Self-Adaptive Systems Challenges in Delivering Object-Based Media

Barry Porter, Paul Dean, Nicholas J. P. Race, Mark Lomas, Rajiv Ramdhany

Abstract: Multi-agent, decentralised, and collective self-adaptive systems have been studied in a range of domains from smart-cities to the social dynamics of organisations. We present a novel application for research in this area, with the emerging distributed systems field of object-based media. Unlike traditional media, which is delivered over the Internet as pre-encoded compressed video segments, object-based media divides a media experience into its constituent parts, such as presenters, actors, backgrounds, and information overlays. These elements are then rendered and composited on-demand for each user, to support highly customisable experiences. We analyse the distributed systems challenges of delivering object-based media in terms of self-adaptive systems, and present work on the prototype technology we are using to explore potential solutions.