Exploiting video stream similarity for energy-efficient decoding

Energy consumption is a key issue in modern microprocessor system design in general, and in the design of mobile computing devices more in particular. This paper introduces a novel approach to energy-efficient media stream decoding that is based on the notion of media stream similarity. The key idea is that platform-independent scenarios of similar decode complexity can be identified within and across media streams. A client decoding a media stream annotated with scenario information can then adjust its processor clock frequency and voltage level based on these scenarios for reduced energy consumption. Our evaluation done using the AVC decoder and 12 reference streams shows an average energy reduction of 46% while missing less than 0.2% of the frame deadlines on average