Bitstream syntax description: a tool for multimedia resource adaptation within MPEG-21

In this paper, a generic method is described to allow the adaptation of different multimedia resources by a single, media resource-agnostic processor. This method is based on an XML description of the media resource's bitstream syntax, which can be transformed to reflect the desired adaptation and then be used to generate an adapted version of the bitstream. Based on this concept, two complementary technologies, BSDL2 and gBS Schema, are presented. The two technologies provide solutions for parsing a bitstream to generate its XML description, for the generic structuring and marking of this description, and the generation of an adapted bitstream using its transformed description. The two technologies can be used as stand-alone tools; however, a joint approach has been developed in order to harmonise the two solutions and exploit their strengths. This paper is focusing on the gBS Schema and the joint BSDL/gBS Schema harmonised approach. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.