Plenary Talks

Stefan Winkler - The Trouble with MOS

Abstract

Most media professionals have the desire to express quality in a way that is commonly understood and that facilitates comparisons across different algorithms, different organizations, and time. Mean Opinion Score (MOS) has emerged as the most popular descriptor of perceived media quality. The 5-point MOS scale (excellent, good, fair, poor, bad) in particular is widely used.

MOS has had great success in the domain of speech quality, and consequently it has also been used for other modalities such as audio, video, and audio-visual content, as well as numerous applications, from lab testing to in-service monitoring. MOS is used not only to express the results of subjective tests ("subjective MOS"), but also as the output of objective measurement algorithms that provide an automated alternative to subjective tests ("objective" or "predicted" MOS).

While there is a clear benefit to such a "reference quality indicator" and its widespread acceptance, MOS is often applied without sufficient consideration of its scope or limitations. In this talk, I will critically examine MOS and the various ways it is being used today. I will highlight common issues with both subjective and objective MOS and discuss a variety of alternative approaches that have been proposed for media quality measurement.

Biography

Stefan Winkler is Principal Scientist and Director of the Interactive Digital Media Program at the University of Illinois' Advanced Digital Sciences Center (ADSC) in Singapore. He also serves as Scientific Advisor to Cheetah Technologies. Before that, he co-founded a start-up, worked in several large corporations, and held faculty positions at two universities.

Dr. Winkler has a Ph.D. degree from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and an M.Eng./B.Eng. degree from the University of Technology Vienna, Austria. He has published over 80 papers and the book "Digital Video Quality". He is Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. He has also contributed to quality measurement standards in ITU, VQEG, ATIS, VSF, and SCTE. His research interests include video processing, computer vision, perception, and human-computer interaction.

Floyd Mueller - The Body and Multimedia

Abstract

Our bodies considerably shape our interactions with multimedia: clever technology addresses our body's limitations in the way we perceive and interact with images, sound and video. Contrasting this, I propose to see the body not as a constraint, but rather as a design opportunity to enhance the quality of our multimedia experiences. I do this by framing the body's limitations as challenges that can facilitate bodily play, as inspired by sports. As such, I propose to put the human body into the center of the multimedia experience.

I illustrate this thinking by presenting recent work from the Exertion Games Lab at RMIT University, including a flying robot as jogging companion, games for commuters on public transport, interactive bicycle helmets, exercise gym equipment that incorporates computer gaming, and interactive basketball hoops.

Biography

Florian 'Floyd' Mueller directs the Exertion Games Lab at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Melbourne, Australia. The Exertion Games Lab investigates the design of exertion games, these are digital games that require physical effort, in order to understand the opportunities of combining technology, play and the human body; in short, where gaming and sports meet. This research is situated within a broader interaction design agenda that supports people's values such as an active and healthy life. Floyd has most recently been a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, having worked on the topic of exertion games now across four continents, including at organizations such as the MIT Media Lab, Microsoft Research, Media Lab Europe, Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto Laboratories and Xerox Parc. Previously in Australia, he has worked at the University of Melbourne and the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), where he led the Connecting People team of 12 researchers.

George Wright - From Newspaper to Newsdigital

Keynote video available online!

Abstract
Large established media businesses are caught between two worlds, deeply invested in slow changing print assets while trying to develop expertise in the rapidly changing digital world. Fairfax Media's recent launch of Airlink, a markerless image recognition technology, created a very unique blend between two worlds. The power and capability of smartphones has enabled a level of innovation that brings with it new opportunities and challenges for content delivery and reader experience. George Wright tells the story of how technology is changing the modern news room and how user experience will be central to all that we do.

Biography

George Wright is Fairfax Media's innovation advocate, collaborating with researchers to build new digital capability in the newsroom and engagement with our audiences. George has over 15 years of IT experience working in data management in a range of industries from life insurance to real estate. George's current focus is data driven journalism, social news experiences and geospatial. George writes a weekly innovation blog for theage.com.au called Smoke & Mirrors.