Video Compression using Deep Neural Networks

Advanced video compression is required due to the rise of online video content. A strong compression method can help convey video data effectively over a constrained bandwidth. We observed how more internet usage for video conferences, online gaming, and education led to decreased video quality from Netflix, YouTube, and other streaming services in Europe and other regions, particularly during the COVID-19 epidemic. They are represented in standard video compression algorithms as a succession of reference frames after residual frames, and these approaches are limited in their application. Deep learning's introduction and current advancements have the potential to overcome such problems. This study provides a deep learning-based video compression model that meets or exceeds current H.264 standards. © 2022 IEEE.

Virtual Reality for Software Engineering Presentations

Due to the impact of the pandemic situation, applying online learning methods become an immediate response to tackle the difficulties in teaching and learning, including software engineering courses. Online video meeting platforms (e.g., MS Teams, Webex) are popularly adopted as a medium between instructors and students to conduct online learning classes and they have been modified to provide functions supporting remote teaching and learning activities such as the breakout rooms for conducting group activities. However, maintaining student engagement is still a challenging problem in online learning. Especially, drawing students' attention and enhancing their experience during in-class activities (e.g., project presentations, group discussions) is critical to achieving of activities' objective. Virtual Reality (VR) has been considered to be a potential answer to this online teaching and learning enhancement. This study evaluates the benefit of adopting VR in software engineering class presentation activities. The evaluation result from 3 courses shows that VR improves the online learning and presentation experience by offering visual attractions and presence to students. © 2022 IEEE.

Remote Moderated Usability Testing of a Web-Based Translation: A Case Study

A new design of web-based translation, also known as easyTranslate, is proposed for non-native English-speaking students to translate a paragraph of academic text. However, there is a need to determine whether this new web-based translation is usable or not for students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, this paper describes a remote moderated usability testing of a web-based translation. Five undergraduate students took part in the usability testing through an online video conferencing tool. The results showed that all students successfully completed the given tasks and the new web-based translation is considered usable. The advantages and challenges of the remote moderated usability testing are discussed. © 2022 IEEE.

Topical Analysis of Depressive Mood Changes in Youth during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper investigates the mood changes of youth groups during the social closure control of the COVID-19 pan-demic and the primary causes of those changes, taking Chinese online video platforms as an example. We also compare the main concerns of various periods to provide feasible references and suggestions on psychological interventions for young people during the social closure control period. In this study, we identified mood changes during the COVID-19 pandemic with 31,213 comments on the news videos of the Bilibili video platform through four stages: data collection, data processing, LDA topic modeling, and mood identification. Through a comparative analysis, we investigated the topical features of young people's mood changes in three COVID-19 periods: pre-, mid-, and late-epidemic. As a result, we found that social isolation measures such as closure and homeschooling with long-term Internet use during the epidemic were more likely to cause depression in young people. © 2023 IEEE.

Satisfaction among persons with epilepsy towards physical consultation versus online video consultation for follow-up.

PURPOSE: Telemedicine gained popularity in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to study the satisfaction levels of persons with epilepsy (PWE) with online video consultation (OVC) and physical consultation (PC). METHODS: This was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study conducted in a tertiary referral care center for epilepsy in India. All PWE who had availed of both OVC and PC were included. Those who did not give consent to a questionnaire were excluded. A questionnaire was given to assess patients' satisfaction regarding OVC and PC. Scores for each question for both OVC and PC were compared. RESULTS: One hundred and forty-one patients who had PC earlier and later availed of OVC from December 2020 to July 2021 formed the cohort. Seventy one patients who responded to the questionnaire were included. 49% and 51% of the patients belonged to urban and rural regions respectively. 8.5% of the patients were off anti-seizure medications (ASM), while 5.6% and 85.9% were on single and multiple ASMs respectively. There were no differences between PC and OVC regarding ease of getting the appointment, privacy during a consultation, patients' perceived chances of missing consultations, and overall comfort and experience on either type of consultation. Physical consultation scored more than OVC in patients' satisfaction with the time doctor spent with them, an opportunity to communicate their queries well, clarifications received from the doctor, and the likelihood of patients recommending the particular type of consultation to others(p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Online video consultation can be a satisfactory alternative to PC and can improve patient satisfaction if some of the issues in OVC are addressed properly.

College Students' experience of using online video and educational video

The COVID-19 has made it impossible for students to have face-To-face classes in the classroom. Online education provides a practical method for learning. This article makes an online questionnaire survey in S University (n = 57), describes and analyzes the online behavior characteristics of students in S University and the attitude evaluation of online educational videos. The survey found that watching videos is the main entertainment way for college students to surf the Internet. Students watch 4.5 hours of video every day. The statistical comparison of GPA shows that students can acquire knowledge in online education just like face-To-face teaching. Further research found that the quality of video played a significant positive role in students' complete viewing of video. Therefore, improving the quality of video education will provide better learning services for students. © 2022 IEEE.

SunFA - An open-source application for behavior analysis in online video-conferencing

Video-conferencing applications are becoming increasingly popular, especially with the remote working trend after COVID-19. The benefits of meeting online cannot be denied;however, this is still quite limited. In particular, it is essential to monitor and analyze participants' behavior. In this paper, we proposed SunFA - an open-source participants analysis tool for video-conferencing based on face analysis and virtual camera technology. The advantage of our system is that it is compatible with almost available video conferencing applications, such as Google Meet, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, etc. Furthermore, we packaged this software as a desktop application for Windows operating system to make it easy to install. The memory usage and execution time evaluation ensure the real-time and resource-saving of a video-conferencing application. We open-source our entire source code and solutions at https://github.com/sun-asterisk-research/sun-fa © 2022 IEEE.

Analysis of the Metaverse in Society 5.0 for Learning Systems using Meta

There has been a new scientific policy that has been proposed in Japan that is named Society 5.0. This type of society is defined as "a human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space". For the past couple of years, educational institutions have been using online video conferences for remote learning due to the coronavirus pandemic. This type of learning has some benefits such as convenience and flexibility. However, conversely, it is more isolating and discomforting for some. Additionally, remote online learning has been proposed to be the future of education, which might be disappointing to some students. Development in the metaverse and its hardware might be the solution for a better learning experience. This technology is also aligned with Society 5.0 as cyberspace will integrate more closely with physical space. The student would be able to feel as if they were in an actual classroom using the metaverse, which can be accessed by 3D Virtual World Applications. They would be able to see their peers and hear more of their peers to feel less isolated. © 2022 IEEE.

Human-robot interaction environment to enhance the sense of presence in remote sports watching

The recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has helped increase the popularity of online video communication and meeting platforms as alternatives to face-to-face interactions. Such a trend has also triggered the emergence of remote cheering systems, hinting at the possibility that people could enjoy watching sports games in virtual environments even from their homes in the near future. However, reproducing a sense of presence similar to the atmosphere felt by fans in stadiums or event venues is a major challenge within virtual environments. Thus, our idea is to embed groups of cheerful robots in virtual environments, thereby creating a sense of unity and mimicking emotion spread among fans. In this study, we built a virtual cheering environment and embedded a game-event driven behavior model that enables a group of robots to display various emotions through nonverbal reactions according to the game flow. Then, we conducted a preliminary evaluation of the proposed system, where the participants and a group of robots were placed in a virtual cheering environment to watch a baseball game. The obtained results hinted at the meaningfulness of the proposed approach. Nevertheless, further work is necessary to achieve a sufficient sense of presence and validate the effectiveness of our proposed environment. © 2022 IEEE.

The effect of online video-assisted teaching program on medical students learning procedure of fractional curettage.

OBJECTIVES: Since 2020, with the entire world in crisis over the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), medical students have adapted to hybrid and distance learning. This study aims to compare the learning outcomes of students learning the procedure of fractional curettage in an online video-assisted teaching program to those of students learning the procedure in a traditional class. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study was conducted among fourth-year medical students who rotated to Obstetrics and Gynecology courses between April 2021 and October 2021. Participants in the first two rotations were enrolled in traditional classes, and the online video-assisted teaching program was introduced in the subsequent two rotations. Both study groups took OSCEs (objective structured clinical examinations), a pre-test and post-test with MCQs (multiple choice questions), and a confidence and satisfaction level questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 106 fourth-year medical students, 54 in the traditional group and 52 in the online video-assisted teaching program, were recruited. The online video-assisted group showed a statistically better mean OSCE score (85.67 ± 11.29 vs. 73.87 ± 13.01, p < 0.001) and mean post-test MCQ score than the traditional group (4.21 ± 0.87 vs. 3.80 ± 0.98, p = 0.0232). Moreover, the mean difference between the two groups' pre and post-test MCQ scores was significantly different (0.96 ± 1.37 vs. 1.79 ± 1.50 in traditional and online video-assisted teaching program groups, respectively, P = 0.0038). The participants in the experimental group reported significantly greater confidence (P < 0.001) in performing the fractional curettage procedure. However, the mean satisfaction score was significantly higher in the control group (p = 0.0053). CONCLUSION: The online video-assisted teaching program on the fractional curettage procedure, a necessary and skill-demanding procedure, is an effective and advantageous education tool that improves skills, knowledge, and confidence in fourth-year medical students. We recommend that the video-assisted teaching program is another effectively procedural teaching method for medical students.

Masked or Unmasked Face Detection from Online Video using Learning Aided Pattern Recognition Method

Security and surveillance are major concerns for every organization. During the Covid-19 pandemic situation, wearing of face mask has been recommended to be essential while accessing a sanitized place. Demand for developing surveillance mechanism for pandemic compliant infrastructure has arisen. This paper discusses a computer vision technique for detection of unmasked or masked faces from video sequence and describes a method for unmasked and masked face detection from custom data set using YOLOv5. The network is trained from scratch using a custom dataset and images are labeled into two groups. The model is trained from scratch with a public dataset and is capable of detecting human faces with and without mask correctly with high rate of accuracy. The system has detected multiple occurrences of such faces. The model has also worked properly with video input. © 2022 IEEE.

Remote working in public involvement: findings from a mixed methods study.

BACKGROUND: This paper considers remote working in patient public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in health and social care research. With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lock-down measures in the UK (from March 2020), PPIE activities switched to using remote methods (e.g., online meetings), to undertake involvement. Our study sought to understand the barriers to and facilitators for remote working in PPIE by exploring public contributors' and PPIE professionals' (people employed by organisations to facilitate and organise PPIE), experiences of working remotely, using online and digital technologies. A particular focus of our project was to consider how the 'digital divide' might negatively impact on diversity and inclusion in PPIE in health and social care research. METHODS: We used a mixed method approach: online surveys with public contributors involved in health and social care research, online surveys with public involvement professionals, and qualitative interviews with public contributors. We co-produced the study with public contributors from its inception, design, subsequent data analysis and writing outputs, to embed public involvement throughout the study. RESULTS: We had 244 respondents to the public contributor survey and 65 for the public involvement professionals (PIPs) survey and conducted 22 qualitative interviews. Our results suggest public contributors adapted well to working remotely and they were very positive about the experience. For many, their PPIE activities increased in amount and variety, and they had learnt new skills. There were both benefits and drawbacks to working remotely. Due to ongoing Covid restrictions during the research project, we were unable to include people who did not have access to digital tools and our findings have to be interpreted in this light. CONCLUSION: Participants generally favoured a mixture of face-to-face and remote working. We suggest the following good practice recommendations for remote working in PPIE: the importance of a good moderator and/or chair to ensure everyone can participate fully; account for individual needs of public contributors when planning meetings; provide a small expenses payment alongside public contributor fees to cover phone/electricity or WiFi charges; and continue the individual support that was often offered to public contributors during the pandemic.

This paper looks at remote working in patient public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in health and social care research. When the Covid-19 pandemic began and the UK went into lock-down in March 2020, PPIE activities began to use remote working methods, such as Zoom or Teams online meetings. We co-developed a study to understand the experiences of both public contributors and PPIE professionals, those who are employed to organise PPIE, of working remotely. We were particularly interested in how remote working might affect diversity and inclusion in PPIE in health and social care research. We ran online surveys for public contributors and public involvement professionals and conducted semi-structured interviews with public contributors. We co-produced the study with public contributors to embed public involvement throughout the study. We had 244 respondents to the public contributor survey, 65 for the public involvement professionals survey and conducted 22 qualitative interviews. Due to ongoing Covid restrictions during the research project we could not include people who did not have access to digital tools, and this is a limitation of our project. We found that public contributors generally liked working remotely and, for many, their PPIE activities increased. There were both benefits and drawbacks to working remotely. From our findings, we have made a number of suggestions for how to run remote meetings in PPIE and what to prioritise based on the areas public contributors thought were important (such as one-to-one support).

University learners’ utilisation of online videos in a general chemistry course: Association for Learning Technology Journal

The effectiveness of course videos needs to be analysed, and in doing so, it is important to consider the utilisation behaviours and opinions of learners. In this regard, this study was primarily conducted to analyse Kyrgyz learners’ utilisation of videos in a general chemistry course provided at the university level. This study was conducted during the 2019–2020 spring term at a state university in the Kyrgyz Republic and was structured using a mixed-method approach. The total number of participants was 105 Kyrgyz learners studying at the undergraduate level. Quantitative data were collected through an online survey, which consisted of demographic questions and items related to the utilisation of chemistry videos. Qualitative data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 13 learners. It was demonstrated through the data that learners used chemistry videos for 1–2 h per week. Also, the learners’ utilisation did not change with regard to their success from watching the videos. Learners’ utilisation of the chemistry videos was based on five factors: intrinsic motivation, self-concept of ability, self-perception of conscientiousness, video use and expectations of an online video library. This study also provided results regarding Kyrgyz learners’ problems and suggestions related to their utilisation of the videos.

Lessons Learned: Design of Online Video Co-creation Workshop for ESD

This paper discusses the design of online video co-creation workshop for ESD (education for sustainable development). Our research team designed and practiced a workshop program for 112 Japanese high school students from July to November 2020. This workshop program aims for high school students to acquire abilities, attitudes, and key competencies emphasized in ESD through co-creating short videos promoting SDGs activity. Focusing on the four teams that were particularly effective from the quantitative data of the workshop, we will analyze the work process of those teams and summarize the design recommendations for the video co-creation workshop. This research explores the possibility of online video co-creation as an ESD method and contributes to sustainable ESD research even in the era of COVID-19. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Factor structure, reliability and criterion-related validity of the English version of the Problematic Series Watching Scale.

BACKGROUND: Psychological research in the past decade has investigated the psychosocial implications of problematic use of on-demand online video streaming services, particularly series watching. Yet, a psychometric measure of problematic series watching in English is not available. AIMS: The present study aimed to test the factor structure, reliability and criterion-related validity of the English version of the Problematic Series Watching Scale, a six-item self-report assessing problematic series watching, based on the biopsychosocial components model of addiction. METHOD: Participants were recruited from two UK university student samples. Study 1 (n = 333) comprised confirmatory factor analysis, reliability tests and item response theory analyses to test the original unidimensional model and investigate each item's levels of discrimination and information. Study 2 (n = 209) comprised correlation analyses to test the criterion-related validity of the scale. RESULTS: There was a good fit of the theoretical model of the scale to the data (Comparative Fit Index = 0.998, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.024 [90% CI 0.000-0.093], Standardised Root Mean square Residual = 0.048), satisfactory reliability (ω = 0.79) and item levels of discrimination and information. The scale positively correlated with time spent watching series (rs = 0.26, P < 0.001) and negative affect (rs = 0.43, P < 0.001), and correlated negatively with positive affect (rs = -0.12, P > 0.05), mental well-being (rs = -0.25, P < 0.001) and sleep quality (rs = -0.14, P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Results are discussed in relation to the ongoing debate on binge watching and series watching in the context of positive reinforcement versus problematic behaviour.

Online video sharing and revenues during the pandemic. Evidence from musical stream data

This study examines how instant online video sharing affects artists' musical streams during the pandemic. On average, the use of the TikTok app significantly increases artists' streams, by approximately 5%. This increase is even higher for male, European and dj Mag 2020 new entry artists.

Enabling video conferencing in low bandwidth

Frequent disruption in network connectivity is a major challenge in offering good quality of experience to the users of smart mobile applications. Various apps like Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, etc. for online video calling have become indispensable overnight due to this new paradigm shift in home-bound remote work culture driven by the Covid19 pandemic. However, the performance of these apps is tightly bound to the current network conditions. Under limited network coverage and low bandwidth, the data frames suffer from delay, jitter, and loss resulting in degraded quality of experience for the users. In this paper, we propose a server-less peer-to-peer architecture for the video conferencing apps with in-built adaptive compression techniques. The proposed architecture enables video streaming at a very low data rate just to offer a smooth streaming experience under poor connectivity. Video is compressed by ASCII encoding on the basis of the contrast factor of each pixel in the frame. It has been observed that only 29 KBPS bandwidth is sufficient to conduct video conferencing. © 2022 IEEE.

Experiences with online video conferencing therapy among former military service members with PTSD

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a major mental health concern for veterans transitioning to civilian life. This qualitative phenomenological research study focused on interviewing 20 former military service members diagnosed with PTSD to understand their experiences related to online video conferencing therapy. The theoretical foundation of this study was guided by Beck's cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) model. The open-ended research questions examined veterans diagnosed with PTSD perceptions, attitudes, and opinions related to online video conferencing therapy, prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Semi structured interview questions and a demographic questionnaire was used to collect data from participants who had no current relationship with National Guard, reserve, or active-duty military service. NVivo software was used to develop themes regarding the participant's lived experiences related to PTSD and online video conferencing therapy such as: (a) experiences suffering from PTSD, (b) Covid-19's impact on finding mental health treatment, (c) experiences and benefits using online video conferencing therapy, (d) challenges with online video conferencing therapy, and (e) ways that online video conferencing therapy improved PTSD. The findings revealed that online video conferencing therapy improved accessibility to mental health treatment for veterans diagnosed with PTSD who live in rural areas that lack mental health providers giving them therapeutic options such as behavioral strategies, social support, counseling, and medication management, prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The results may provide information for veterans diagnosed with PTSD that may improve their transition to civilian life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Spanish public universities’ YouTube channels

The university system has had to unexpectedly face a complicated process since the first state of alarm was decreed in Spain throughout the 2020/2021 academic year. This longitudinal study focuses on analysing the impact of the pandemic on the YouTube channels of Spanish public universities. To this end, data was collected on the presence, influence, and intensity of each YouTube channel, and we identified the themes of the videos shared during the study period. The videos with the most views have also been analysed to determine the content type with the most significant impact. The results indicate that from March 2020 until July 2021, the activity on these channels increased, mainly in terms of subscribers and views. It also confirms that COVID-19 monopolised much of these channels’ content during the first state of alarm, followed by a decreasing trend. Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic transformed public universities’ use of their YouTube channels. In addition, this situation also altered the channels’ consumption trends. © 2022, CEU Ediciones. All rights reserved.

Stage Together: Remote Rehearsal of Theater Blocking

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many theater productions to shift to remote rehearsals and performances using online video conference platforms. Video conference software makes it possible to share individual performances, but loses the sense of presence together and provides no way to visualize blocking movements on the shared space of the stage. Rehearsal by video conference can cause productions to either omit blocking altogether or have only a few on stage rehearsals, sometimes just days before opening. This paper presents a Web-based system that enables productions to remotely rehearse blocking at any stage of the production. Remote performers can propose their own blocking, rehearse scripted cues and visualize movements in a shared virtual stage. This paper describes the design, implementation, and focus group evaluations of Stage Together with a college theater production of Medea by Euripides. © 2022 ACM.