In this paper, we propose a region-of-interest (RoI) reinforced real-time communication system, RoIRTC, for improving the quality of videos delivered in real-time communication. RoIRTC uses a novel RoI magnification transformation for spatially adapting the camera-captured video frame. To automatically detect the RoI, it intelligently leverages a deep-learning-based saliency prediction model without affecting the video collector’s processing throughput or the encoder’s efficiency. Evaluation results based on actual remote learning videos show that RoIRTC that performs RoI magnification can improve the median PSNR by 2.6 dB compared to the naive WebRTC implementation. Compared to an approach that mimics the "background blur" scheme used in many real-time communication systems, RoIRTC can also improve the median PSNR by 4.2 dB.

Video-based Point Cloud Compression (V-PCC) is an emerging standard for encoding dynamic point cloud data. With V-PCC, point cloud data is segmented, projected, and packed on to 2D video frames, which can be compressed using existing video coding standards such as H.264, H.265 and AV1. This makes it possible to support point cloud streaming via reliable video transmission systems. On the other hand, despite recent advances, many issues still remain and prevent V-PCC from being used in low-latency point cloud streaming. For instance, point cloud registration and patch generation can take a long time.

We present the SphericRTC system for real-time 360-degree video communication. 360-degree video allows the viewer to observe the environment in any direction from the camera location. This more-immersive streaming experience allows users to more-efficiently exchange information and can be beneficial in the real-time setting. Our system applies a novel approach to select representations of 360-degree frames to allow efficient, content-adaptive delivery. The system performs joint content and bitrate adaptation in real-time by offloading expensive transformation operations to the GPU via CUDA. The system demonstrates that the multiple sub-components -- viewport feedback, representation selection, and joint content and bitrate adaptation -- can be effectively integrated within a single framework. Compared to a baseline implementation, views in SphericRTC have consistently higher visual quality. The median Viewport-PSNR of such views is 2.25 dB higher than views in the baseline system.

360-degree video is an emerging medium that presents an immersive view of the environment to the user. Despite its potential to provide an immersive watching experience, 360-degree video has not achieved widespread popularity. A significant cause of this slow adoption is the high-bandwidth requirements of the format. The primary source of bandwidth inefficiency in 360-degree video streaming, un-addressed in popular transmission methods, is the discrepancy between the pixels sent over the network (typically the full omnidirectional view) and the pixels displayed in the head-mounted display's field of view. At worst, roughly 88% of transmitted pixels remain unviewed.

This artifact includes source code, scripts and datasets required to reproduce the experimental figures in the evaluation of the MM'18 paper, which is entitled "MiniView Layout for Bandwidth-Efficient 360-Degree Video". The artifact reports the comparison results among the standard cube layout (CUBE), the equi-angular layout (EAC), and the MiniView layout (MVL) in terms of compressed video size, visual quality of views and decoding and rendering time.

With the recent increase in popularity of VR devices, 360-degree video has become increasingly popular. As more users experience this new medium, it will likely see further increases in popularity as users experience its greater immersiveness compared to traditional video streams. 360-degree video streams must encode the omnidirectional view, and, with current encoding techniques, these views require significantly higher bandwidth than traditional video streams. These larger bandwidth requirements comprise the main barrier toward wider adoption by video streaming services.