Adaptive foveation of MPEG video

Abstract

We report experiments on the 'foveation' of MPEG-standard video by a network-based rate adaptor. The rate adaptor is controlled by input from receiving users, and constrained by the capacity of each receiver's channel. It generates versions of the input video which trade off spatial and temporal resolution in different regions of the picture. While there are many possible ways to make the tradeoffs, users have only one or two dimensions of control (in addition to two dimensions of position for the fovea centre). We therefore propose constraints for mapping 2D user control input into a fovea/periphery bit budget, and provide design curves for spatial resolution control.