<p>With the advance in computer and network technologies, multimedia systems and Internet applications are becoming more popular. As broadband network is prevailing, more clients are able to watch streaming videos or to play multimedia data over the Internet in real-time. Consequently, there is an increasing demand in the Internet for streaming video systems. As the run-time environment of such applications tends to be dynamic, it is imperative to handle transient overloads effectively. The goal of this work is to develop an algorithm that would provide a robust and controlled behavior of the video system so that important data is delivered on time to the video clients. In order to address this problem, we propose a QoS-sensitive approach that is using the technique of imprecise computation and is based on the principle of tuning. Our algorithm is aimed to provide the best possible QoS to the clients in the current available network capacity. As an environment to work with we have used a video system called QMPEGv2. A set of experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. Through experiments, we show that the system can adapt to dynamic changes in network conditions and provide almost always the best possible QoS to its clients. Guaranteeing a certain minimal QoS level to all clients is only possible when, in run time, an admission controller adjusts the number of clients admitted tothe system according to the capacity of the network and video servers.</p>

With the advance in computer and network technologies, multimedia systems and Internet applications are becoming more popular. As broadband network is prevailing, more clients are able to watch streaming videos or to play multimedia data over the Internet in real-time. Consequently, there is an increasing demand in the Internet for streaming video systems. As the run-time environment of such applications tends to be dynamic, it is imperative to handle transient overloads effectively. The goal of this work is to develop an algorithm that would provide a robust and controlled behavior of the video system so that important data is delivered on time to the video clients. In order to address this problem, we propose a QoS-sensitive approach that is using the technique of imprecise computation and is based on the principle of tuning. Our algorithm is aimed to provide the best possible QoS to the clients in the current available network capacity. As an environment to work with we have used a video system called QMPEGv2. A set of experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. Through experiments, we show that the system can adapt to dynamic changes in network conditions and provide almost always the best possible QoS to its clients. Guaranteeing a certain minimal QoS level to all clients is only possible when, in run time, an admission controller adjusts the number of clients admitted tothe system according to the capacity of the network and video servers.

Στην παρούσα εργασία υλοποιούμε ένα σύστημα δημιουργίας περιλήψεων από ακολουθίες βίντεο. Υλοποιούνται όλα τα βήματα που θα πρέπει να ακολουθηθούν (εξαγωγή χαρακτηριστικών-ανίχνευση πλάνων-εξαγωγή χαρακτηριστικών καρέ) έτσι ώστε να εξαχθεί ένα σύνολο καρέ (χαρακτηριστικά καρέ) τα οποία να συνοψίζουν νοηματικά το περιεχόμενο μιας ακολουθίας βίντεο. Η επεξεργασία του βίντεο γίνεται απευθείας στο συμπιεσμένο πεδίο και συγκεκριμένα σε συμπιεσμένα αρχεία MPEG-1-2, έτσι ώστε τα αποτελέσματα να εξάγονται σε σχετικά μικρό χρόνο και με σχετικά χαμηλές απαιτήσεις σε αποθηκευτικό χώρο και επεξεργαστική ισχύ. / In this paper a video summarization system is being constructed. We acomplish all the needed steps (feature extraction -shot detection-keyframe extraction) in order to extract a set of frames (keyframes) that capture the semantic content of the video sequence. The processing of the video takes place directly at the compressed domain (at MPEG-1-2 video files). Thus we obtain results at relatively little time and with relatively low storage and computer power demands.