Focus MPEG avec Interdigital

Cette année, Rennes va accueillir la réunion MPEG au Couvent des Jacobins du 17 au 26 avril prochain, un rendez-vous qui va regrouper près de 500 experts techniques venant du monde entier pour travailler sur des sujets incluant en plus des codecs multimédias aussi des thématiques tels que la compression de réseaux de neurones (IA) permettant l’analyse automatique de contenus multimédia, la vidéo immersive permettant de se déplacer dans une scène virtuelle, la compression de nuage de points tels que ceux générés par les LIDARS des automobiles autonomes et d’autres thématiques.

Le MPEG est un groupe qui développe des normes pour la représentation codée de l’audio numérique, de la vidéo, des graphiques 3D et des données génomiques. Depuis sa création en 1988, le groupe a produit des normes qui aident l’industrie à offrir aux utilisateurs finaux une expérience de médias numériques de plus en plus agréable.

InterDigital, adhérent I&R, participe aux travaux de normalisation MPEG et sera présent à l’occasion de ce rassemblement d’experts.

A l’occasion de cet article, focus sur InterDigital et ses activités, mais aussi sur cet évènement ! 

Can you tell us about your company? What does it offer?

Founded in 1972, InterDigital is a global research and development company focused primarily on wireless, video, AI, and related technologies. We design and develop foundational technologies that enable connected, immersive experiences in a broad range of communications and entertainment products and services.

We license our innovations worldwide to companies providing products and services, including makers of wireless communications devices, consumer electronics, IoT devices, cars and other motor vehicles, and providers of cloud-based services such as video streaming.

We are a leader in in video processing and video encoding/decoding technology, with a significant AI research effort that intersects with both wireless and video technologies. We are also a leader in wireless technology, and our engineers have designed and developed a wide range of innovations that are used in wireless products and networks, from the earliest digital cellular systems to 5G and today’s most advanced Wi-Fi technologies.

From 17 to 26 April, the MPEG meeting will take place at the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes, what is the point of this gathering from your point of view?

The upcoming meeting in Rennes represents one of MPEG’s four annual gatherings, which brings together engineers and standards delegates to update and engage on MPEG’s various working and advisory groups. MPEG meeting 146 in Rennes represents the latest opportunity to gather MPEG leaders and contributors to collaboratively drive advances in MPEG standards specifications and discuss potential new requirements.

What is your role and history of participation within MPEG?

For more than 30 years, MPEG has developed standards for coded representation of digital audio, video, 3D graphics to help industry offer end users better, more enjoyable, and increasingly immersive media experiences.

Thomson Technicolor, acquired by InterDigital in 2019, was an integral player in the creation and establishment of MPEG in 1988, and has since contributed to all of MPEG’s 2D video compression standards specifications. InterDigital’s Research and Innovation Video Lab has broadened this foundational engagement to work on a variety of MPEG standardization efforts addressing various media representations and compression schemes, as well the technologies enabling their transport and streaming distribution.

What work is InterDigital contributing to?

InterDigital’s Video Lab contributes to, and has leadership positions within, a broad variety of video and media standardization efforts within MPEG and JVET.

Specifically, InterDigital engineers and leaders contribute to JVET groups responsible for developing 2D video compression specifications, as well as the MPEG requirement Working Group 2 (WG2) where InterDigital leads the development of MPEG AI vision and the MPEG System (WG3) to define new media transport technologies, Scene Description, and Green MPEG efforts. InterDigital also contributes to MPEG WG7, fostering a collaborative definition of immersive data format and compression ( citing Mesh, Point Clouds, and Haptics), as well as MPEG WG4, which is responsible for defining emerging use cases for new video codecs and technologies (citing Video Coding for Machine and INVR).

Within your company, what is your vision of innovation?

As our modes of communication and entertainment evolve and reach new depths, InterDigital innovation in wireless, video, and AI helps empower new network capabilities and seamless delivery of video content and connected experiences both today, and for our future.

In our labs across the globe, our engineers and leaders leverage their innovation to foster both the evolution and the convergence of wireless and video capabilities and identify new efficiencies and opportunities through the application of AI. Our innovation and standards leadership allow us to unlock advanced modes of communication and content delivery and our licensing business model ensures our innovation impact is felt worldwide. Over the last decade, InterDigital technologies have been licensed to more than 7 billion devices worldwide.

To continue our investment in advanced research and technology development, we license our intellectual property to those who use our innovations by integrating them into the wireless and video devices used today. InterDigital remains an essential contributor of innovation to the global standards that pave the way for the future of wireless and video technologies and that provide the bedrock for the connected ecosystems upon which billions of people rely and trillions of dollars of economic activity are built.

What are the next important news/dates for InterDigital?

This remains an exciting year for InterDigital. Looking ahead to the rest of 2024, InterDigital will be closely following the ongoing efforts to finalize the MPEG Scene Description and Mesh standards, and contributing to upcoming call for proposals for JVET and AIPCC.