DoCoMo USA Labs: Our Labs / Media Laboratory

Mobile Media Technology is a key component in the realization of mobile multimedia services. In the Media Lab, our focus on fundamental media coding and processing technologies will enable ubiquitous and seamless multimedia services in next-generation networks.

Breathtaking advances in multimedia compression, expanding network bandwidth, and heterogeneous access networks will change the usage of mobile networks forever. Future users will interact with the network using a multitude of devices, and will demand consistent and familiar service in all locations. They will expect reliable delivery of multimedia content, including real-time high-quality audio and video, games, and text.

Mobile media differentiates itself from conventional media in several aspects:

Bandwidth is relatively limited, and while growing, it remains much narrower than in wired networks;
In Transmission is prone to errors;
Form factors are small, resulting in limited power availability; small displays and small loudspeakers;
Applications may be specific to mobile communication, such as multimedia messaging.

Although our next generation radio access technology is expected to provide higher bandwidth to customers, multimedia compression remains essential because of limited radio resources. Providing the world's most efficient codecs is one of the missions of the Media Lab. To stay on the top, we collaborate with the NTT DoCoMo R&D Center (Yokosuka Research Park) and others.

Speech is and will continue to be the traditional medium for communication, whether wired or wireless. Improved speech coding therefore remains a significant objective of the Media Lab. Fundamental research is delivering real advances both in coding efficiency and subjective performance, including the ability to faithfully render sounds other than speech. From a commercialization viewpoint, a speech codec suitable for Voice over mobile IP is also a necessity. Imaging and video are emerging media in wireless communications. Further advances in coding efficiency and subjective performance will enhance user experience by providing sharper images that feature higher resolutions and frame rates. Fundamental research in this area, for both video conferencing and streaming applications, thus remains a commitment in the Media Lab.

Our research is not limited to the compression. To compensate for limited playback capabilities of mobile terminals, we research innovative signal processing methods such as nonlinear signal processing, advanced acoustic modeling, and media enhancing technologies.

The evolution of media processing technologies and networking technologies will revolutionize the way users interact with mobile and fixed networks, resulting in new commercial opportunities. We must anticipate these opportunities. Understanding and influencing how new business scenarios will emerge in this new commercial framework is a vital part in the design of growth strategies. We are thus pursuing exciting and highly dynamic research aimed at developing models of operation that will be enjoyed by the new wirelessly-connected community.

Toshiro Kawahara
Seniro Vice President & Lab Director