If you were asked what station is currently orbiting 400 km above the Earth at 28 000 km/h you may be tempted to answer the International Space Station (ISS). This is of course correct but if you were to look with a good telescope behind the ISS (or tune in with the appropriate equipment) you may soon pick up a second station: a radio station.
On Friday 3 February, at 23:20 Central European Time the ISS Crew of Valery Tokarev and William McArthur are due to start an EVA from t
The Centre for Telecommunications Value-chain Research (CTVR) has been awarded the world’s first software-radio test licence. The licence will be used to investigate and develop more flexible ways of communicating to mobile devices, including ‘thinking radios’ and other cutting-edge communications systems.
Radio frequencies are valuable assets – particularly for mobile phone operators who have paid huge sums for them in the past – and as a result are very tightly regulated. Yet despite thei
Does media influence the allocation of disaster relief? Thomas Eisensee answers this question in his dissertation at The Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University.
Each year, around 150 natural disasters occur taking about 63,000 lives and affecting 125 million people.
– Given the huge losses involved, it is essential that disaster relief is provided to those most in need. It is crucial to understand whether media has a causal effect on the deci
The New Year got off to a multimedia start for the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), with the public launch of its new image DVD “Discovering, Funding, Growing”, presented on 16 January 2006 in Berlin. The DVD contains a 20-minute film as well as an interactive multimedia DVD-ROM section, which can be viewed on any computer. It complements the DFG’s existing range of publications and is intended both for members of the general public who have an interest in scien
Improving the integration of satellite networks with more traditional terrestrial telephone infrastructures, will help next generation telephony move from concept towards reality, as researchers are demonstrating.
Historically, we have been accustomed to using fixed-line infrastructures for traditional telecommunications, cellular networks for mobile services, and satellite architectures for high-capacity links and ‘one-to-many’ broadcasting. While more and more operators are
You like a certain song and want to hear other tracks like it, but don’t know how to find them? Ending the needle-in-a-haystack problem of searching for music on the Internet or even in your own hard drive is a new audio-based music information retrieval system.
Currently under development by the SIMAC project, it is a major leap forward in the application of semantics to audio content, allowing songs to be described not just by artist, title and genre but by their actual musical
The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS and Thomson today announced the addition of two new elements to the MP3 Surround demo software: MP3 SX (MP3 Stereo eXtended) allows enhancing MP3 stereo files for multi-channel playback and Ensonido provides portable MP3 Surround sound using stereo headphones. Demo software of these two new enhancements to the MP3 Surround technology are now available and can be downloaded for free at www.all4mp3.com.
Supporting a seamless transition f
Thanks to support from successive EU-funded projects, Tiga Technologies, an advanced IT consultancy, is creating a spin-off company to commercialise a pioneering electronic arbitration system called e-Dispute.
The e-Dispute prototype provides fast online arbitration, mediation and conciliation services. Claimants and respondents can be anywhere in the world and select from a range of languages to work in. They can send messages securely and explain their preferences to an arbitra
Europe is helping to push forward the boundaries of current radio technology looking at the next generation of radio devices. A whole new Ultra WideBand (UWB) communications industry is emerging and once all phases of a major European research effort into UWB are complete, Europe will be in a stronger position to exploit this new technology.
Ultra wideband usually refers to a radio communications technique based on transmitting very-short-duration pulses, down to nanoseconds (billio
Jürgen Schieble, doctoral candidate at Helsinki’s University of Art and Design Media Lab, wants to create “new types of enriching social experiences.” Combining his experience in mobile technologies with his music performance skills, Jürgen created MobiLenin, a participatory entertainment system. In recognition for his MobiLenin research, Jürgen, together with thesis advisor Timo Ojala, was awarded the Best Arts Paper at the ACM Multimedia 2005 conference in Singapore.
Lenin’s God
We are on the brink of breaking through to the new world of digital cinema (D-Cinema). The key to unlocking this potential is data compression and researchers are set to have a starring role.
“There is not a complete and optimised 4K [high quality]-workflow for the world of digital cinema, particularly for the effective and seamless handling of film data from acquisition to post-production and transmission. Data compression is the key to achieving this,” says Dr Siegfried Foes
A number of EUREKA projects in the field of cinema mean Europe is now being acknowledged as a leader in technologies for the film industry.
EUREKA Project E! 1683 Film Special Effects developed a powerful new software package to create realistic special effects for the film industry called ’Key Light’. This software has been used in the making of the Harry Potter series of films, with the latest, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, having recently been screened to the two-man cre
Today incompatibility and standardisation barriers hamper the easy exchange of digital content between creators, providers and the public. One solution is to create a common open and shared delivery platform of the type recently developed by researchers.
If adopted, this platform could turn today’s proprietary technologies and services into commodities, benefiting everyone from the service provider to the end-user.
“The distribution of digital media and audiovisual conten
Imagine a home hi-fi system where music was automatically categorised according to preferences, where you could read the lyrics as you listen, summon up a favourite tune by humming it, and play along with your favourites. It may sound farfetched, but all these functions and more have already been achieved.
The SemanticHIFI project, coordinated by the Paris-based music technology institute, Ircam, is unique. It represents a quantum leap in home music technology, in which access to
Sports fans can now interact with their favourite broadcasts in real time through digital TVs and 3G mobile phones thanks to a newly developed infrastructure that opens up a realm of commercial opportunities for broadcasters and advertisers by providing additional revenue streams for the sports publishing value chain.
The IST programme-funded MELISA project provides a wide range of services related to cross-media sports broadcasting, featuring visual enhancements, interactive embed
The digital revolution sweeping through museums, art galleries and libraries is revealed in a unique exhibition to be opened at the University of Abertay Dundee tomorrow (18 November).
Entitled “Burnishing the Lamp of Memory: Documentation and Preservation in the Digital Age”, the exhibition brings together stories and displays from around the world to show how technology is changing the way we see and care for cultural artefacts like pictures, sculpture, documents and architecture.
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