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.

Plans to develop protocols and devices that link together all the audio and video gadgets that clutter homes, handbags and briefcases will unleash an incredible array of new, personalised and location-based services.

Imagine your alarm wakes you up an hour early because it knows you’re flying abroad, and there’s a traffic jam on the way to the airport. Your coffee maker turns on an hour early too, while the alarm clock gives you the latest headlines about your destination

The new standard for broadcasting digital video to future mobile phones, PDAs and laptops, DVB-H, is now almost complete. The next step is to begin testing the technology, and here the INSTINCT project will continue its key role.

Many industry observers see the broadcasting of video to mobile phones as the next logical development for the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) standard. Broadcasting digital video over the existing wireless telecom networks brings a number of technica

The European CAPANINA research consortium, led by the University of York, has made a significant step forward in perfecting a revolutionary broadband system following high altitude trials in northern Sweden.

Carlo Gavazzi Space, one of the Italian consortium members, co-ordinated the trials at the Swedish Space Centre at Esrange and took care of the High Altitude Carrier – a stratospheric balloon.

Trials using radio and optical communications equipment were carried out, u

A powerful new platform that delivers high computing power and high channel capacity could help meet consumer demand for multimedia content via PCs, interactive TV and mobile phones.

The FULL SPEED project that developed this platform created an innovative solution based on USB high-speed communication techniques. This smartcard connectivity uses the high-throughput channel USB 2.0.

FULL SPEED’s capability permits the direct embedding of critical applications in smartc

Boffins at the University of Bradford will be looking into ways of improving computer modelling and animation used in such films as Shrek, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Jimmy Neutron.

Dr Hassan Ugail and Dr Ian Palmer from the University’s School of Informatics have been awarded a grant of around £300,000 to carry out fundamental research into developing new techniques for computer-based modelling and animation.

The grant, which has been awarded by the Engineering and

Imagine being able to communicate in your own handwriting with your mobile phone, PDA, laptop or PC without any cables. The VPen does just that. It looks like a space age pen, but works like a mouse, pen, keyboard or graphic tablet.

Dealing with cables during mobile working can be awkward. VPen, developed by partners in the IST programme-funded VIPDATA project, is wireless, yet features a long talk and standby time of several days. It is a convenient little device the size of a s