Video streaming to mobile handheld devices: Challenges in decoding, adaptation, and browsing

Abstract

Growing popularity and richer functionality of contemporary mobile handheld devices such as PDAs and smart phones have enabled emerging video streaming applications to these devices via various wireless networks. However, these handheld devices are significantly constrained by limited resources available to them for some sophisticated operations. Among these limitations, the available processing power has limited these devices to perform full scale decoding of the video compressed with H.264 standard [1], [2]. The typically small display size of the handheld devices has been imposing significant barriers for the devices users to enjoy high-resolution videos. This paper presents some challenges in design decoding algorithm for smart phones, in video adaptation to suit heterogeneous devises, in browsing videos via handheld devices by diverse mobile device users. Several approaches will be proposed to meet these challenges and to offer the mobile device users an enhanced experience in these emerging mobile video applications. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.