Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2003-1 (VOL.54, NO.1)

Special Issue : Fujitsu's Imaging Solutions

• Core Technology for Various Audiovisual Solutions: MPEG

• Video Monitoring Applications against Natural Disasters

Every year, natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, and heavy rain and snow take their toll on human life and property. To help protect against such disasters, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport is developing nationwide information networks and has established a wide range of disaster prevention systems that utilize video information. In this paper, we discuss various kinds of video systems that can be used on wide area networks and compare them with the conventional point-to-point video system. We introduce three examples of remote video monitoring applications: a wide-area flood control system that remotely controls and monitors water gates, a VOD system for preventing sediment-related disasters that is linked with video recording and disaster detection systems, and a public video distribution service that provides disaster-related video through a TV station or local government.

• Real-Time Motion Picture Delivery Technology and Its Applications

Various kinds of information have recently been digitized so they can be transmitted on IP networks of the Internet. The transmission rate has also been greatly increased because of the use of optical fiber and other innovations. At the same time, advances in motion picture compression and coding have enabled us to easily handle digitized video images in digital television broadcasting. It is now only a matter of time before the new motion picture digitizing technologies are used to deliver multimedia contents over high-speed digital networks. In 1999, Fujitsu developed a motion picture delivery/collection system that conforms to IP networks. The new system, which is called Nexteye, has already been upgraded with three major revisions. Over 300 Nexteye systems have been shipped so far. This paper describes the features and applications of Nexteye.

• MPEG-over-IP Technology

In recent years, IP networks as typified by the Internet have progressively evolved, transmission capacity has increased, communication bands have broadened, and the standardization of motion picture compression technology has progressed. As a result, we can handle multimedia data on personal computers more easily than ever. Under these circumstances, MPEG-over-IP systems, which compress motion pictures using the MPEG format and deliver them via IP networks, have rapidly come into practical use. Fujitsu has developed Nexteye and other systems to collect and deliver motion pictures in real-time in conformity with the MPEG-over-IP systems. Applications of motion picture delivery on IP are being rapidly extended in various fields, including national backbone networks, information superhighway networks, and local intranets. These Fujitsu products are expected to be used for diverse purposes of industry and communications. This paper describes how to deliver motion pictures on an IP network by using an MPEG-over-IP system and introduces Nexteye and other Fujitsu products that conform to MPEG-over-IP.

• Technologies for Digital Content Distribution

Over recent years, the rapid advance in broadband technology has drastically accelerated the speed of communication lines, and the spread of Internet access using cellular phones is changing the basic functionality of terminal equipment. Because of this tremendous progress in communications, it is now possible to start building the infrastructure needed for full-scale, digital-content distribution services. This increase in line speed is expected to further popularize digital-content distribution. Streaming-video distribution is expected to become especially popular, and developments may eventually give rise to comprehensive-content distribution services that include services currently provided by conventional broadcasting, for example, air-wave TV broadcasting. This paper describes the streaming-related technologies needed to provide digital-content distribution services and introduces MillionStream, which is a new Fujitsu streaming product.

• Interactive Video Conferencing and Its Application to Broadband

New business chances are emerging in the multimedia communication market due to the maturity of Internet technology, the diversification of mobile & wireless technology, and the expansion of broadband networks. TV conferencing is a typical application for the broadband multimedia market. There are already many bidirectional, multi-point TV conferencing systems that use ISDN as a network infrastructure. Although TV conferencing systems for communication systems such as the Internet and mobile & wireless are currently not in wide use, they are now in an advantageous market position. This paper introduces a bidirectional multi-point conferencing system that is oriented for Internet and mobile & wireless communication. The system improves data error tolerances by adopting MPEG-4 technology and reduces transmission delay by reducing the number of end-to-end compression encoding operations.

• IP Network Technology

The Internet protocol (IP) has made it possible to drastically broaden the bandwidth of networks and increase the communication speed. As a result, there is now a strong demand for high-quality, low-cost networks that can form a social infrastructure for distributing sound and video data on a real-time basis. This paper describes several technological innovations for solving problems such as delay and fluctuation in Internet protocol (IP) networks. By using these innovations, we can ensure the required quality of service (QoS) in video distribution; construct failure-resistant, highly reliable IP networks; and efficiently distribute multi-cast streams. This paper also introduces the FLASHWAVE2700 series of products, which are the first in the industry to incorporate the resilient packet ring (RPR) system and will enable us to build advanced IP networks.

• Picture Transmission Equipment: FEDIS and Nexteye Series

In recent years, the network environment has changed dramatically against a background of deregulation in the communication market, explosive Internet growth, and other important developments. This paper introduces two series of picture transmission equipment that Fujitsu has released for the new environment. The new series, FEDIS and Nexteye, employ a unique Fujitsu-developed picture coding technology. This paper describes the features and uses of this equipment and explains how picture transmission equipment has evolved in response to changes in network environments and picture coding systems. This paper also looks at future developments in the network environment and picture transmission business and outlines Fujitsu's development plans for future picture transmission equipment.

• VLSIs for Video Coding

Digital video technologies and their applications have been penetrating not only business markets but also consumer markets. This has occurred due to the recent advancements in high-speed networking, digital media storage, digital signal processing, and other technologies. Especially, the MPEG series of compression technologies, which are used in DVD and digital TV systems, have been spreading widely into various broadcasting, telecommunications, and information processing fields. Fujitsu has been continuously developing codec core elements using the most up-to-date device technology, starting from video transmission systems. Triggered by the recent, big expansion in the DVD market, Fujitsu has accelerated the integration of MPEG-related circuits into VLSI chips. This paper describes Fujitsu's research and development of video compression technologies for VLSIs and the application of these VLSIs.

• Motion Picture Coding Algorithm

There are several services and systems that use a motion picture coding algorithm as a key technology. They include digital satellite broadcasting, the Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) system, videophones that operate in the third-generation mobile telecommunication system, and the delivery of audiovisual contents via the Internet and other communication systems. These services and systems are relatively new. On the other hand, the core of the coding technology consists of motion estimation and the discrete cosine transform (DCT), which were internationally standardized as recommendation H.261 in 1990 by the ITU-T (CCITT at the time of standardization). The motion picture coding algorithm has evolved and has incorporated new technologies for specific applications and other technologies that enhance the performance of all applications. This paper describes the concepts and effects of a motion picture coding algorithm that Fujitsu has developed and submitted for adoption as an international standard. This paper also describes two methods of enhancing the reproduced pictures' quality.

• MPEG-7 and Its Application for Contents Management

The broadband network infrastructure, which features high-speed data access and always-on functionality, is entering the phase of widespread use. As a result, the system architecture that integrates information processing technologies such as XML and multimedia technologies such as audio-visual processing is expected to play an important role. This paper gives an outline of MPEG-7, which is a new international standard for multimedia contents description using XML. Then, it describes the application of MPEG-7 for a metadata-based management system for composite multimedia contents, including an experimental system for real-time visual monitoring.

• Video Image Solutions Using Image Recognition Technology

Image recognition is a computational technology for distributing, storing, and analyzing images and for identifying the contents of images. Fujitsu is using this technology to provide customers with video-image solutions, for example, for use in automatic surveillance. This paper describes some of the important technical points that need to be considered when designing video-image solutions using image recognition. It also gives some examples of the video-image solutions that we have provided to customers using image recognition.

• eXplicit Multicast on IPv6: XCAST6

XCAST6: eXplicit Multicast on IPv6 is a new type of multicast datagram delivery system that enables multi-point visual communication and is expected to be a killer application of the next-generation Internet. In the last decade, using the current scheme of group-address multicast, many useful applications were developed and tested. However, the deployment of multicast was very slow and therefore these applications are not yet in widespread use. XCAST6 solves these problems by embedding an explicit list of destinations into the extension routing header of an IPv6 datagram. Therefore, intermediate routers can duplicate and forward the datagram just by searching one's unicast routing tables. Moreover, by using the semi-permeable capsule technique, users can ensure the reachability of the datagram without setting specific tunnels. By deploying a small number of XCAST6 routers placed on points in experimental networks, we have easily operated multi-point video conference trials on an academic IPv6 network between Japan, North America, and Korea, thus proving the deployability and usefulness of XCAST6.

• Latest trend of the Local Government Wide Area Network (LGWAN) and Fujitsu's approach

The Local Government Wide Area Network (LGWAN) is a national project based on the scenario of "e-JAPAN priority policy program" announced as well as the Basic Residential Registers Network in March, 2001. If the introduction is completed, all ministry is connected to about 3,300 municipalities by the computer network. And, electronic communications (E-mail service, electronic document exchange service, bulletin board service, etc.) in the network become possible. LGWAN is enhanced by ASP (Application Service Provider) as a final stage for the IT nation establishment in 2005. LGWAN will have an important role as a common application base for the efficiency improvement support of the administration. This paper introduces the latest trend with LGWAN and the Fujitsu's approach.

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