As the global demand for streaming and video content continues to rise, so does the energy consumption of our viewing habits. InterDigital, a leader in wireless, video, and AI technologies, is addressing this challenge head-on with innovative solutions aimed at increasing energy efficiency while maintaining quality of experience and without compromising visual quality.
The video entertainment industry is rapidly emerging as a significant contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 4% of total emissions, double that of the aviation industry. With over 1.9 billion display devices in use globally, even small reductions in energy consumption per device can lead to substantial environmental benefits, as well as cost reductions for service providers, operators, and end users.
In a recent webinar, experts from InterDigital’s Video Lab Erik Reinhard and Claire-Hélène Demarty, delve into the latest advancements in sustainable video technology and explore how InterDigital’s innovation and pioneering Pixel Value Reduction (PVR) technology offers scalable solutions to this challenge.
What is Pixel Value Reduction (PVR)?
Pixel Value Reduction is an energy-aware display technology developed by InterDigital that intelligently optimizes pixel brightness to reduce the energy consumption of video screens. By making subtle adjustments to pixel luminance, often imperceptible to the viewer, PVR offers the potential to achieve significant energy savings across billions of devices worldwide.
InterDigital’s PVR and Deep PVR innovation focuses on two key strategies:
- Just Noticeable Difference (JND): This method ensures that any changes in brightness remain below the threshold of human perception, maintaining the artistic integrity of the content while still achieving energy savings.
- Targeted Energy Reduction: By leveraging machine learning, this approach allows for customizable energy savings, enabling users to balance image quality with energy efficiency based on their preferences and device capabilities.
As consumer preferences drive demand for devices with larger and brighter screens, higher battery capacity, and increased storage, device energy consumption also grows. InterDigital enhances our PVR solution with AI expertise, which can be applied to reduce energy on televisions, smartphones, and other device displays without altering the quality of the video experience.
In fact, subjective tests have found that InterDigital’s PVR solutions can reduce TV power consumption by up to 15% without any noticeable impact to the viewer.
Explore pixel value reduction further in the full PVR webinar and learn more about how we are moving towards a greener TV and video value chain through our “Spotlight on Sustainability” here.