Towards maximizing the end-user experience

Increasing bandwidth and diverse devices have led to a proliferation of options for the consumer of digital video. The user can easily be overwhelmed by the diversity of devices, bandwidth and content. In our view, maximizing the end-user experience involves first helping the user to easily search for and retrieve desired content, and then delivering the content to him by seamlessly adapting to his device and available bandwidth. The first part is therefore based on semantic criteria while the second part is based on purely signal-based criteria. We propose that scalable content summarization combined with dynamic content adaptation, and unobtrusive processing of user preferences comprise the key technologies for maximizing the end-user experience.