A mobile phone-based context-aware video management application

Abstract

We present a video management system comprising a video server and a mobile camera-phone application called MobiCon, which allows users to capture videos, annotate them with metadata, specify digital rights management (DRM) settings, upload the videos over the cellular network, and share them with others. Once stored in the video server, users can then search their personal video collection via a web interface, and watch the video clips using a wide range of terminals. We describe the MobiCon architecture, compare it with related work, provide an overview of the video server, and illustrate a typical user scenario from the point of capture to video sharing and video searching. Our work takes steps forward in advancing the mobile camera-phone from a video playback device to a video production tool. We summarize field trial results conducted in the area of Oulu, Finland, which demonstrate that users can master the application quickly, but are unwilling to perform extensive manual annotations. Based on the user trial results and our own experience, we present future development directions for MobiCon, in particular, and the video management architecture, in general.