PhD Thesis Proposal - Rajrup Ghosh

Title of Thesis Proposal: Enabling Volumetric Video Conferencing and Live Streaming  
 
Date and Time: April 21, 2025 (Monday), 11:30 am - 1 pm PST  
 
Location: 302C, GCS, Floor 3
 
Committee Members: Ramesh Govindan (Chair), Barath Raghavan, Yue Wang, Harsha V. Madhyastha, Antonio Ortega
 
Abstract: Volumetric video streaming represents the next frontier in media communication, enabling highly immersive experiences by capturing and transmitting dynamic 3D scenes in real-time. However, significant challenges remain before widespread adoption is possible, including managing substantial bandwidth demands, achieving low-latency, supporting multi-party interactions, and maintaining high visual realism. This thesis explores novel methods to overcome these barriers. To enable immersive two-party conferencing, I introduce LiVo, a system that efficiently streams full-scene volumetric videos by extending 2D video encoding techniques, adaptive bandwidth allocation, and real-time view prediction and culling. LiVo significantly reduces bandwidth usage while maintaining an end-to-end latency of approximately 250 ms at 30 frames per second. Extending these capabilities to multi-party scenarios, I propose LiVo++, which must address challenges in synchronization, computation overhead, and changing network conditions. It proposes dynamic strategies to adapt video quality levels according to participants' device capabilities and available bandwidth, enabling robust and scalable interactive experiences. Finally, I propose to improve visual quality through LiVoGS, a system leveraging Gaussian Splatting. LiVoGS will explore integrating Gaussian Splatting with motion-compensated encoding inspired by traditional 2D codecs, to achieve photorealistic visual quality and significantly improved bandwidth efficiency. Collectively, these innovations enable practical, efficient, and visually realistic volumetric video conferencing and streaming, paving the way toward the future of immersive multimedia communication.

Location: Ginsburg Hall (GCS) - 302C

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Rajrup Ghosh

This event is open to all eligible individuals. USC Viterbi operates all of its activities consistent with the University's Notice of Non-Discrimination. Eligibility is not determined based on race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or any other prohibited factor.

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