Multimedia and New Services

Instance: 2017/2018 - 2S

Cycles of Study/Courses

Last updated on 2018-03-15.

Fields changed: Objectives, Resultados de aprendizagem e competências, Métodos de ensino e atividades de aprendizagem, Componentes de Avaliação e Ocupação, Programa, Observações, Fórmula de cálculo da classificação final

Teaching language

Objectives

This Curricular Unit has the mission of providing a general overview at the technological level on the generation, encoding, distribution and perception of multimedia signals. It intends to provide the students with new specific knowledge on processing and coding of audiovisual signals and consolidate general knowledge on computer networks and signal processing to design and manage multimedia applications and services. It also aims that the students obtain the necessary knowledge concerning good practices to adopt for creating interactive multimedia applications to efficiently communicate multimedia information, as well as concerning tools to edit, manipulate and interconnect multimedia data. 

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of the course the students will be able to:
- identify the most relevant characteristics of real-world media signals;
- describe the fundamental concepts for representing and compressing in the digital domain media signals used in multimedia applications and services;
- understand the nature of the human audiovisual system and its importance for the definition of the representation and compression models of multimedia information;
- explain the fundamentals of the main generic media encoding techniques; 
- identify and distinguish the distinct technologies and standards most widely used for compressing media signals;
- identify and select tools and standards required to build a multimedia application or service according to their requirements;
- identify requirements and design applications and systems to access and consume multimedia information.

Working method

Program

1- Introduction to multimedia: definition, types of media, levels of information, Multimedia applications, services and systems; the representation of media signals in the digital world; revision on sampling and quantization;
2- Generation and Perception of multimedia information: characterization of audio signals; the human auditive system; characterization of visual signals; the human visual system.
3. Audio Coding: historic perspective on audio coding; quality and performance evaluation; standardised audio coding algorithms (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4)
4- Imagem and Video coding: image and video compression principles; lossy and lossless compression;basic encoding techniques (spatial transforms, entropy encoding, prediction with motion estimation); image coding standards (JPEG and JPEG2000); video coding standards (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264/AVC); advanced video formats (3D, multiview, scalability, UHD).
5- Networked multimedia applications: revision of concepts of computer networks; architecture of  multimedia applications, challenges and alternativ solutions; QoS; protocols for multimedia streaming (RTP, HLS, DASH); IPTV and VoIP.

Mandatory literature

Teaching methods and learning activities

Theoretical classes to present concepts and technologies; practical classes to apply the knowledge gained in the theoretical classes; discussion of a multimedia project compliant with a specific number of requirements; specification and development of the proposed multimedia project outside the classes; presentation of the developed projects.

Evaluation Type

Assessment Components

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Eligibility for exams

Minimum grade on the assignment: 8 out of 20

Calculation formula of final grade

Exam: 40% of the final grade Assignment: 40% of the final grade Laboratory assignments 20% Minimum grade on the exam: 8 out of 20

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Student workers, although exempt from classes, must perform the same practical works as other students. They must also submit them to evaluation, as well as defend them on the dates that are set globally.

Classification improvement

Improvement of the exam grade is possible according to the rules in FEUP. Improvment of practical works is still possible at the end of this course occurrence.

Observations

Presentation of the practical work [version beta]: May 25 Delivery of practical work: June 1 Delivery of practical work for classification improvement: the day of the last exam