Ultra-high-definition to see the world New industry to see the future - remember the first prize winner of the National Technological Invention Award, Peking University Gaowen team

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 4 Title: Ultra-high definition to see the world, new industries and a glimpse of the future -- Remembering the first prize winner of the National Technological Invention Award, Peking University Gaowen Team

Xinhua News Agency reporter Gai Boming Ma Xiaodong

20 years of grinding a sword, so that ultra-high-definition video into thousands of households; more than 100 patents, to help China's wisdom become an international standard.

At the 2020 National Science and Technology Awards Conference, the key technology of ultra-high-definition video polymorphic primitive codec invented by Gao Wen, a liberal arts chair professor at Peking University and director of the National Engineering Laboratory of Digital Video Codec Technology, was awarded the first prize of the National Technological Invention Award.

Ultra-high-definition video technology opens up a new "horizon" for the public

Close observation of the 8k HIGH-DEFINITION TV image, the fluff on the small animal is clearly visible, the edge of the water droplet reflects the crystalline sunlight, in front of the screen, as if touching nature...

"This ultra-high-definition video transmission technology is like buying a box of tropical fish, the traditional way is to carry the fish tank directly home, the new technology is to pack the water and the fish separately, and discard unnecessary water, and then transport." Gao Wen vividly introduced that the popular explanation of this technology is to compress the video data and restore it through the terminal equipment to get a clearer video.

Since 2008, the video data brought about by the Internet era has increased dramatically, and higher resolution video has become a new demand, which also poses new challenges to coding performance and compression efficiency.

"This technology sounds simple, but it is very difficult to go from technological innovation to industrial landing." Gao Wen said that the project involves the study and judgment of technical routes and the establishment of technical standards. After unremitting efforts, the project team has successfully built a complete technical system of ultra-high-definition video codec with independent intellectual property rights.

According to reports, the project team has established a complete industrial chain of ultra-high-definition video from technical standards to chip terminals to system applications. Related technologies have been integrated into the products developed by Skyworth, Hisense, Tencent and other companies, with a cumulative new sales of 7.109 billion yuan in the past three years, driving the industrial scale of nearly 100 billion yuan.

Today, the project has not only made the video clearer, but also made great achievements in the fields of intelligent transportation and smart medical treatment.

Twenty years as one day to build the "strongest brain" in the field

Nearly 20 years after the project was launched, the number of meetings ranging from dozens to hundreds, the R & D personnel of the whole industry chain from hundreds to thousands, and the main participants extended from scientific research institutions to many enterprises. Today, the R&D team has obtained 118 authorized invention patents, published 2 monographs, and published 105 academic papers.

This R&D team has always adhered to the scientific research atmosphere of open innovation, fair competition and orderly discussion.

Recalling the days of research and development, Ma Siwei, a member of the project team and a professor at the School of Information Science and Technology of Peking University, said that meetings all night were the norm for the project team. "We hope that the full discussion, including colleagues from other scientific research institutions and enterprises, will continue to make progress in open competition."

Wang Mengshe, a member of the project team and an associate researcher at the Institute of Digital Media at Peking University, jokingly said that "quarrels" are a common occurrence of the team, "In the intensive discussion that lasted for dozens of days, we did not use seniority to determine the right or wrong, and fully discussed the scientific nature of the route." Facts have proved that our scientific and pragmatic attitude has accelerated the process of industrial landing. ”

In the nearly 20 years of research and development process, the project team has accumulated a talent pool of thousands of people. Huang Tiejun, a member of the project team and deputy director of the National Engineering Laboratory of Digital Video Codec Technology, said: "The long-term development of the video industry needs talents, no matter what the future technical route is, there are people, we have the confidence. ”

From Chinese-free figure to leading international standards

Looking back at the development history of ultra-high-definition video, the United States continues to lead in ultra-high-definition content production, and countries such as Japan and South Korea have a sound front-end equipment industry chain. The development of the ultra-high-definition video industry has become the strategic consensus of developed countries and has become the commanding heights of international competition.

"There was almost no Chinese in the early development of the field, and we have gradually participated in the past 20 years." Gao Wen said, "For a long time, we have been a TV power but not a TV power, and the industry is also subject to people. ”

"In the 20 years of research and development, we have encountered various accusations and sufferings, but the team has the spirit of perseverance. I want to make Chinese achievements in this field. Gao Wen said.

In 2019, China took the lead in releasing a new generation of coding standards for 8k ultra-high definition, opening a new chapter in the leading international development of video coding standards. Gao Wen said that in the future, it will continue to solve problems in the production of ultra-high-definition video content, upgrade technology for terminal equipment such as VR, and continue to master the core competitiveness in this field.