Fagor Home Electrics Group and Telvent (technological offshoot of Abengoa), working with the University of the Basque Country and the IKERLAN technological centre, are involved in the Genio project, with the aim of directing and designing the manufacture of devices capable of voice-based dialogue, thus enabling such products to join the new array within the concept of Environmental Intelligence. The work being carried out aims to fit products with the ability to orally communicate with people, t

For the first time Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS in Erlangen, Germany, presents a combination of MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC/H.264) and MPEG-4 High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) for high quality, real time movie playback on ARM®-based Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

MPEG-4 AVC and MPEG-4 HE-AAC are the most advanced video and audio codecs within the MPEG-4 multimedia standard. At ARM Developers Conference, Fraunhofer IIS now introduces a c

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS introduces its novel Spatial Audio Coding technology, which enables 5.1 Surround Sound for Digital Audio Broadcasting DAB. The Bayerische Rundfunk (BR) and Bayern Digital Radio (BDR) broadcast the first 5.1 program over DAB live on “Bayern 4 Klassik” during the Medientage event in Munich. A DAB surround receiver prototype was developed and integrated in a passenger car by the Panasonic Automotive Systems Europe GmbH.

Spatial Audio C

The recently launched EU project ’New Media for a New Millennium’ (NM2) is developing a set of software tools aimed at creating a new media genre. In the same way that TV did not just provide radio with pictures, NM2 aims to be the catalyst for entirely new genres of audiovisual media.

The project will enable viewers to watch a personalised production from a larger pool of original content. By illustration, viewers could elect to watch a short romantic production of a mov

European Union websites must be accessible to all, including the 37 million European citizens with a disability. This was an e-Europe Action Plan 2002 goal, which called for public websites to adopt the international Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines by the end of December 2001. Three European projects played a vital role in supporting this agenda.

All Member States have adopted these Guidelines, However, policies implementation on Web accessibility vary from country to

Telos/Omnia and Fraunhofer IIS announce the first public demonstration of their new surround system for HD Radio™ at the NAB Radio Show in San Diego, October 6-8, booth 907.

At NAB Radio Show, Telos/Omnia and Fraunhofer IIS present a novel surround system for HD Radio™ delivering impressive full surround audio without compromising the stereo signal in any way. This way, both users equipped with conventional stereo receivers and those owning surround receivers will get the maximum aud

A team of University of Surrey scientists led by Professor Ahmet Kondoz has developed new technology which will enable companies and organisations to ensure that their GSM mobile phone conversations are totally secure and confidential. Previous attempts to make such conversations totally secure have been successful, but relied on a special GSM data service which resulted in some operational problems. In particular these solutions require expensive dedicated handsets and subscriptions, and calls betw

Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS announces its latest MPEG-4 AV solutions – now available as free evaluation software. At IBC 2004, Fraunhofer IIS will present “DSL-TV”, a combination of MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding and the most advanced low bit-rate multi-channel audio coding scheme.

To introduce recent developments within the open multimedia standard MPEG-4 to the public, Fraunhofer IIS offers a public download of an MPEG-4 AV evaluation software suite today. The d

Recent research conducted by scientists at the University of Surrey in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen and the BBC, shows that surround sound can be delivered to the consumer more efficiently by taking into account the results of perceptual tests. Although improvements in the audio quality of consumer entertainment systems such as DVDs, CDs, digital TV, home cinema and computer games are technically possible, they may no longer be necessary. In fact, the intelligent limiting of sound quality, bas

’But I’ve just told you my postcode, damn you!’

We all know the frustrations of talking to computers down the phone. But don’t panic, help is at hand.

Scientists the world over are converging on the University of East Anglia next week to bang the stroppy robots to rights. The two-day workshop on August 30-31 will brainstorm ideas for improving human-to-machine communication of all types.

“Speaking to machines does tend to irritate people – especially when w

Just because a big company owns all the media outlets in town doesn’t necessarily mean newspapers and broadcast stations will look and sound alike, according to a review of the research in this area published in the summer issue of the journal Contexts.

While media consolidation does have adverse effects, as described in a literature review, the reduction in content diversity does not appear to be one of them. In fact, the research suggests that media content is no less diverse tha

Viewers of future Olympic Games will enjoy the marriage of two entertainment industries – sports television and sports computer games – when a highly immersive and fully interactive TV system is being developed by the IST project.

PISTE comes to life. PISTE represents the most advanced and immersive interactive sports television experience created to date. Using digital video processing, computer vision, 3D-visualisation and animation techniques, the PISTE system will eventually al

Before long, the majority of mobile phones will have the capacity to show short films. If you want to be one of the pioneering filmmakers to make their mark in this new genre then Pocket Shorts, a new initiative supported by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the organisation that supports UK creativity and innovation, could be for you.

Pocket Shorts is a supportive environment, offering both generic filmmaking and technology training, while financially supp

A conference at the University of Sheffield is set to celebrate ten years since the first Web search engines, and will reveal some of the capabilities of search engines of the future, and the way that our use of computers will lead them to new ways of archiving and retrieving information. Presentations at the conference will include ways that we can store and search through every personal document we have ever received, and another paper will use George Washington’s letters to demonstrate a new sear

The use of Ariane launcher technology has blasted a French loudspeaker firm into a winning position. Haliaetus Technologies won a top prize in a prestigious competition for creative start-ups with an innovative loudspeaker that uses rocket nozzle shapes to reduce sound distortion.

Three years ago, Jean-Pierre Morkerken, an acoustic researcher from the French lab ’Laboratoire d’Acoustique Musicale’, at the ’University Pierre and Marie Curie’ in Paris, got the idea to adapt rocket nozzle pro

Software that can identify the significant events in live TV sports broadcasts will soon be able to compile programmes of highlights without any help from people.

The technology will save broadcasters millions in editing costs- and should eventually lead to new generations of video recorders that will let people customise their own sports highlights packages. But developing software that understands sport is no easy task.

Picking out the key events from a game- whether it be pool