Resource-Driven Content Adaptation ∗

Recent trends have created new challenges in the presentation of multimedia information. First, large, high-resolution video displays are increasingly popular. Meanwhile, many mobile devices, such as PDAs and mobile telephones, can display images and videos on small screens. One obvious issue is that content designed for a large display is inappropriate for a small display. Moreover, wireless bandwidth and battery lifetime are precious resources for mobile devices. In order to provide useful content across systems with different resources, we propose “resource-driven content adaptation ” by augmenting the content with metadata that can be used to display or render the content based on the available resources. We are investigating several problems related to resource-driven content adaptation. These include: adaptation of the presented content based on available resources — display resolution, bandwidth, processor speed, quality of services, and energy. Content adaptation may add or remove information based on available resources. Adaptive content can utilize resources more effectively but also present challenges in resource management, content creation, transmission, and user perception. 1