BACKGROUND:  Cable television is one of the most common forms of TV delivery worldwide. Using fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables, cable companies are able to transmit radio frequency signals to their customers to provide them with the images and sounds of television. In the United States alone, close to 65 million television households subscribe to basic cable television services. With such demand for cable services, often the quality of signal and picture is not monitored as closely, allowing for unsatisfied customers because of pictures that are frozen, blank or noisy. There is currently no system in current use that is able to determine and report back the image quality to the cable television companies.

INNOVATION:  Researchers at UCLA have identified an algorithm that monitors and analyzes the picture quality of broadcast cable television. Installed on a modified computer with a TV tuner and database system, the TV tuner acquires JPEG images of channels for the algorithm to analyze for quality. After saving these images to the database and determining the quality of the picture, the algorithm is then able to allow the administrator to access the data through a web-service code to effectively monitor picture quality.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS 

• Monitor the ongoing picture quality of cable television channels in order to be able to effectively detect and report degradation of image quality

ADVANTAGES

• No known similar image quality control system to date
• Creation of a similar system would be expensive and time consuming
• New implementation of algorithm and system would only require cloning the existing operational system

DEVELOPMENT-TO-DATE:  The picture quality analysis system was created and implemented for UCLA Communications Technology Services (CTS) and has been used continuously for several years. Ongoing upgrades are being made to the system to accommodate the growing HDTV market.

Reference: UCLA Case No. 2008-548