Gaze- and QoE-aware video streaming solutions for mobile VR

Abstract

This demo showcases a novel approach to content delivery for 360? video streaming. It exploits information from connected eye-trackers embedded in the users' VR HMDs. The presented technology enables the delivery of high quality, in real time, around the users' fixations points while lowering the image quality everywhere else. The goal of the proposed approach is to substantially reduce the overall bandwidth requirements for supporting VR video experiences while delivering high levels of user perceived quality. The network connection between the VR system and the content server is in this demo emulated, allowing users to experience the QoE performances achievable with datarates and RTTs in the range of current 4G and upcoming 5G networks. Users can further control additional service parameters, including video types, content resolution in the foveal region and background and size of the foveal region. At the end of each run, users are presented with a summary of the amount of bandwidth consumed with the used system settings and a comparison with the cost of current content delivery solutions. The overall goal of this demo is to provide a tangible experience of the tradeoffs among bandwidth, RTT and QoE for the mobile provision of future data intensive VR services.