Content-adaptive utility-based video adaptation

Many techniques exist for adapting videos to satisfy heterogeneous resource conditions or user preferences. However, selections of appropriate adaptations among various choices are often ad hoc. To provide a systematic solution, we present a general conceptual framework to model video entity, adaptation, resource, utility, and relations among them. The framework extends the conventional rate-distortion model in terms of flexibility and generality. It allows for formulations of various adaptation problems as resource-constrained utility maximization. It also facilitates new approaches to predicting critical information about resource-utility relations. We apply the framework to a practical case in dynamic bit rate adaptation. Furthermore, we present a description tool, which has been accepted as a part of the MPEG-21 digital item adaptation (DIA), to support utility-based adaptation.