The objective of this proposal is to establish an infrastructure for signal processing in multimedia systems. Equipment will be acquired, installed, and integrated into an existing research environment consisting of networked UNIX workstations and minicomputers. This equipment will provide the capabilities to acquire multimedia signals, including image, video, speech, audio, text, and fax; store and access these signals on high-speed, high- capacity disk storage subsystems; process them using custom high- speed, real-time, DSP microcomputer-based processors, hosted by UNIX workstations; communicate a variety of these signals between workstations over a high-speed fiber network; and output the processed signals at their intended destinations. Special-purpose systems - an HDTV workstation, and a custom DSP multiprocessor - will be integrated into the infrastructure to allow for real-time processing of high-resolution video sequences and images. The goal of this infrastructure is to build an environment in which the DSP algorithms, which will play a major role in the growth of multimedia technology, may be developed in such a fashion as to lead directly to real-time implementations of those algorithms. The companion part to this infrastructure is a program of research based on this environment, to be conducted in areas with immediate and urgent application to the problems facing multimedia information systems. This includes real-time video encoding, concentrating on the problems of inter- and intra-frame redundancy elimination. Advances in this area will lead to affordable applications in a host of areas such as video mail, video messaging, real-time video communications, and interactive learning and presentations.
