Michael J. Horowitz (born January 2, 1964, in

Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines in central Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University (ISU). According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Ames ha ...

) is an American

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

who actively participated in the creation of the

H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and d ...

MPEG-4 AVC Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and d ...

and H.265/

HEVC High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), also known as H.265 and MPEG-H Part 2, is a video compression standard designed as part of the MPEG-H project as a successor to the widely used Advanced Video Coding (AVC, H.264, or MPEG-4 Part 10). In co ...

video coding standards. He is co-

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

of flexible macroblock ordering (FMO) and tiles, essential features in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC and H.265/HEVC, respectively. He is managing partner of Applied Video Compression and has served on the technical advisory boards of Vivox, Inc., Vidyo, Inc., and RipCode, Inc.

Education

* A.B. degree with distinction in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

, New York, 1986. *

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

degree in electrical engineering from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, New York, 1988. *

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in electrical engineering from The

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, 1998.

Professional work

Horowitz also has contributed to the early productization of several video coding standards: * 2000 – At

Polycom Poly Inc., formerly Polycom, is an American multinational corporation that develops video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology. Poly is a subsidiary of HP Inc. Polycom was co-founded in 1990 by Brian L Hinman and Jeff ...

, architect and developer of the first commercially available in-product implementation of macroblock-adaptive multiple reference frames (

H.263 H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bit-rate compressed format for videotelephony. It was standardized by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) in a project ending in 1995/1996. It is a member of the H.26x fa ...

Annex U). Macroblock-adaptive multiple reference frames has become a mainstay in subsequent video coding standards. * 2003 – At Polycom, architect and lead engineer of the team that produced the first commercially available in-product implementation of H.264/AVC. * 2008 – At

Vidyo Vidyo, Inc., founded as Layered Media, provides software-based collaboration technology and product-based visual communication products. It is currently owned by Enghouse Systems. The company's VidyoConferencing products are the first in the video ...

, architect and lead engineer of the team that developed the first commercially available in-product implementation of

SVC * 2012 – At eBrisk Video, architect and lead engineer of the team that developed one of the first commercially available implementations of H.265/

. * 2020 – At Google, Technical Lead of the AV1 for Duo project that became the first commercially available real-time interactive video implementation of

AV1 AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium founded in 2015 tha ...

.Nick Statt, "Google Duo video calls are about to look a whole lot better," The Verge, April 22, 2020.
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Standardization

* 2001-2002 –

VCEG The Video Coding Experts Group or Visual Coding Experts Group (VCEG, also known as Question 6) is a working group of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) concerned with standards for compression coding of video, images, audio ...

Chair, Ad hoc Group on H.26L Complexity Reduction * 2002-2003 – JVT Chair, Ad hoc Group on H.26L Complexity Reduction * 2002-2003 – JVT Chair, Ad hoc Group on

Robustness Robustness is the property of being strong and healthy in constitution. When it is transposed into a system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, ...

* 2008-2010 – VCEG Chair, Ad hoc Group on Computational Efficiency * 2011-2012 – JCT-VC Chair, Ad hoc Group on High-level Parallelism * 2020 –

Alliance for Open Media The Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) is a non-profit industry consortium headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, and formed to develop open, royalty-free technology for multimedia delivery. It uses the ideas and principles of open web standa ...

Co-chair, RTC Subgroup

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horowitz, Michael J. 21st-century American engineers Cornell University alumni Living people People from Ames, Iowa 1964 births University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni American chief technology officers Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni