Table Of ContentVideo Analysis and Repackaging
for Distance Education
A. Ranjith Ram • Subhasis Chaudhuri
Video Analysis
and Repackaging for Distance
Education
A. Ranjith Ram Subhasis Chaudhuri
Government College of Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Kannur, Kerala, India Powai, Maharashtra, India
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ISBN 978-1-4614-3836-6 ISBN 978-1-4614-3837-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-3837-3
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To
DearestGita,KamalandKirtana
ARR.
Raj,Shankarandallmyteachers
SC.
Preface
Thetertiarysectorofoureconomyrequiresthatasignificantportionofthepopula-
tionbewelleducated.However,avastmajorityofthepopulationindevelopingand
under-developedcountriesdonothaveaproperaccesstohighereducation.Higher
education is expensive and, quite often, there are not enough qualified teachers in
thelocality.Educationisahuman-intensivetrainingprogramandwerequireavery
largenumberofwellqualifiedteachers.Further,theprogressintechnologyisvery
rapid today and our work-force is amenable to quick obsolescence unless we pro-
vide a continuous education program to the working professionals. This requires
thatweallotasignificantamountofresourcestoournationaleducationalprogram,
which most of the countries are unable to do. As the demand for the higher edu-
cation grows, so is the restlessness among the young generation to have access to
qualityeducation.
Fortunately, there has been a massive expansion in distance delivery and e-
learning systems over the last decade. Many universities now offer their courses
livetoparticipantsacrosstheglobe,andevenoffercompleteorlimitedinteractions
with the instructor. Several e-learning portals offer video-on-demand services for
specificcourses.Manyuniversitiesmaketheircoursematerialsavailabletotheout-
side world for the benefit of all. One such laudable effort is the NPTEL program
(http://www.nptel.iitm.ac.in)oftheGovernmentofIndia,thatpromisestomakethe
entire curriculum of each of the undergraduate engineering programs freely avail-
abletotheentiremass.Whetherfreeornot,distanceeducationdoesservethepur-
poseofenhancingtheoutreachofqualityeducationtoall.
Twoimportantaspectsofdistanceeducationarethequalityofcontentsandthe
modeofdelivery.Itisimperativethatthequalityofcontentsbegood,failingwhich
distance education serves no purpose at all. The delivery of the content is also
equallyimportantasthereshouldbenolossinthepedagogicvalue.Agoodquality
videorequiresasignificantamountofbandwidthfordatatransmission.Indevelop-
ingandothercountries,theavailablebandwidthisstillquitelimited.Thisrequires
asignificantreductionindataduringthecontentdelivery.Also,consideringthefact
that the penetration of mobile phones even in rural areas is very high, we should
also explore the possibility of delivering the contents through the mobile display
vii
viii Preface
unit.Thisputsafurtherconstraintonthebandwidthduringthetransmissionofthe
lecture video. Another added constraint is the limited size (resolution) of the dis-
playunit.Oneshouldbeabletodeliverthecontentonsmallerdisplayunitswithout
sacrificingthelegibilityofthecontents.
Thepurposeofthe monographistoexplainhowonecan enhancetheoutreach
of distance education by appropriately repackaging the instructional video so that
theamountofdatacanbedrasticallyreducedwithoutsacrificingthepedagogy.We
havebuiltacompletesystemthattakeshoursofclassroomlecturevideo,processes
ittogenerateacompressedrepresentationofthedata,calledtheinstructionalmedia
package,andcanplayitondiversemultimediaplatforms,includingmobilephones.
Webelievethatsuchamonographisverytimelyasdevelopmentofefficientdistance
educationplatformsistheneedofthehour.Wediscussvariouscomponentsofthe
systeminfulldetailswithaviewthatpractitionersofthisareawillbeabletobenefit
fromthismonograph.
This monograph is an outgrowth of the Ph. D. dissertation work of one of the
authorsundertheguidanceoftheotherattheIndianInstituteofTechnologyBom-
bay.Thebookisarevisedandextendedversionofthethesis.Severaloftheideas
presentedinthemonographarequitenovelandhavebeenfiledforpatents.Afully
functionalandroidplatformbasedmediaplayer,calledLec-to-Mobile,hasbeenre-
leased to the public in 2011 and is freely downloadable form the android market
site.Werecommendthatthereadersusethisplayeronamobiledisplayunitfora
betterunderstandingofthediscussedtopics.
Thismonographmaybeofvaluetovideoanalysisresearchersandpractitioners
who are interested in developing technologies for video analyses in general, and
educational video in particular. The book is mostly self contained and is intended
for a wide audience. The mathematical complexity of the book remains at a level
wellwithinthegraspofundergraduatestudents.Abasicfamiliaritywiththeareaof
imageprocessingshouldsuffice.Hencethestudentsmayfindthisbookusefulasa
reference.Wehaveprovidedalargenumberoffigurestohelpunderstandthetopic
well.
Wewelcomecommentsandsuggestionsfromthereaders.
Mumbai, A.RanjithRam
January2012 SubhasisChaudhuri
Acknowledgments
The effort to write a book suffers from a periodic nonchalance and is impossible
withouttheactivesupportandencouragementofalargenumberofpeople.
TheauthorsarethankfultoProf.SharatChandranandProf.ShabbirN.Merchant
atIITBombayfortheirinsightfulcommentsandideasatvariousstagesofresearch
overthelastfouryears.ThanksarealsoduetoProf.JayantaMukhopadhyayofIIT
Kharagpur,Prof.JohnR.KenderofColumbiaUniversity,andProf.VenkatRangan
of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for their valuable comments. The help given by
TruptiN.TheteinimplementingtheaudiowatermarkingandAnupShettyinimple-
mentingtheoptimalvideoshotdetectionisgreatlyacknowledged.Theauthorsare
alsothankfultoProf.KannanMoudgalyaandtheCentreforDistanceEngineering
EducationProgramme(CDEEP)atIITBombayforprovidingvariousinstructional
videos. A few undergraduate students took up the task of developing the Lec-to-
Mobileplayer.TheauthorsthankHimaniArora,DevalAgrahari,ManasChaudhari
andSiddarthSarangdharforthesame.TheauthorsarealsoindebtedtoIITBombay
foritseffortingettingthedevelopedtechnologiespatented.
The first author wishes to acknowledge the support received from the Quality
ImprovementProgram(QIP)tocarryoutresearchatIITBombay.Thesecondauthor
acknowledgesthefundingsupportfromtheDepartmentofScienceandTechnology
(DST) in the form of a JC Bose National Fellowship. The administrative support
fromthepublisherisalsogratefullyacknowledged.
The authors are thankful to their family members for their love, support and
constantencouragement.
Mumbai, A.RanjithRam
January2012 SubhasisChaudhuri
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