Real-Time Collaborative Video Watching on Mobile Devices with REST Services

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a mobile application that synchronizes the playback of a video stream among a group of mobile devices while the video playback is controlled (e.g. pause, resume, seek) by one of the devices. This feature allows a group of people to collaborate remotely in real-time through watching the same video on their mobile devices. To make this application work for heterogeneous mobile devices and networks, we develop synchronization protocols and time-based video position prediction algorithms on top of a REST platform that is independent of programming languages, operating systems and transport protocols. A prototype system has been developed based on Android phones connected by 3G cellular network. The preliminary experiments show the approach is feasible and promising.