Waterloo, ON, 2 October 2015 – Zhou Wang, co-founder of SSIMWAVE Inc., and Professor at the University of Waterloo, will be presented with an Engineering Emmy by the Los Angeles-based Television Academy on October 28, 2015, at the 67th Engineering Emmy Awards for his contribution to the development of the Structural Similarity (SSIM) Index for video quality measurement. Only a handful of Canadians (individuals or companies) have received this prestigious award.
The SSIM index family of algorithms, invented by Dr. Wang, is now the most widely used method for measuring video quality used throughout the media, telecommunications and entertainment industries. Recent studies estimate by 2017 over three-quarters of consumer internet traffic will be video. Video is the future of content marketing – quality, speed, and flexibility is crucial.
“Structural Similarity (SSIM) is an algorithm for estimating the perceived quality of an image or video. Its computational simplicity and ability to accurately predict human assessment of visual quality has made it a standard tool in broadcast and post-production houses throughout the television industry. SSIM uses powerful neuroscience-based models of the human visual system to achieve breakthrough quality prediction performance. Unlike previous complex error models that required special hardware, it can be easily applied in real time on common processor software. SSIM is now a widely-used perceptual video quality measure, used to test and refine video quality throughout the global cable and satellite TV industry, and directly affects the viewing experiences of tens of millions of viewers daily.” — Television Academy
On being selected for this award, Dr. Wang commented: “I’m extremely happy to receive the Emmy from the Television Academy. It was a lot of fun when we did the SSIM work more than 10 years ago, and it was also very exciting seeing it being recognized and used by more and more people in academia and industry over the years.”
Over the past decade, following the development of SSIM, Dr. Wang, Dr. Abdul Rehman, and Dr. Kai Zeng have made many breakthroughs and improvements to SSIM in terms of accuracy, speed, applicability, and flexibility. “SSIM is just a starting point and we do not stop there. We have been making a continuous effort to deliver more useful tools for automatic assessment of video quality and to help improve the visual quality-of-experience of everyone” said Dr. Wang.
In 2013, Drs. Wang, Rehman, and Zeng co-founded SSIMWAVE, Inc., in Waterloo, ON, Canada.
The SSIMWAVE team developed SSIMPLUS, a new set of algorithms enabling the team to develop new software solutions which are revolutionizing the broadcasting of video (TV and internet), improving the end-user visual experience, optimizing bandwidth, and enhancing video streaming for video players. Video is the new document, and SSIMWAVE’s products for video quality of experience measurement and optimization offer crucial solutions in this rapidly expanding and competitive environment.
SSIMWAVE’s SSIMPLUS Analyzer hopes to be the Gold Standard Video Quality of Experience Monitoring Solution for file based internet video, and their SSIMPLUS LiveMonitor for live video – both revolutionize today’s approach to video content processing and delivery for the optimal visual quality of experience for end-users. Their optimization software includes SSIMWAVE’s SSIMPLUS Optimizer and SSIMPLUS Streamer for video delivery.
