Latest News
2008.04.09 new! Congratulations to Byung Tae for passing his Qual exam!
Congratulations to Byung Tae for passing his Qual exam today. His thesis proposal title is "Synthes... detail
2008.04.09 new! Multi-carrier Collusion-Resistant Code (Robust Fingerprinting) by Joohyun (Peter) Cho (ZHS 163 4/11/2008 1.00-2.00pm)
Abstract The collusion-resistant fingerprinting system for traitor tracing applications using... detail
2008.04.03 new! Trust Without Privacy: Security Considerations in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) by Joyce Liang (ZHS 163 4/4/2008 1.00-2.00pm)
Abstract The next generation of wireless communications will emphasize the rapid deployment o... detail
Media Communications Lab., led by Prof. C.-C. Jay Kuo in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is devoted to theoretical studies and practical applications of multimedia data processing, communication and networking technologies. Current research activities of the lab include: multimedia data compression, audiovisual content abstraction and management, graphic modeling and rendering, digital content protection and rights management, web technologies, content delivery networks, mobile ad hoc networks, wireless sensor networks, broadband wireless communications, multi-access transceiver technologies, and embedded media systems. Our research work has contributed to international standards such as JPEG2000, MPEG-4, MPEG-7, H.263++. The lab is also working on emerging interdisciplinary areas that apply information technologies to biological applications such as genome and protein sequence analysis and novel bio-medical signal and image processing techniques.

There are about 40 PhD students and several postdoctoral research fellows/visiting scholars working in the lab. The lab has produced more than 130 journal papers, 720 conference papers and 8 research monographs over the last 17 years. The alumni of the lab include 80 PhDs and 20 post-doctors. About one third of them work in academia and two thirds in industrial research labs and companies. In addition to the government funding, the lab has a close tie with industrial companies and has received research grants from more than 40 companies.
Communication Subgroup Communication Subgroup

We study and analyze critical issues in advanced communication systems including CDMA, OFDM, UWB and MIMO. Novel transmitter and receiver design methodology and algorithms have been proposed to overcome fading in wireless channels. Moreover, cross-layer design has been developed to provide better resource allocation on wireless sensor networks and cooperative networks.

Video Subgroup Video Subgroup

The major interest for the video subgroup includes efficient expression of digitized multimedia data and their applications. From the generic problem of rate-distortion optimization to the advanced computer vision based video encoding, diverse techniques are covered by our researches. Other than the video encoding problems, we are also interested in the robust behaviors of networked video and application centric cross-layer optimization of video communications as well.

Networking Subgroup Networking Subgroup

The research goal of networking group of media communication lab includes improve performance of existing wireless networks and propose innovative design for the next generation wireless systems. Current interests are peer-to-peer networking on MANET, coexistence analysis of Wi-Fi and BT and MAC solution, cognitive MAC, power-aware topology control for wireless ad-hoc networks and MAC protocol design for topology controlled wireless ad-hoc networks.

Computer Graphics Subgroup Computer Graphics Subgroup

Our research focuses on diverse fields in computer graphics including 3D data compression, time-varying geometry, simulation and rendering of liquids and clouds, physical based human motion synthesis, Non-Photorealsitic Rendering in video game, and simulation of interaction between plants and natural forces. Although different fields have different nature, the goals in our common quest include representational/computational efficiency and rendering quality.

Audio/Music Signal Processing Subgroup Audio/Music Signal Processing Subgroup

Audio/music signal subgroup aims to propose digital signal processing techniques to solve problems of audio and music applications. Our research interests could be categorized as: (1)computer perception of music: music onset and beat detection, music segmentation, instrument classification, (2) multimedia security: watermark, data hiding and (3) blind source separation: the separation of speech and music, separation of different sounds in music.

Biomedical Singal/Image Processing Subgroup Biomedical Singal/Image Processing Subgroup

Biomedical signal/image subgroup is dedicated on the research that using digital signal processing techniques to solve the critical problems of biological and medical developments. Our current interests include bioinformatics, ECG signal processing, heart rate variability, 3D graphic models of human organs and diseases.