Energy Efficient Video Coding Systems

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Christian Josef Herglotz
• Subject Area: Electronic Semiconductors, Components and Circuits, Integrated Systems, Sensor Technology, Theoretical Electrical Engineering
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 447638564

In the past years, the worldwide demand for video communication applications has risen dramatically. This development has led to the fact that nowadays, more than two thirds of the global internet traffic constitutes compressed video data. As typical videos need a very high data rate when transmitted in raw format, which is too high for stateof-the-art transmitting channels like DSL, WiFi, or LTE, video compression is a requirement to enable modern applications like video streaming and online media centers. In this respect, the energy consumption of encoders, decoders, and the overall energy consumption of a video coding system consisting of one or more encoders and decoders shall be considered in this project. Reducing this energy is desirable for two applications: First, portable battery-driven devices like smartphones or cameras benefit from energy-saving solutions because the operating time can be increased. Second, large server farms can save energy costs. To reach this goal, this project is split into three work packages: First, various encoding systems shall be measured to determine typical energetic properties of such systems (for the decoder, such properties are well known from the literature). Second, a method shall be developed enabling to compare the energy efficiency of various encoders, decoders, and coding systems. Finally, energy efficient encoders and coding systems shall be developed. Without sacrificing image quality, energy savings of more than 30% are expected.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr.-Ing. André Kaup