Binocular Rivalry Impact on Macroblock-Loss Error Concealment for Stereoscopic 3D Video Transmission.

Three-dimensional video services delivered through wireless communication channels have to deal with numerous challenges due to the limitations of both the transmission channel's bandwidth and receiving devices. Adverse channel conditions, delays, or jitters can result in bit errors and packet losses, which can alter the appearance of stereoscopic 3D (S3D) video. Due to the perception of dissimilar patterns by the two human eyes, they can not be fused into a stable composite pattern in the brain and hence try to dominate by suppressing each other. Thus, a psychovisual sensation that is called binocular rivalry occurs. As a result, undetectable changes causing irritating flickering effects are seen, leading to visual discomforts such as eye strain, headache, nausea, and weariness. This study addresses the observer's quality of experience (QoE) by analyzing the binocular rivalry impact on the macroblock (MB) losses in a frame and its error propagation due to predictive frame encoding in stereoscopic video transmission systems. To simulate the processing of experimental videos, the Joint Test Model (JM) reference software has been used as it is recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Existing error concealing techniques were then applied to the contiguous lost MBs for a variety of transmission impairments. In order to validate the authenticity of the simulated packet loss environment, several objective evaluations were carried out. Standard numbers of subjects were then engaged in the subjective testing of common 3D video sequences. The results were then statistically examined using a standard Student's t-test, allowing the impact of binocular rivalry to be compared to that of a non-rivalry error condition. The major goal is to assure error-free video communication by minimizing the negative impacts of binocular rivalry and boosting the ability to efficiently integrate 3D video material to improve viewers' overall QoE.

Tile-boundary artifact reduction using odd tile size and the low-pass first convention.

It is well known that tile-boundary artifacts occur in wavelet-based lossy image coding. However, until now, their cause has not been understood well. In this paper, we show that boundary artifacts are an inescapable consequence of the usual methods used to choose tile size and the type of symmetric extension employed in a wavelet-based image decomposition system. This paper presents a novel method for reducing these tile-boundary artifacts. The method employs odd tile sizes (2N + 1 samples) rather than the conventional even tile sizes (2N samples). It is shown that, for the same bit rate, an image compressed using an odd tile length low-pass first (OTLPF) convention has significantly less boundary artifacts than an image compressed using even tile sizes. The OTLPF convention can also be incorporated into the JPEG 2000 image compression algorithm using extensions defined in Part 2 of this standard.

A method for demonstrating appropriate environmental protection for capping aseptically filled and plugged vials.

Conventional aseptic filling of drug product into vials ultimately includes a step that requires time and travel from the stoppering stage to the capping/crimping stage. Lyophilized product necessarily includes a partial stoppering step and, therefore, Grade A conditions. The level of environmental control that is required to protect the contents of fully stoppered, but uncapped, vials of sterile product from microbial contamination hasn't been formally defined. There is considerable range of opinion regarding this topic. This is the result of the lack of data that indicates the level of protection afforded by vials that are closed with a stopper, but that have not yet been capped. In order to provide some insight into the level of environmental control that is appropriate for vials at this stage of production, studies were conducted that consisted of exposing stoppered, uncapped vials containing sterile microbiological media to an aerosolized microbial challenge. The test samples were selected and assembled in such a way that a range of container/closure presentations was simulated. Furthermore, a microbial challenge was selected that was in excess of the environmental conditions to which product vials would be exposed. The results of this testing indicated a high level of confidence that stoppered, uncapped vials exposed to microbiologically challenging conditions would be expected to maintain the sterility of their contents.