Chapter 2

Characteristics and Requirements of

Multimedia Data
February 13th, 2017
1. Intoduction
• Multimedia data :
• Multiple media types
• At least one media is a time-continuous medium,
such as digital audio and video
2. Digital Representation of Audio
• Basic Characteristics of Audio Signal
• Audio is a disturbance in air pressure
• The frequency of audible sound  20 Hz to 20.000 Hz.
• Amplitude  soft or load
• The threshold of audibility  0.000283 dyne per square
centimeter
• The threshold of pain  by a factor between 100,000 and
1,000,0000
• Audio amplitude is often expressed in dB :
𝑑𝐵 = 20𝑙𝑜𝑔10 𝑋/𝑌
• Example of sound wave
• Digital Representation of Audio
• Microphone  convert audio signal to electrical signal
• Analog signal  The signal with continuous amplitude and time
• Three stages of ADC :
• Sampling
• Quantization
• Coding
• Sampling
• Convert continuous time into discrete values
• Sampling rate or sampling frequency
• Sampling and hold circuit
• Quantization
• Convert continuous sample values into discrete values
• Quantization step
• Coding
• Represent quantized values digitally
• Analog to digital conversion
process :
• (a) original analog signal
• (b) sampling pulses
• (c) sampled valued and
quantization intervals
• (d) digitized sequence
• Digital to Analog Converter (DAC)
Process :
• (a) Digital sequence
• (b) Step signals
• (c) Signal removed after passed
through a low-pass filter
• Determination of sampling rate
• Depend on the maximum frequency of the analog signal
• Nyquist Theorem : f Hz  the sampling rate should be at least 2f Hz (critical
sampling), for example :
• CD Audio  44.1 kHz
• Digital Audio tape (DAT)  48 kHz
• If bandwidth > half of the sampling frequency  reduced by using a low-pass
filter
• An alias signal
• When frequency of input signal >
half of sampling frequency
• (a) sampling clock of 8 kHz
• (b) a 6-kHz analog signal
• (c) a series of sample values
• (d) reconstructed signal
• Determining the Number of Quantization Levels
• Quantization step  The maximum difference between the quantized sample
values and the corresponding analog signal values
• Quantization levels ↑, quantization step ↓ , quantization noise ↓
• Relationship between quantization level (Q) and the number of bits (b) :

𝑏 = 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝑄

• The digital signal quality :

𝑆𝑁𝑅 = 20 𝑙𝑜𝑔10 𝑆/𝑁

3. Analog Video Systems
• Capture and Reproduction of
Images and Video
• Images are captured using a
camera
• The brightness is converted into an
electrical charge by the
photosensitive layer.
• Frame Rates
• determined by three major factors:
• should be high enough to deliver
motion smoothly
• the higher the frame rate, the higher
the bandwidth required
• If the refreshing interval is too large,
the display will have an annoying
flicker appearance.
• Aspect Ratio
• The ratio of an image’s width to its height
• The original motion picture aspect ratio was 4:3
• the display screen size normally refers to the diagonal measurement of the
screen

• Resolution
• specified by horizontal resolution and vertical resolution.
• Color Video/Television
• the tristimulus theory of color reproduction
• Three primary colors are red, green, and blue

• Existing Color Television Standards

• If red, green, and blue signals were transmitted separately, these existing
television set would not be able to decode and display the image.
• To solve these problems, composite formats of video signals are used.
• The three major formats are NTSC, PAL, and SECAM
• the three primary colors can be converted into two parts: luminance and
chrominance.
• Viewing Ratio
• the ratio of the distance between the viewer and the display, and the image
height.
• The common television systems are designed for a viewing ratio between 5
and 6.
• A system designed for applications with a small viewing ratio must have a high
resolution.
• High-Definition Television Systems
• generate image quality that is sufficiently high so that further improvement
would be unnoticeable to the human eye.
• HDTV systems are designed for a viewing ratio between 2 and 2.5 [3].
• The Japanese and American proposals have 30 frames per second and 1,125
lines per frame.
• The European proposal has 25 frames per second and 1,250 lines per frame.
• Bandwidth Requirements of Analog Video
• The bandwidth requirements can be derived from the scanning parameters.
• Analog Video Storage and Transmission
• magnetic tapes, laser discs, etc.
• Analog video can be transmitted as electronic-magnetic waveforms (possibly
relayed by a satellite) or through copper cables.
• Before video signals are transmitted, they are modulated using certain
schemes.
4. REPRESENTATION OF DIGITAL IMAGES AND
VIDEO
• A Generic Digital Video System
• Analog to Digital Conversion Process
• Sampling Rate

• Quantization Levels

• Color Video Digitization

• Video signal is converted into luminance and chrominance components before it is
converted into digital form.
• Since the human eye is less sensitive to the chrominance components, their bandwidth
can be reduced.
• Color Video Digitization
• Comparison of Analog and Digital Video Systems

Analog Digital
no image storage there is a framestore
all components must operate Components can operate independently
synchronously
COLOR SPECIFICATION
• It is desirable that images displayed by a multimedia system be as
close as possible to the original images
• Higher compression ratios may be obtained if we take advantage of
certain characteristics of human color perception
• Many operations, such as image retrieval, are based on pixel values or
color representation.
• Color Properties
• Luminance is the attribute of a visual sensation according to which an
area appears to emit more or less light.
• Hue is the attribute of a visual sensation according to which an area
appears to be similar to one of the perceived colors red, yellow,
green, and blue, or a combination of any two of them.
• Saturation is the colorfulness of an area judged in proportion to its
brightness.
• Color Spesification Systems
• Spectral Power Distribution (SPD)
• Color Spesification Systems
• International Commision on Illumination (CIE)
• Human Perception Properties and Image Compression Performance
• The human eye is less sensitive to chrominance components
• Human vision is not linear
• The human visual system is more sensitive to middle spatial frequencies and
less sensitive to low and high spatial frequencies
• Human perception is not uniformly responsive to the distance in RGB color
space.
Major Characteristics and Requirements of
Multimedia Information
• Storage and Bandwidth Requirements
Major Characteristics and Requirements of
Multimedia Information
• Delay and Delay Jitter Requirements
• Semantic Structure of Multimedia Information
• Temporal and Spatial Relationship Among Related Media
• Error and Loss Tolerance in Multimedia Data
Quality of Service
• QoS is a set of requirement parameters, included :
• Bandwidth
• Delay and jitter bound
• synchronization
• QoS is a contract negotiated and agreed among multimedia
applications and the multimedia system (service provider).
• QoS can only be guaranteed when the required system resources are
properly managed.
• Quiz 1  See on the Scele :