Immersive 3D media networking: Challenges and solutions

Abstract

Recent years have seen a surge in interest in 3D entertainment. Cinema goers have flocked to view 3D movies in large numbers, which has encouraged broadcasters to introduce 3DTV channels. At the same time, advances in display technology, have resulted in more affordable stereoscopic displays being made available to the consumer. While delivering stereoscopic 3D video to the general publics' homes might be considered to be relatively straightforward task, providing more immersive multi-view experiences remains a significant challenge. The main challenge arises from the amount of data that needs to be transferred from content creator to content consumer. Some advanced displays require as many as sixty four views, which cannot be delivered by existing media networking technologies and architectures. This tutorial will examine the key challenges presented in 3D media networking, and will discuss some of the potential solutions being worked on by research groups around the world. In particular, we focus on proposals to combine traditional broadcast networks with Peer-to-Peer (P2P) media overlays, leveraging the latest research results on Quality of Experience and visual saliency to optimize the system, enabling it to cope better with issues such as bandwidth throttling of P2P content by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).