The search for information about entities, such as people or movies, plays an increasingly important role on the Web. This information is still scattered across many Web pages, making it more time consuming for a user to find all relevant information about an entity. This thesis describes techniques to extract entities and information about these entities from the Web, such as facts, opinions, questions and answers, interactive multimedia objects, and events. The findings of this thesis are that it is possible to create a large knowledge base automatically using a manually-crafted ontology. The precision of the extracted information was found to be between 75–90 % (facts and entities respectively) after using assessment algorithms. The algorithms from this thesis can be used to create such a knowledge base, which can be used in various research fields, such as question answering, named entity recognition, and information retrieval.

In order to manage the content of multimedia data, the content must be annotated. Although any user-defined annotation is acceptable, it is preferable if systems agree on the same annotation format. MPEG-7 is a widely accepted standard for multimedia content annotation. However, in MPEG-7, semantically identical metadata can be represented in multiple ways due to lack of precise semantics in its XML-based syntax. Unfortunately this prevents metadata interoperability. To overcome this problem, MPEG-7 standard is translated into an ontology. In this thesis, MPEG-7 ontology is used on top and the given user-defined ontologies are attached to the MPEG-7 ontology via a user friendly interface, thus building MPEG-7 based ontologies automatically. Our proposed system is an ontology-based multimedia information management framework due to its modular architecture, ease of integrating with domain specific ontologies naturally and automatic harmonization of MPEG-7 ontology and domain-specific ontologies. Integration with domain specific ontologies is carried out by enabling import of domain ontologies via a user-friendly interface which makes the system independent of application domains.

The search for information about entities, such as people or movies, plays an increasingly important role on the Web. This information is still scattered across many Web pages, making it more time consuming for a user to find all relevant information about an entity. This thesis describes techniques to extract entities and information about these entities from the Web, such as facts, opinions, questions and answers, interactive multimedia objects, and events. The findings of this thesis are that it is possible to create a large knowledge base automatically using a manually-crafted ontology. The precision of the extracted information was found to be between 75–90 % (facts and entities respectively) after using assessment algorithms. The algorithms from this thesis can be used to create such a knowledge base, which can be used in various research fields, such as question answering, named entity recognition, and information retrieval.

This masters thesis is dedicated to theme of multimodal databases, especially multimedia databases. The first part contains overview of today's most used data models. Next part summarizes information about content-based search in multimedia content and indexing this type of data. Final part is dedicated to implementation system for storing and managing of multimedia content based on Helix streaming system a PostgreSQL database system.

Atualmente, os usuários desejam obter, fornecer, compartilhar e interagir com informações e serviços com conteúdo multimídia em qualquer lugar, a qualquer momento e com qualquer dispositivo. Para que isso seja possível, um dos grandes desafios é assegurar a QoS (Quality of Service) fim a fim (entre o usuário final e a organização provedora de serviço) para a disponibilização de serviços móveis e interativos com conteúdo multimídia para os usuários finais. Em geral esse tipo de serviço têm maior exigência de QoS, pois além dos parâmetros de redes, possuem parâmetros específicos para áudio, imagem e vídeo, além de exigirem sincronização de áudio e vídeo, e a QoS fim a fim deve considerar parâmetros de QoS sob a percepção do usuário final. Com isso, o objetivo deste trabalho é propor um método para o levantamento de parâmetros de QoS para o estabelecimento de USLAs (User Service Level Agreements - Acordo do Nível de Serviço do Usuário) entre a organização provedora de serviço e o usuário final para serviços móveis e interativos com conteúdo multimídia em um ambiente de convergência tecnológica. O método consiste em quatro passos: 1. identificação do serviço a ser oferecido ao usuário final e elaboração de um grafo em árvore, que tem como objetivo identificar outros serviços que podem compor o serviço a ser oferecido ao usuário final; 2. mapeamento dos parâmetros de QoS em um metamodelo; 3. validação do metamodelo, para que se possa extrair do metamodelo os parâmetros de QoS; 4. elaboração do USLA. Este trabalho propõe um primeiro passo para solucionar a falta de métodos padronizados para o estabelecimento de USLA para serviços móveis e interativos com conteúdo multimídia sob a percepção do usuário final. Além de facilitar a identificação e composição de serviços e parâmetros, por meio de um metamodelo que proporciona a integração de classes de serviços que podem ser facilmente reutilizadas e customizadas, de acordo, com o tipo de serviço oferecido pela organização provedora de serviço e pela necessidade do usuário final. / In these days the final users wish to obtain, to furnish and to interact using interactive services with multimedia content anywhere, anytime and with any kind of user device. One of the biggest challenges is to assure the End-to End Quality of Service (E2E QoS) in the delivering of the interactive and multimedia services for moving users. In general, this kind of users have more strict requirements needs, because, besides of the computer network parameters, they need specify specific parameters like sound, image and video and their synchronization, on the users\' point of the view - perceived QoS. The main objective of this thesis is to present the application of a method for eliciting the E2E QoS parameters aiming the establishment of the User Service Level Agreement - USLA between the service provider and the final user applied to interactive and mobile services with multimedia content, inserted on a technological convergence environment. The method is a four steps method that consists of (1) an identification of the service to be offered to the final user and the elaboration of a tree graph aiming the identification of the composition of the service by other services (2) mapping the QoS parameters in a metamodel (3) validation of the metamodel, and extraction of the E2E QoS parameters (4) elaboration the USLA. This thesis proposes a first step to solve the lack of standardized methods for the establishment of the USLA for interactive and mobile services with multimedia content under the users\' perception. Besides of facilitating the identification and the composition of services and parameters, using a metamodel, that provides the integration of classes of services, that can be easily reused and customized, according, with the type of service offered for the service provider to the final user.

Atualmente, os usuários desejam obter, fornecer, compartilhar e interagir com informações e serviços com conteúdo multimídia em qualquer lugar, a qualquer momento e com qualquer dispositivo. Para que isso seja possível, um dos grandes desafios é assegurar a QoS (Quality of Service) fim a fim (entre o usuário final e a organização provedora de serviço) para a disponibilização de serviços móveis e interativos com conteúdo multimídia para os usuários finais. Em geral esse tipo de serviço têm maior exigência de QoS, pois além dos parâmetros de redes, possuem parâmetros específicos para áudio, imagem e vídeo, além de exigirem sincronização de áudio e vídeo, e a QoS fim a fim deve considerar parâmetros de QoS sob a percepção do usuário final. Com isso, o objetivo deste trabalho é propor um método para o levantamento de parâmetros de QoS para o estabelecimento de USLAs (User Service Level Agreements - Acordo do Nível de Serviço do Usuário) entre a organização provedora de serviço e o usuário final para serviços móveis e interativos com conteúdo multimídia em um ambiente de convergência tecnológica. O método consiste em quatro passos: 1. identificação do serviço a ser oferecido ao usuário final e elaboração de um grafo em árvore, que tem como objetivo identificar outros serviços que podem compor o serviço a ser oferecido ao usuário final; 2. mapeamento dos parâmetros de QoS em um metamodelo; 3. validação do metamodelo, para que se possa extrair do metamodelo os parâmetros de QoS; 4. elaboração do USLA. Este trabalho propõe um primeiro passo para solucionar a falta de métodos padronizados para o estabelecimento de USLA para serviços móveis e interativos com conteúdo multimídia sob a percepção do usuário final. Além de facilitar a identificação e composição de serviços e parâmetros, por meio de um metamodelo que proporciona a integração de classes de serviços que podem ser facilmente reutilizadas e customizadas, de acordo, com o tipo de serviço oferecido pela organização provedora de serviço e pela necessidade do usuário final. / In these days the final users wish to obtain, to furnish and to interact using interactive services with multimedia content anywhere, anytime and with any kind of user device. One of the biggest challenges is to assure the End-to End Quality of Service (E2E QoS) in the delivering of the interactive and multimedia services for moving users. In general, this kind of users have more strict requirements needs, because, besides of the computer network parameters, they need specify specific parameters like sound, image and video and their synchronization, on the users\' point of the view - perceived QoS. The main objective of this thesis is to present the application of a method for eliciting the E2E QoS parameters aiming the establishment of the User Service Level Agreement - USLA between the service provider and the final user applied to interactive and mobile services with multimedia content, inserted on a technological convergence environment. The method is a four steps method that consists of (1) an identification of the service to be offered to the final user and the elaboration of a tree graph aiming the identification of the composition of the service by other services (2) mapping the QoS parameters in a metamodel (3) validation of the metamodel, and extraction of the E2E QoS parameters (4) elaboration the USLA. This thesis proposes a first step to solve the lack of standardized methods for the establishment of the USLA for interactive and mobile services with multimedia content under the users\' perception. Besides of facilitating the identification and the composition of services and parameters, using a metamodel, that provides the integration of classes of services, that can be easily reused and customized, according, with the type of service offered for the service provider to the final user.

Η ασύρματη επικοινωνία, στις μέρες μας, αποκτά ιδιαίτερη αξία σε μια χώρα όπως η Ελλάδα, όπου η μορφολογία του εδάφους, δεν επιτρέπει σε αρκετά γεωγραφικά διαμερίσματα την εγκατάσταση και χρήση ευρυζωνικών μέσων μετάδοσης όπως για παράδειγμα οι οπτικές ίνες. Ειδικότερα ο τομέας της κινητής τηλεφωνίας είναι ένας ταχύτατα εξελισσόμενος τομέας καθώς στις μέρες μας βιώνουμε το πέρασμα από τη δεύτερη γενιά συστημάτων κινητών τηλεπικοινωνιών προς την τρίτη. Στην εξέλιξη του τομέα αυτού συμβάλουν τα μέγιστα και οι απαιτήσεις των σύγχρονων καιρών για ένα ενοποιημένο και λειτουργικό σύστημα κινητής τηλεφωνίας με σκοπό την παροχή μιας πληθώρας υπηρεσιών στους συνδρομητές. Η διπλωματική αυτή έχει σαν σκοπό να μελετήσει την μετάδοση πολυμεσικών δεδομένων όπως εικόνα και ήχος μέσα από την έννοια του streaming, πάνω από ασύρματα δίκτυα 3ης γενιάς (UMTS). Λαμβάνοντας υπό όψη τις δυσκολίες που συνεπάγεται η ασύρματη μετάδοση δεδομένων, όπως απώλεια πακέτων εξαιτίας λαθών ή συμφόρησης στο δίκτυο, αλλά και την καθυστέρηση που πολλές φορές παρατηρείται, προτείνεται ένας μηχανισμός για τη δυνατότητα προσαρμογής του ρυθμού μετάδοσης των πολυμεσικών δεδομένων. Στόχος είναι η αντιμετώπιση των παραπάνω προβλημάτων, αλλά και η προσπάθεια για την όσο το δυνατόν ανεμπόδιστη λειτουργία της streaming υπηρεσίας ακόμα και σε μη ευνοϊκές δικτυακές συνθήκες. Ο έλεγχος του ρυθμού μετάδοσης αποτελεί ένα σημαντικό θέμα τόσο στα ενσύρματα όσο και στα ασύρματα δίκτυα μιας και σχετίζεται με τη σταθερότητα του δικτύου, συμβάλλει στη δίκαιη κατανομή του bandwidth μεταξύ των ροών δεδομένων και στην ομαλή μετάδοση πολυμεσικών δεδομένων. Μία μέθοδος ελέγχου και προσαρμογής του ρυθμού μετάδοσης δεδομένων πάνω από δίκτυα είναι γνωστή σαν TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC). Χρησιμοποιείται κυρίως στα ενσύρματα δίκτυα και σύμφωνα με αυτή, ο ρυθμός μετάδοσης δεδομένων είναι συνάρτηση κάποιων παραμέτρων οι οποίες αντιπροσωπεύουν την κατάσταση που επικρατεί στο δίκτυο. Οι παράμετροι αυτοί είναι το μέγεθος των πακέτων, ο ρυθμός απώλειας των πακέτων και το Round Trip Time (RTT). Η μέθοδος αυτή μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί και στα ασύρματα δίκτυα με τη βοήθεια απαραίτητων τροποποιήσεων/παραλλαγών αλλά και υπό την προϋπόθεση ότι λαμβάνονται υπόψη οι ιδιαιτερότητες της ασύρματης μετάδοσης. Στα πλαίσια της έρευνας που έγινε στην εργασία αυτή, θα δείξουμε την ικανότητα που μπορεί να έχει ένας streaming server για έλεγχο και προσαρμογή του ρυθμού μετάδοσης πολυμεσικών δεδομένων σύμφωνα με τα προβλήματα που προαναφέρθηκαν και τις τρέχουσες συνθήκες του δικτύου. Βασικό στοιχείο στην προσπάθεια αυτή αποτέλεσε η λειτουργία του TFRC μηχανισμού σε συνδυασμό με τη χρήση του RTP πρωτοκόλλου. Το Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) παρέχει μια από άκρο σε άκρο υπηρεσία για αποστολή δεδομένων σε πραγματικό χρόνο. Εφαρμογές που χρησιμοποιούν το πρωτόκολλο αυτό είναι κυρίως υπηρεσίες για μετάδοση (streaming) ήχου (φωνή) και βίντεο. Παρόλο που το RTP πρωτόκολλο δεν παρέχει κάποια εγγύηση για την έγκαιρη παράδοση των πακέτων, εντούτοις περιέχει ένα μηχανισμό για την απεικόνιση της κατάστασης του δικτύου και των χαρακτηριστικών της σύνδεσης μεταξύ των δύο άκρων. Πρόκειται για το RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) το οποίο αποστέλλει πακέτα (αναφορές) μεταξύ του streaming server και ενός χρήστη, με πληροφορία όπως ο ρυθμός απώλειας πακέτων, η καθυστέρηση μετάδοσης και ο RTT χρόνος. Με τον τρόπο αυτό, και για τις ανάγκες της ασύρματης μετάδοσης βίντεο σε πραγματικό χρόνο από έναν server προς έναν κινητό χρήστη μπορεί να γίνει μια συνεργασία του TFRC μηχανισμού και των RTP και RTCP πρωτοκόλλων. Ο server, κατά τη διάρκεια αποστολής (streaming) πολυμεσικών δεδομένων σε πραγματικό χρόνο προς ένα κινητό χρήστη, θα μπορεί να γνωρίζει ανά πάσα στιγμή τα χαρακτηριστικά της ασύρματης σύνδεσης, βασιζόμενος στα RTCP πακέτα που θα του στέλνει ο χρήστης και στη συνέχεια με τη βοήθεια του TFRC να κάνει υπολογισμό ενός άνω φράγματος για τον επιτρεπτό ρυθμό μετάδοσης των δεδομένων. Η δυνατότητα για αλλαγή του ρυθμού μετάδοσης από τον server ανάλογα με τις δικτυακές συνθήκες, βασίζεται στο γεγονός της ικανότητας να επιλέγει το προς μετάδοση βίντεο μέσα από ένα σύνολο διαφορετικών κωδικοποιήσεων του βίντεο αυτού. Με άλλα λόγια, ο streaming server διατηρεί διάφορες εκδόσεις (αρχεία) του ίδιου βίντεο, με τη μόνη διαφορά ότι είναι κωδικοποιημένα σε διαφορετικούς ρυθμούς (Kbps) με βάση κάποιο πρότυπο (π.χ MPEG-2). Βέβαια είναι γεγονός, ότι ένας χαμηλός ρυθμός κωδικοποίησης της πολυμεσικής πληροφορίας, σε σχέση με ένα υψηλό ρυθμό, συνεπάγεται μια μέτρια ποιότητα στην εικόνα του βίντεο. Από την άλλη όμως πλευρά, η μετάδοση μέτριας ποιότητας (χαμηλού ρυθμού) βίντεο, συνδέεται με το χαμηλό ρυθμό στην μετάδοση των πολυμεσικών δεδομένων, γεγονός που είναι επιθυμητό σε περιπτώσεις όπου στο δίκτυο παρατηρείται συμφόρηση, μεγάλες καθυστερήσεις και απώλειες πακέτων. Κατά ανάλογο τρόπο, όταν στο δίκτυο δεν παρατηρούνται ιδιαίτερα προβλήματα, είναι επιθυμητή η μετάδοση από τον streaming server βίντεο υψηλού ρυθμού (καλής ποιότητας), καθώς το διαθέσιμο εύρος ζώνης είναι σε θέση να εξυπηρετήσει τις απαιτήσεις για μετάδοση πολυμεσικών δεδομένων με υψηλό ρυθμό. Για την επιβεβαίωση των όσων αναφέρθηκαν παραπάνω, έγιναν μια σειρά από πειράματα κάνοντας χρήση ενός εμπορικού δικτύου κινητής τηλεφωνίας βασισμένο στην τεχνολογία 3ης γενιάς. Κάποιες υποθέσεις που έγιναν σχετικά με το σενάριο αυτό, αφορούν το διαθέσιμο bandwidth του ασύρματου καναλιού, το ρυθμό απώλειας πακέτων, το μέγεθος των πακέτων και την κίνηση στο δίκτυο. Θα πρέπει να σημειωθεί ότι η απώλεια των πακέτων μπορεί να οφείλεται τόσο στο ενδεχόμενο να παρατηρείται μεγάλη κίνηση στους κόμβους του δικτύου αλλά και σε αυτό της μη σωστής λήψης, εξαιτίας των παραγόντων εκείνων που επηρεάζουν την ασύρματη μετάδοση. Για την υλοποίηση του παραπάνω σεναρίου και των πειραμάτων έγινε χρήση ενός φορητού υπολογιστή (laptop) ο οποίος είχε τον ρόλο του κινητού χρήστη εξοπλισμένος με μια κάρτα για την ασύρματη πρόσβαση σε 3G δίκτυο παρόχου κινητής τηλεφωνίας. Η αποστολή των δεδομένων και ο έλεγχος του ρυθμού μετάδοσης έγινε με την βοήθεια ενός RTSP Server, που υλοποιήθηκε, βασισμένος στις βιβλιοθήκες του open source project LIVE555 (www.live555.com), στο εργαστήριο Κατανεμημένων Συστημάτων και Τηλεματικής του τμήματος. Τέλος θα πρέπει να σημειωθεί ότι η ερευνητική διατριβή που έγινε στα πλαίσια της διπλωματικής εργασίας οδήγησε στην παρακάτω δημοσίευση σε διεθνές συνέδριο. An efficient mechanism for adaptive multimedia transmission in 3G networks. IADIS International Conference Wireless Applications and Computing 2007 (WAC 2007), Lisbon, Portugal, A. Alexiou, K. Barounis, C. Bouras, 6-8 July 2007. Αbstract: Η εργασία αυτή προτείνει ένα μηχανισμό για τον έλεγχο της συμφόρησης (congestion control) και την μετάδοση πολυμεσικής πληροφορίας (video) πάνω από το UMTS. Ο μηχανισμός αυτός εφαρμόζεται όταν ο κινητός χρήστης διαχειρίζεται πληροφορία πραγματικού χρόνου (real time), και παράλληλα υιοθετεί την θεωρία μίας ευρέως αποδεκτής μεθόδου για έλεγχο ου ρυθμού (rate control) στα ενσύρματα δίκτυα, γνωστή και ως equation based rate control. Σε αυτή την προσέγγιση, ο server προσαρμόζει τον ρυθμό μετάδοσης πολυμεσικής πληροφορίας λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τις εξής δικτυακές παραμέτρους: α) ρυθμός απώλειας πακέτων, β) round-trip χρόνος και γ) μέγεθος του πακέτου. Μέσα από μια σειρά εξομοιώσεων και πειραμάτων έγινε αξιολόγηση της ορθότητας και της επίδοσης του μηχανισμού. Αρχικά ο μηχανισμός αξιολογείται χρησιμοποιώντας το περιβάλλον του ns-2 εξομοιωτή, και στη συνέχεια γίνονται κάποια πειράματα σε δίκτυο UMTS εμπορικής χρήσης γνωστής τηλεπικοινωνιακής εταιρείας. / Wireless communication has become valuable, in a country like Greece, where the morphology of the ground does not allow the massive use of alternative means of communication like fiber optics. Especially, the field of mobile telecommunications has shown a remarkable growth over the past years, as we are now witnessing the pass from the second generation (2G) networks to the third generation (3G). However, this evolution can be regarded as the result of the demands for an integrated and functional mobile telecommunication system, with a plethora of new services offered to its users. The aim of this master thesis is to make a research in the transmission of multimedia content over a UMTS network, with the capability of adapting the transmission rate, depending on the network conditions. The control of the transmission rate is a very important aspect, not only in the wired networks, but also in the wireless networks, as it is responsible for the stability of the network, the fair sharing of the bandwidth between the traffic flows and the unaffected transmission of multimedia, like video and voice. One method for the control and the adaptation of the transmission rate over networks is known as TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC). This method is mainly used in wired networks and according to its function, the transmission rate is the outcome of various parameters across the network. These parameters are the size of the packets, the packet loss rate, and the Round Trip Time (RTT). This method can also be used in wireless networks as long as some modifications take place and that special needs of the wireless transmission have been taken into consideration. During this research, we can show how the TFRC mechanism and the Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) can be combined together for the needs of multimedia streaming over a wireless network. The RTP protocol provides end-toend delivery services for data with real-time characteristics such as interactive audio and video, while applications typically run RTP on top of UDP. RTP itself does not provide any mechanism to ensure timely delivery or other quality-ofservice guarantees. However, RTP consists of the RTP Control Protocol (RTCP), which monitors the quality of service like packet loss, delay, round trip time and conveys information about the participants in an on-going session. By this way, during a streaming session, the server would be able to have an image of the network conditions thanks to the RTCP information sent by the mobile client. Then, using the TFRC mechanism an upper bound for the transmission rate can be calculated in order to take advantage of the available bandwidth and to avoid causing network instability or abuse. The server would have the same video in different versions, depending on the coding in Kbits per second (Kbps) and then would have the capability of increasing or decreasing the transmission rate by switching the video files during the streaming session. In order to examine this scenario in real network conditions, some parameters will be taken into consideration, like the available bandwidth of the wireless network, the packet loss rate, the packet size and the network traffic. It must be noticed, that the packet loss could be caused by overloading the network or by those factors which can cause problems in the wireless transmission. For testing all the above, we perform some experiments using a laptop with a network card for having access in a 3G network as a mobile user, and a RTSP server for streaming the multimedia data to the client. The server is implemented, based on the Live555 (www.live555.com) libraries, where some extra functions are added in order to work according to the streaming scenario. Finally it should be mentioned that this thesis has been published on the IADIS International Conference, Wireless Applications and Computing 2007 with the title “An Efficient Mechanism for Adaptive Multimedia Transmission in 3G Networks” held in Lisbon, Portugal, July 6-8, 2007.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:03:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6447.pdf: 5392666 bytes, checksum: 6368d9dd4f5d4af844fe595173c0dbe2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-27 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The television is the medium of information and entertainment most utilized by Brazilians. Despite its great reach, this vehicle, which should be an instrument to promote social inclusion, often causes the opposite effect. The manner some television programs are produced, in particular movies and series, combined with the lack of prior knowledge about certain subjects and contexts, trigger some viewers not to appreciate or enjoy enough of the programming, which may lead to a possible dissatisfaction in the audience. Cultural and educational matters may also accentuate the viewer's discontentment during a television session. New technologies such as the Interactive Digital TV (IDTV) allow the enrichment of television media with additional contents that may provide greater fruition of the narratives. This PhD project benefits from the flexibility and interactivity offered by the IDTV to propose a solution of accessibility based on the offer of additional specific contents, here denominated interactive Additional Multimedia Content (AMC-i). The AMC-i are extra information associated with the television media that may be offered to the main program considering different aspects, such as whether the offer: is synchronous or asynchronous, on demand or compulsory, with or without pausing the original program, by combining one or more media formats, among others. Through case studies, groups of spectators with distinct profiles, in different scenarios and interacting with varying kinds of media, were observed and had their interaction difficulties and experiences evaluated. This thesis proposes and presents the FrAMC-i, a framework consisting of a set of guidelines that support the production of AMC-i and emerged from the experience acquired during the observation of spectators in the studies. In addition to the guidelines, the FrAMC-i also provides tools for the enrichment of the media with AMC-i and a mobile application that enables the interaction with such contents by usage of a second screen. The framework was submitted to assessment by sixteen graduate students in Computer Science in the role of designers. These evaluators used the FrAMC-i artifacts to enrich media, given a provided fictional scenario. The results suggest a positive evaluation considering the utility, adherence to the proposed design solutions and usability of the artifacts supplied by the framework for the different stages of the production of the AMC-i. / A televisão é o meio de informação e entretenimento mais utilizado pelos brasileiros. Apesar do grande alcance, esse veículo, que deveria ser um meio para promover a inclusão social, por diversas vezes causa o efeito oposto. A forma como alguns programas televisivos são elaborados, em particular filmes e seriados, somada à falta de conhecimento prévio sobre determinados assuntos e contextos, fazem com que alguns espectadores não apreciem ou não desfrutem o bastante da programação, o que pode conduzi-los a uma possível insatisfação na audiência. Questões culturais e educacionais também podem acentuar a insatisfação do espectador durante uma sessão televisiva. Novas tecnologias, como a TV Digital Interativa (TVDi), permitem o enriquecimento de mídias televisivas com conteúdos adicionais que podem proporcionar uma melhor fruição das narrativas. Este projeto de doutorado aproveitou as vantagens da flexibilidade e interatividade oferecidas pela TVDi para propor uma solução de acessibilidade baseada na oferta de conteúdos adicionais específicos, aqui denominados de Conteúdo Multimídia Complementar interativo (CMCi). Os CMCis são informações extras associadas às mídias televisivas que podem ser oferecidas ao programa principal considerando diferentes aspectos, tais como, se a oferta será síncrona ou assíncrona, sob demanda ou compulsória, com ou sem pausa da mídia original, combinando um ou mais formatos de mídia complementar, entre outros. Por meio de estudos de caso, grupos de espectadores com diferentes perfis, em diferentes cenários e interagindo com diferentes gêneros de mídias, foram observados e tiveram as suas dificuldades e experiências de interação avaliadas. Esta tese propõe e apresenta o FrAMC-i, um framework composto por um conjunto de diretrizes que apoiam a produção de CMCi e que emergiu da experiência adquirida durante a observação dos espectadores nos estudos. Além das diretrizes, o FrAMC-i também disponibiliza ferramentas para o enriquecimento das mídias com CMCi e um aplicativo móvel que possibilita a interação com tais conteúdos utilizando uma segunda tela. Uma avaliação do framework foi realizada por 16 estudantes de pósgraduação em Ciência da Computação no papel de designers. Esses avaliadores utilizaram os artefatos do FrAMC-i para enriquecer mídias atendendo a um cenário fictício fornecido. Os resultados sugerem uma avaliação positiva considerando a utilidade, adesão às soluções de design propostas e usabilidade dos artefatos disponibilizados pelo framework para as diferentes etapas de produção do CMCi.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Ubiquitous computing is known as the third wave of computing, which aims at making computational devices become more permeated to the users lives. It has helped people to perform their daily activities in many areas of expertise, especially in the educational domain where it assists instructors and students during their academic duties, achieving knowledge anywhere and anytime, making use of unobtrusive ways of reaching the desired content. Multimedia capture and context-awareness are two relevant subjects in ubiquitous computing research. While the former results in large amounts of digital media (e.g., video, audio, slides, text comments) being automatically produced, the latter oers the proper means to integrate and access such content. By merging the two concepts, users may benet from tools that allow them to retrieve, view and interact with the captured media artifacts. Thus, this work presents a communication model based on peer-to-peer networks, used for transferring and replicating the captured content. Furthermore, a contextual access architecture is presented for personalization and recommendation of interactive multimedia content captured in an instrumented educational environment. This architecture takes into account context information, user preferences and presentation constraints in order to personalize the access experience, tailoring it to users\' needs. As a case study, the proposals were implemented in Classroom eXperience, which is a ubiquitous computing platform for multimedia capturing designed to automatically record lectures and make them available to students. / Computação ubíqua é conhecida como a terceira onda da computação, a qual visa tornar os dispositivos computacionais mais integrados à vida das pessoas. Ela tem ajudado as pessoas a realizarem suas atividades diárias em diferentes domínios, especialmente no domínio educacional, onde auxilia instrutores e alunos durante as suas atividades acadê- micas obtendo conhecimento em qualquer lugar e a qualquer momento, fazendo uso de formas não intrusivas para recuperar o conteúdo desejado. Captura e acesso multimídia e ciência de contexto são dois importantes temas em pesquisas de computação ubíqua. Enquanto o primeiro produz automaticamente um grande volume de mídias digitais (ex., vídeo, áudio, slides, comentários de texto), o segundo oferece meios adequados para integrar e acessar tal conteúdo. Ao fundir os dois conceitos, os usuários podem se beneciar de ferramentas que lhes permitam recuperar, visualizar e interagir com os artefatos de mídia capturados. Assim, este trabalho apresenta um modelo de comunicação baseado em redes peer-to-peer, utilizado para transferência e replicação do conteúdo capturado. Além disso, uma arquitetura de acesso contextual é apresentada para personalização e recomendação de conteúdo multimídia interativo capturado em ambientes educacionais instrumentados. Essa arquitetura utiliza uma abordagem que considera informações de contexto, preferências do usuário e restrições de apresentação a m de personalizar a experiência de acesso, adequando-a às necessidades dos usuários. Como estudo de caso, as propostas foram implementadas no Classroom eXperience, que é uma plataforma de computação ubíqua para captura multimídia concebida para gravar automaticamente as aulas ministradas e disponibilizá-las posteriormente aos alunos. / Mestre em Ciência da Computação

La question de recherche des objets vidéo basés sur le contenu lui-même, est de plus en plus difficile et devient un élément obligatoire pour les moteurs de recherche vidéo. Cette thèse présente un cadre pour la recherche des objets vidéo définis par l'utilisateur et apporte deux grandes contributions. La première contribution, intitulée DOOR (Dynamic Object Oriented Retrieval), est un cadre méthodologique pour la recherche et récupération des instances d'objets vidéo sélectionnés par un utilisateur, tandis que la seconde contribution concerne le support offert pour la recherche des vidéos, à savoir la navigation dans les vidéo, le système de récupération de vidéos et l'interface avec son architecture sous-jacente.Dans le cadre DOOR, l’objet comporte une représentation hybride obtenues par une sur-segmentation des images, consolidé avec la construction des graphs d’adjacence et avec l’agrégation des points d'intérêt. L'identification des instances d'objets à travers plusieurs vidéos est formulée comme un problème d’optimisation de l'énergie qui peut approximer un tache NP-difficile. Les objets candidats sont des sous-graphes qui rendent une énergie optimale vers la requête définie par l'utilisateur. Quatre stratégies d'optimisation sont proposées: Greedy, Greedy relâché, recuit simulé et GraphCut. La représentation de l'objet est encore améliorée par l'agrégation des points d'intérêt dans la représentation hybride, où la mesure de similarité repose sur une technique spectrale intégrant plusieurs types des descripteurs. Le cadre DOOR est capable de s’adapter à des archives vidéo a grande échelle grâce à l'utilisation de représentation sac-de-mots, enrichi avec un algorithme de définition et d’expansion de la requête basée sur une approche multimodale, texte, image et vidéo. Les techniques proposées sont évaluées sur plusieurs corpora de test TRECVID et qui prouvent leur efficacité.La deuxième contribution, OVIDIUS (On-line VIDeo Indexing Universal System) est une plate-forme en ligne pour la navigation et récupération des vidéos, intégrant le cadre DOOR. Les contributions de cette plat-forme portent sur le support assuré aux utilisateurs pour la recherche vidéo - navigation et récupération des vidéos, interface graphique. La plate-forme OVIDIUS dispose des fonctionnalités de navigation hiérarchique qui exploite la norme MPEG-7 pour la description structurelle du contenu vidéo. L'avantage majeur de l'architecture propose c’est sa structure modulaire qui permet de déployer le système sur terminaux différents (fixes et mobiles), indépendamment des systèmes d'exploitation impliqués. Le choix des technologies employées pour chacun des modules composant de la plate-forme est argumentée par rapport aux d'autres options technologiques. / With the ever increasing amount of available video content on video repositories the issue of content-based video objects retrieval is growing in difficulty and becomes a mandatory feature for video search engines.The present thesis advances a user defined video object retrieval framework and brings two major contributions. The first contribution is a methodological framework for user selected video object instances retrieval, entitled DOOR (Dynamic Object Oriented Retrieval), while the second one concerns the support offered for video retrieval, namely the video navigation and retrieval system and interface and its underlying architecture.Under the DOOR framework, the user defined video object comports a hybrid representation obtained by over-segmenting the frames, constructing region adjacency graphs and aggregating interest points. The identification of object instances across multiple videos is formulated as an energy optimization problem approximating an NP-hard problem. Object candidates are sub-graphs that yield an optimum energy towards the user defined query. In order to obtain the optimum energy four optimization strategies are proposed: Greedy, Relaxed Greedy, Simulated Annealing and GraphCut. The region-based object representation is further improved by the aggregation of interest points into a hybrid object representation. The similarity between an object and a frame is achieved with the help of a spectral matching technique integrating both colorimetric and interest points descriptors.The DOOR framework is suitable to large scale video archives through the use of a Bag-of-Words representation enriched with a query definition and expansion mechanism based on a multi-modal, text-image-video principle.The performances of the proposed techniques are evaluated on multiple TRECVID video datasets prooving their effectiveness.The second contribution is related to the user support for video retrieval - video navigation, video retrieval, graphical interface - and consists in the OVIDIUS (On-line VIDeo Indexing Universal System) on-line video browsing and retrieval platform. The OVIDIUS platform features hierarchical video navigation functionalities that exploit the MPEG-7 approach for structural description of video content. The DOOR framework is integrated in the OVIDIUS platform, ensuring the search functionalities of the system. The major advantage of the proposed system concerns its modular architecture which makes it possible to deploy the system on various terminals (both fixed and mobile), independently of the exploitation systems involved. The choice of the technologies employed for each composing module of the platform is argumented in comparison with other technological options. Finally different scenarios and use cases for the OVIDIUS platform are presented.