment system. Serving as a content manager for video broadcasts for free-to-air and pay-TV, PVRs can automatically record, sort, schedule, store and integrate video material from different sources in a convenient, easy-to-use and timely fashion. Devices with PVR functionality are still not yet in widespread use in Australian homes, but are the increasing subject of pioneering commercial enterprise, innovative experimentation and open-source community development. The concept of a MADE system is introduced as a system with converged functionality for Media, Automation, Data, and Entertainment. This paper describes and compares three systems with PVR functionality and evaluates their current and future roles as a component for MADE systems in Australia: the TiVo appliance, the MythTV open source software for Linux; and a Topfield set top box using IceGuide. The drivers for and threats to the convergence of functionality towards a MADE system are also considered.

Regulatory and content issues have hindered the development of Taiwan's digital TV, however, recently it has started to boom, with a penetration rate of 33.1 per cent in 2009. Survey findings on digital TV function and service demands indicate that high definition (HD), digital video recording, and the electronic programme guide are the three most essential product functionalities of digital TV in Taiwan, with the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) application services surveillance, video-on-demand and healthcare in most demand. Competition among platforms and cooperation between content providers and broadcast network operators has been evident for years in Taiwan and, as digital convergence continues, new entrants and business models will pose a big challenge to existing operators. Analogue terrestrial switch off in Taiwan is targeted for the end of 2012. This article aims to present the digital transition process of television in Taiwan, to analyse customer demand and satisfaction levels for digital TV, and to analyse the competitive relationships among platforms and the cooperation between network operators and content providers.

The delivery channels for digital TV broadcasting have been diversified: terrestrial, cable, satellite, beyond 3G cellular band and now over the internet. On the physical dimension, popularity of larger screen flat TV's is rapidly growing, while mobile TV technology brought TV viewing to cell phones with QVGA screens. The flexibility of when to watch programs has been greatly enhanced by Personal Video Recorder (PVR) technology and set-top boxes with push technology services. And new IPTV VOD services offer more flexibility to consumers when and what to watch. Large screen flat TV's are also used for Home Theater environments with full HD contents from discs. All these developments have occurred within just a few years, and the task of developing System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions for the various future applications are very challenging. This paper explores strategic considerations chip developers have to employ to create competitive Digital TV SoC technology and products.