Patent Document ID: 8154602
Application ID: 11886406
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A video quality estimation apparatus comprising: a parameter extraction unit which extracts, as main parameters, an input coding bit rate representing the number of coding bits per unit time, an input frame rate representing the number of frames per unit time, and an input packet loss rate representing a packet loss occurrence probability of an audiovisual medium encoded into a plurality of frames; a first storage unit which stores reference subjective video quality representing subjective video quality of the audiovisual medium encoded at the input coding bit rate and the input frame rate without packet loss; a degradation model specifying unit which specifies a degradation model representing a relationship between the input packet loss rate and degradation in the reference subjective video quality on the basis of the input coding bit rate and the input frame rate; a video quality correction unit which corrects the reference subjective video quality on the basis of a video quality degradation ratio corresponding to the input packet loss rate, which is calculated by using the specified degradation model, thereby calculating an estimation value of subjective video quality a viewer actually senses from the audiovisual medium received via a communication network and reproduced on an arbitrary terminal; a second storage unit which stores a first degradation index characteristic representing a relationship between a frame rate of the audiovisual medium and a first degradation index representing a degree of influence of a packet loss rate on degradation in the subjective video quality at the frame rate and a second degradation index characteristic resenting a relationship between a coding bit rate of the audiovisual medium and a second degradation index representing a degree of influence of a packet loss rate on degradation in the subjective video quality at the coding bit rate, wherein said degradation model specifying unit includes a first degradation index calculation unit which calculates the first degradation index corresponding to the input frame rate by referring to the first degradation index characteristic, a second degradation index calculation unit which calculates the second degradation index corresponding to the input coding bit rate by referring to the second degradation index characteristic, and a degradation index calculation unit which calculates a degradation index to specify the degradation model corresponding to the input frame rate and the coding bit rate by combining the first degradation index and the second degradation index, said apparatus further comprising: a third storage unit which stores a correlation between degradation index coefficients to specify the degradation index characteristics and sub parameters including at least one of a communication type parameter indicating a type of the audiovisual communication, a reproduction performance parameter indicating reproduction performance of the audiovisual medium on the terminal, and a reproduction environment parameter indicating an ambient environment in reproducing the audiovisual medium on the terminal; and a degradation index coefficient extraction unit which extracts degradation index coefficients corresponding to sub parameters extracted by said parameter extraction unit by referring to the correlation, wherein said degradation model specifying unit calculates the degradation index and the second degradation index by referring to the degradation index characteristics specified by the degradation index coefficients.