Moving pictures are what most people expect as the bonus from the next generation of mobile phones: not Hollywood films, perhaps, but the ability to review movie clips, hold video conversations and relive away goals.
PA Consulting and Alphamosaic, a Cambridge chip company, are claiming an advance which may ensure that mobile video is an acceptable rather than an awful experience. Streaming moving images over a radio network, where there can be sharp and unpredictable changes in bandwidth (the available transmission capacity) is fraught with uncertainty.
Conventionally, the codec, the device in the phone responsible for translating the binary digits into a video image and vice-versa, “guesses” the bandwidth. If it degrades, delays will be introduced, the picture will be jerky and even freeze.
PA has developed software which can measure the quality of a radio network - the bandwidth and the transmission rate. Alphamosaic has built a video processor and codec capable of changing its performance according to data delivered by PA’s software.
So the picture may drop a little in quality - graceful degradation, the techies call it - but it never judders or freezes.
www.alphamosaic.com
www.paconsulting.com
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