phd/src/foreword/video-vs-3d.tex

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\section{Similarities and differences between video and 3D\label{i:video-vs-3d}}
Contrary to what one might think, the video streaming scenario and the 3D streaming one share many similarities: at a higher level of abstraction, they are both systems that allow a user to access remote content without having to wait until everything is loaded.
Analyzing the similarities and the differences between the video and the 3D scenarios as well as having knowledge about video streaming literature is~\todo{is key or are key?} key to developing an efficient 3D streaming system.
\subsection{Chunks of data}
In order to be able to perform streaming, data needs to be segmented so that a client can request chunks of data and display it to the user while requesting another chunk.
In video streaming, data chunks typically consist in a few seconds of video.
In mesh streaming, some progressive mesh approaches encode a base mesh that contains low resolution geometry and textures and different chunks that increase the resolution of the base mesh.
Otherwise, a mesh can also be segmented by separating geometry and textures, creating chunks that contain some faces of the model, or some textures.
\subsection{Data persistence}
One of the main differences between video and 3D streaming is the persistence of data.
In video streaming, only one second of video is required at a time.
Of course, most video streaming services prefetch some future chunks, and keep in cache some previous ones, but a minimal system could work without latency and keep in memory only two chunks: the current one and the next one.
In 3D streaming, each chunk is part of a scene, and already a few problems appear here:
\begin{itemize}
\item depending on the user's field of view, many chunks may be required to perform a single rendering;
\item chunks do not become obsolete the way they do in video, a user navigating in a 3D scene may come back to a same spot after some time, or see the same objects but from elsewhere in the scene.
\end{itemize}
\subsection{Multi-resolution}
All major video streaming platforms support multi-resolution streaming.
This means that a client can choose the resolution at which it requests the content.
It can be chosen directly by the user or automatically determined by analysing the available resources (size of the screen, downloading bandwidth, device performances, etc\ldots)
\begin{figure}[th]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{assets/introduction/youtube-multiresolution.png}
\caption{The different resolutions available for a Youtube video}
\end{figure}
In the same way, recent work in 3D streaming have proposed many ways to progressively streaming 3D models, displaying a low resolution to the user without latency, and supporting interaction with the model while the details are being downloaded.
\subsection{Media types}
Just like a video, a 3D scene is composed of different types of media.
In video, those media typically are images, sounds, and eventually subtitles, whereas in 3D, those media typically are geometry or textures.
In both cases, an algorithm for content streaming has to acknowledge those different media types and manage them correctly.
In video streaming, most of the data (in terms of bytes) is used for images.
Thus, the most important thing a video streaming system should do is optimize the image streaming.
That's why, on a video on Youtube for example, there may be 6 resolutions for images (144p, 240p, 320p, 480p, 720p and 1080p) but only 2 resolutions for sound.
This is one of the main differences between video and 3D streaming: in a 3D scene, geometry and texture sizes are approximately the same, and leveraging between those two types of content is a key problem.
\subsection{Interaction}
The ways of interacting with the content is probably the most important difference between video and 3D.
In a video interface, there is only one degree of freedom: time.
The only thing a user can do is let the video play itself, pause or resume it, or jump to another moment in the video.
Even though these interactions seem easy to handle, giving the best possible experience to the user is already challenging. For example, to perform these few actions, Youtube provides the user with multiple options.
\begin{itemize}
\item To pause or resume a video, the user can:
\begin{itemize}
\item click the video;
\item press the \texttt{K} key;
\item press the space key if the video is focused by the browser.
\end{itemize}
\item To navigate to another moment of the video, the user can:
\begin{itemize}
\item click the timeline of the video where they wants;
\item press the left arrow key to move 5 seconds backwards;
\item press the right arrow key to move 5 seconds forwards;
\item press the \texttt{J} key to move 10 seconds backwards;
\item press the \texttt{L} key to move 10 seconds forwards;
\item press one of the number key (on the first row of the keyboard, below the function keys) to move the corresponding decile of the video.
\end{itemize}
\end{itemize}
There are even ways of controlling the other options, for example, \texttt{F} puts the player in fullscreen mode, up and down arrows change the sound volume, \texttt{M} mutes the sound and \texttt{C} activates the subtitles.
All the interactions are summed up in Figure~\ref{i:youtube-keyboard}.
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\caption{Youtube shortcuts (white keys are unused)\label{i:youtube-keyboard}}
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Those interactions are different if the user is using a mobile device.
\begin{itemize}
\item To pause a video, the user must touch the screen once to make the timeline and the buttons appear and once on the pause button at the center of the screen.
\item To resume a video, the user must touch the play button at the center of the screen.
\item To navigate to another moment of the video, the user can:
\begin{itemize}
\item double touch the left of the screen to move 5 seconds backwards;
\item double touch the right of the screen to move 5 seconds forwards.
\end{itemize}
\end{itemize}
When it comes to 3D, there are many approaches to manage user interaction.
Some interfaces mimic the video scenario, where the only variable is the time and the camera follows a predetermined path on which the user has no control.
These interfaces are not interactive, and can be frustrating to the user who might feel constrained.
Some other interfaces add 2 degrees of freedom to the previous one: the user does not control the position of the camera but they can control the angle. This mimics the scenario of the 360 video.
This is typically the case of the video game \emph{nolimits 2: roller coaster simulator} which works with VR devices (oculus rift, HTC vive, etc\ldots) where the only interaction the user has is turning the head.
Finally, most of the other interfaces give at least 5 degrees of freedom to the user: 3 being the coordinates of the position of the camera, and 2 being the angle (assuming the up vector is unchangeable, some interfaces might allow that, giving a sixth degree of freedom).
The most common controls are the trackball controls where the user rotate the object like a ball \href{https://threejs.org/examples/?q=controls\#misc_controls_trackball}{(live example here)} and the orbit controls, which behave like the trackball controls but preserving the up vector \href{https://threejs.org/examples/?q=controls\#misc_controls_orbit}{(live example here)}.
Another popular way of controlling a free camera in a virtual environment is the first person controls \href{https://threejs.org/examples/?q=controls\#misc_controls_pointerlock}{(live example here)}.
These controls are typically used in shooting video games, the mouse rotates the camera and the keyboard is used to translate it.
\subsection{Relationship between interface, interaction and streaming}
In both video and 3D systems, streaming affects the interaction.
For example, in a video streaming scenario, if a user sees that the video is fully loaded, they might start moving around on the timeline, but if they see that the streaming is just enough to not stall, they might prefer staying peaceful and just watch the video.
If the streaming stalls for too long, the user might seek somewhere else hoping for the video to resume, or get frustrated and leave the video.
The same types of behaviour occur in 3D streaming: if a user is somewhere in a scene, and sees more data appearing, they might wait until enough data has arrived, but if they sees nothing happens, they might leave to look for data somewhere else.
Those examples show how streaming can affect the interaction, but the interaction also affects the streaming.
In a video streaming scenario, if a user is watching peacefully without interacting, the system just has to request the next chunks of video and display them.
However, if a user starts seeking at a different time of the streaming, the streaming would most likely stall until the system is able to gather the data it needs to resume the video.
Just like in the video setup, the way a user navigates in a networked virtual environment affects the streaming.
Moving slowly allows the system to collect and display data to the user, whereas moving frenetically puts more pressure on the streaming: the data that the system requested may be obsolete when the response arrives.
Moreover, the interface and the way elements are displayed to the user also impacts his behaviour.
A streaming system can use this effect to its users benefit by providing feedback on the streaming to the user via the interface.
For example, on Youtube, the buffered portion of the video is displayed in light grey on the timeline, whereas the portion that remains to be downloaded is displayed in dark grey.
A user is more likely to click on the light grey part of the timeline than on the dark grey part, preventing the streaming from stalling.
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\end{figure}