NTIA Tool to Assess Digital Video Quality

The U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has developed techniques to measure the quality of digital video pictures in hopes of increasing the competitiveness of U.S. companies and making higher quality products for consumers.

The new measurement software, known as "reduced-reference" video quality measurement tools, received two U.S. patents and has been adopted as a telecommunications standard by the American National Standards Institute. The software will help companies and public entities determine the quality of digital video pictures on computers, TV monitors and hand-held devices through objective technical means.

The software is available to private industries and the public through an online evaluation license agreement under which users receive the software in exchange for agreeing to evaluate it. The agreement will build on NTIA's existing online service, which provides government agencies and private industry with tools in telecommunications.

NTIA says such improvements in digital video will help spur new telecommunication services for the U.S. economy like DBS, digital and HD TV, video teleconferencing, telemedicine and e-commerce.

The software can be downloaded at http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/n3/video/vqmsoftware.htm