MPEG-FAQ 4.1:

Whats with MPEG-4 ?

MPEG-4

Work on a new MPEG initiative for very low bitrate coding of audiovisual 
programs has been approved by unanimous ballot of all national bodies of 
ISO/IEC JTC1. This work will begin officially at the next MPEG meeting in 
Brussels in September 1993.  It is scheduled to result in a draft 
specification in 1997.

This work will require the development of fundamentally new algorithmic 
techniques.  In conjunction with the MPEG meeting this week in New York, 
a one-day seminar was held on current research ideas applicable to low 
bitrate coding.  Demonstrations and papers were presented on a number of 
techniques, including model-based image coding, human interaction with 
multimedia environments, and low-bitrate speech coding.

When completed, the MPEG-4 standard will enable a whole spectrum of 
new applications, including interactive mobile multimedia 
communications.


From Leonardo.Chiariglione@CSELT.STET.IT  Fri Aug 18 15:10:47 1995


INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR STANDARDIZATION
ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE NORMALISATION
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11
CODING OF MOVING PICTURES AND ASSOCIATED AUDIO INFORMATION

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 N0997
MPEG 95/
July 1995


Source:	Leonardo Chiariglione - Convenor
Title:	MPEG-4 Call for Proposals
Status:	Approved at 31st WG11 meeting


MPEG (originally, Moving Pictures Experts Group) is a working group
operating within ISO (International Standardisation Organisation) and
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). Since starting its
activity in 1988, MPEG has produced ISO/IEC 11172 (so-called MPEG-1)
and ISO/IEC 13818 (so called MPEG-2) and among others, plans to
finalise the so-called DSM-CC standard protocol for set-top to server
and set-top to network dialogue in July 1996.

While its standards are obtaining wide support from both the
manufacturing industry and service providers and have actually been
instrumental in triggering the digital revolution that is making
possible the coming of interactive multimedia for widespread consumer
applications, MPEG is turning its attention to more advanced forms of
interactivity that technology will make possible in the next few
years. This is the objective of the MPEG-4 project whose completion,
planned to take place in November 1988, will give users the
possibility to achieve various forms of interactivity with the
audio-visual content of a scene and to mix synthetic and natural
audio and video information in a seamless way. 

MPEG-4 technology will comprise two major parts: a set of coding
tools for audiovisual objects, and a syntactic language to describe
both the coding tools and the coded objects. From a technical
viewpoint, the most notable departure from traditional coding
standards will be the possibility for a receiver to download the
description of the syntax used to represent the audio-visual
information, a feature that VLSI technology will soon be able to
support. It should be noted also that the audiovisual information
will not be restricted to have the format of conventional video,
i.e., it will not necessarily be frame-based. The additional degrees
of freeedom that will result from not forcing the data structure of
the coded representation of the data to be the same as the data
structure of the presentation of the data are expected to produce
significant improvements in both efficiency and functionality.

Using the same approach as for the case of the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
standards, MPEG is now requesting technical proposals in line with
the general philosophy described in document WG11 N0998 "Proposal
Package Description". A Call for Pre-registration has already
produced more than 70 statements of intention to submit a proposal on
Synthetic/Natural Audio/Speech or Video Coding. The companion
document WG11 N0999 "MPEG-4 Test/Evaluation Procedures", finalized at
31st MPEG meeting, describes the details of the expected content of
submissions and the methodology to be used in assessing their
suitability for the intended scope of the MPEG-4 standard. Please
note that two kinds of submission will be accepted for coding
techniques: algorithms for certain functionalities will be subjected
to formal testing, while algorithms for other functionalities, and
coding tools that may constitute only part of a complete algorithm
will be subjected to evaluation by a panel of experts. Also,
submission of proposals for syntactic language will be evaluated by
experts. This document (w0997.doc) and the two documents referred to
above (w0998.doc and w0999.doc) can be obtained in electronic form
(Word 6.0 for Windows) from:

name:       	wuarchive.wustl.edu
login:      	iso
password:   	!more!less
directory:  	uploads/

Those intending to submit a proposal should send the registration
form contained in the WfW file w0997.doc duly filled in to:

Dr. Leonardo Chiariglione
CSELT
Via G. Reiss Romoli, 274
10148 Torino
ITALY
Tel.: +39 11 228 6120
Fax: +39 11 228 6299
Email: leonardo.chiariglione@cselt.stet.it


and

Dr. Cliff Reader
Samsung Semiconductor Inc.
3655 North 1st Street
San Jose, CA 95134
USA
Tel.: +1 408 954 7853
Fax: +1 408 434 5510
Email: cliff@reader.com


by 15 September 1995. Registrations will be acknowledged by 30
September 1995. Please refer to document WG11 N0999 for a detailed
calendar of deadlines to be met by prospective proposers. 

Video and audio tapes submitted for subjective testing will be
assessed in the two weeks preceding the 32nd MPEG meeting. This
meeting will be held in Dallas, TX, USA, on 6 to 10 November 1995. At
this meeting both the results of subjective tests and the technical
proposals with supporting information will be assessed by MPEG.
Proposers are strongly encouraged to upload the textual and graphical
parts of their proposals in Word 6.0 for Windows format by 27 October
1995 for early and better consideration of their proposals. Please
note that a mandatory financial contribution to cover the cost of
tape editing will be requested to submitters of proposals that
include tapes for subjective tests. The exact amount of the
contribution will be communicated in the letter of acknowledgment, as
this depends on the number of tapes to be edited.

The major steps in the MPEG-4 standard development following the
Dallas meeting will be the attainment of "Working Draft" level in
November 1996 and of "Committee Draft" level in November 1997.
International Standard level will be reached in November 1998.