The Challenge of Estimating Video Quality in Video Communication Applications [In the Spotlight]

Video communication over the Internet has gone from science fiction to reality. Not only is video streaming and two-way video conferencing becoming common, but, as recently reported by the Associated Press through ABC News [1], today even broadcast television programs such as eyewitness news often use live video from camera phones or Skype on a notebook or desktop computer to interview people and share information. A desired goal in these scenarios is to ensure the best video quality possible. This leads to the challenge of estimating video quality as a key step to achieving the above. This article's goal is to describe the need for video quality estimation and why it is challenging as well as highlight the different types of video quality estimators (VQEs) being developed. Signal processing is viewed as critical throughout this work.