Video decoding is one of the most processing intensive task, thus compromising battery life, very important in mobile devices. In the most recent issue of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, researchers at the University of Maryland, describe a simple way for multimedia devices to save power.
The algorithm just take advantage of human tolerance to failure on frames decodification. While much digital vido plays at rates about 30 frames per second, human eye only catch up to 24 frames per second. So, if we miss 6 frames per second on decoding process no one will notice.
Then, researches proposal is not to try all the frames, but only the 24 easier to decode. This way a great saving of power has been reached in first lab experiments.
For sure, many research projects related to the topic of power saving on multimedia decoding will go on. We encourage to read the whole story. And, very important, don’t miss the comments, where this project is harshly criticized.
Via TechnologyReview
