A DVB-MHP web browser to pursue convergence between Digital Terrestrial Television and Internet

In the last decade with the growth of Interactive Digital Television (IDTV) we have seen the end of passive television. An example of this trend is Internet access through television by means of the last generation Set Top Boxes (STBs). The chance to enjoy web contents through digital television Set Top Boxes, delivering a satisfying browsing experience across this platform, could provide the opportunity to promote social inclusion and bridging the “digital divide”. In this paper we present WebClimb, a web browser that would pursue an effective integration of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Internet in the DVB-MHP platform. WebClimb is a Java-based web browser that enables users to browse the web by interacting with an easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI), driven by a common TV remote control without asking for reformatting such a content on the server side. In addition to this, the main requirement has been to design and develop an MHP browser application to be broadcast through a TV channel and not embedded in a specific device, though it could be too. Experimental results and a comparison with other possible solutions are provided.     

Justinian lexicography

This paper describes two research projects, both involving Latin and Greek lexicography. They are undertaken at the University of Florence and at the Italian National Research Council respectively. The one involves the creation of a Dictionary of Justinian's constitutions based on the emperor's legislative lexicon formed in the Corpus Iuris and elsewhere. The most demanding aspect of this task has been the creation of the Dictionary of the Novellae. The other project involves the creation of a Lexicon of the Novellae in the Authenticum version. Anna Maria Bartoletti Colombo is a Research Director of the CNR and teaches at the University of Florence. She took part in the first experiments in computational linguistics with the Historical Dictionary of the Italian language of the Accademia della Crusca. Proceeding to the Italian Legal Dictionary of the CNR, she concentrated her interests in the language of law. Her major works are Vocabolario delle Costituzioni Greche e Latine di Giustiniano and Lessico delle Novallae di Giustiniano as described in her article in this issue.     

Personal health care services through digital television

Personal health care has obtained increasing importance in the field of health care as the populations' age in the industrialised countries and resources available for health care remain limited. Personal health care through digital television is an exiting possibility in the realisation of new types of services answering to this demand for increased personal action and responsibility in health care. The possibilities of digital television in health care are studied in the Health Care Television (HCTV) research project of the Digital Media Institute at Tampere University of Technology. In this paper personal health care services are studied mainly from the perspective of the interactive service infrastructure of digital television. Firstly we present the general infrastructure of digital television and the different interactive service types of digital television. The usage of these service types in personal health care applications is also discussed. Finally, a web-based application based on chronic atrial fibrillation and its test use is presented. The application is used as a research platform for personal health care applications in digital television.     

Parallel neural networks for multimodal video genre classification

Improvements in digital technology have made possible the production and distribution of huge quantities of digital multimedia data. Tools for high-level multimedia documentation are becoming indispensable to efficiently access and retrieve desired content from such data. In this context, automatic genre classification provides a simple and effective solution to describe multimedia contents in a structured and well understandable way. We propose in this article a methodology for classifying the genre of television programmes. Features are extracted from four informative sources, which include visual-perceptual information (colour, texture and motion), structural information (shot length, shot distribution, shot rhythm, shot clusters duration and saturation), cognitive information (face properties, such as number, positions and dimensions) and aural information (transcribed text, sound characteristics). These features are used for training a parallel neural network system able to distinguish between seven video genres: football, cartoons, music, weather forecast, newscast, talk show and commercials. Experiments conducted on more than 100 h of audiovisual material confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method, which reaches a classification accuracy rate of 95%.

Introducing low cost/high quality computer graphics in polish national television

Abstract

In October 1988 the authors were invited to lecture at the University of Warsaw. During the visit they also gave an advisory lecture to the Computer Centre of Polish National Television on strategies for low cost computer graphics. This article discusses the strategies presented during the lecture.

Several possible generic strategies are examined below, and although they are discussed in the context of the Polish Television, most of the discussion would be valid and appropriate for any large television company. Indeed, with the advent of the satellite and cable television, even western commercial television stations will be inclined to develop policies for the introduction of low‐cost computer graphics into their productions.     

Spatial structuring,cinematic mediation,and evocative narrative elements in the design of an RT 3D VE: The Common Tales Project

The practice-based research project Common Tales investigates and formulates methods of spatial structuring, cinematic mediation, and evocative narrative elements in the design of a meaningful Real Time 3-Dimensional Virtual Environment (RT 3D VE). It is a collaboration between the Digital Studios (University of Cambridge), the National Film and Television School (NFTS), and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), and combines the know-how of the industry partner (SCEE) with academic expertise (Digital Studios) and practical knowledge of film-making (NFTS). The unique inputs into the project of the three partners combine to provide and shape insights and outcomes impossible for any of the three individually to have produced, and provide a sound template for collaborative research.     

Evaluating television-linked computer software

Broadcasting organisations have considerable expertise in the evaluation of television and radio programmes, and U.K. broadcasters are held in particularly high esteem in this respect. They are, however, on rather less secure ground when it comes to multimedia resources which attempt to integrate broadcast and computer-based materials.The project described here was sponsored by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and was carried out in the West Midlands region of England during the summer of 1986. It was undertaken to develop guidelines for the evaluation of broadcast-linked software and to provide insights for the creators of new multimedia materials. The research focussed on two primary education packages, in the areas of mathematics and history respectively, produced by Independent Television Companies.Each package (television programmes and associated courseware) was evaluated in collaboration with a team of teachers from six different schools. The evaluation process lasted a full school term (3 months). Some details of the process are discussed. It was concluded that there was strong potential support for multimedia educational packages incorporating broadcast television, computer software and other media. This conclusion is related to the growing field of interactive videodisc.     

Supporting geographically-aware web document foraging and sensemaking

This paper reports on the development and application of strategies and tools for geographic information seeking and knowledge building that leverages unstructured text resources found on the web. Geographic knowledge building from unstructured web sources starts with web document foraging during which the quantity, scope and diversity of web-based information create incredible cognitive burdens on an analyst’s or researcher’s ability to judge information relevancy. Determining information relevancy is ultimately a process of sensemaking. In this paper, we present our research on visually supporting web document foraging and sensemaking. In particular, we present the Sense-of-Place (SensePlace) analytic environment. The scientific goal of SensePlace is to visually and computationally support analyst sensemaking with text artifacts that have potential place, time, and thematic relevance to an analytical problem through identification and visual highlighting of named entities (people, places, times, and organizations) in documents, automated inference to determine document relevance using stored knowledge, and a visual interface with coupled geographic map, timeline, and concept graph displays that are used to contextualize the contexts of potentially relevant documents. We present the results of a case study analysis using SensePlace to uncover potential population migration, geopolitical, and other infectious disease dynamics drivers for measles and other epidemics in Niger. Our analysis allowed us to demonstrate how our approach can support analysis of complex situations along (a) multi-scale geographic dimensions (i.e., vaccine coverage areas), (b) temporal dimensions (i.e., seasonal population movement and migrations), and (c) diverse thematic dimensions (effects of political upheaval, food security, transient movement, etc.).     

Assessing multiview framework (MF) comprehensibility and efficiency: A replicated experiment

Goal oriented quality models have become an important means for assessing and improving software quality. In previous papers, the authors have proposed an approach called multiview framework, for guiding quality managers in designing and managing a goal oriented quality model. This approach has been validated through a controlled experiment carried out with university students.In this paper, the authors discuss a replication of the controlled experiment, carried out with 28 university graduates attending a master degree course in an Italian university. Although research hypotheses are the same, context differs. In the replication, experimental subjects were more representative of practitioners, because their master degree course required project work with industrial partners.Using a cross-over experimental design we found that subjects using the multiview framework made significantly fiewer errors (p<0.05, effect size=1.08) and took significantly less time (p<0.51, effect size=1.82) to review the status of a project than when they used a standard GQM approach. This result was consistent with the results of our original experiment.     

TDTASK: Through a Universal Platform for the Development of t-Government Services

The TDTASK project was intended to allow for the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the development of novel interactive television e-government services, called t-government. Because of its high penetration and openness, Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) became an important communication channel to bring public services to citizens. Through the project, a multichannel platform for dynamic generation of t-government services was developed using the Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) specification. In the first phase of the project, basic services are programmed by a new methodology based on XML. Once finished, volunteer users take usability tests. The second phase of the project focuses on the develop of more powerful and useful t-government services.     

3D television: Developing a multi‐modal multi‐viewer TV system of the future

Abstract— Under the European Union funded Advanced Three‐dimensional Television System Technologies (ATTEST) project, De Montfort University (DMU) is developing a 3D display system targeted specifically at domestic television applications. This system uses a modified transmissive LCD panel together with novel backlighting and optics to project multiple viewing regions, or exit pupils, into the viewing space. These exit pupils are located in space using a head tracker. The display accommodates multiple viewers simultaneously and imposes no physical constraints, such as special eyewear. Viewers may move freely over a “typical” room‐sized area. The design of the backlighting facilitates many other display regimes beyond the “standard” 3DTV mode in which each viewer sees the same image pair.     

Radigost: Interoperable web-based multi-agent platform

Recent improvements of web development technologies, commonly referred to as HTML5, have resulted in an excellent framework for developing a fully-featured, purely web-based multi-agent platform. This paper presents an architecture of such a platform, named Radigost. Radigost agents and parts of the system itself are implemented in JavaScript and executed inside the client's web browser, while an additional set of Java-based components is deployed on an enterprise application server. Radigost is platform-independent, capable of running, without any prior installation or configuration steps, on a wide variety of software and hardware configurations, including personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and modern television sets. The system is standards-compliant and fully interoperable, in the sense that its agents can transparently interact with agents in existing, third-party multi-agent solutions. Finally, performance evaluation results show that the execution speed of Radigost is comparable to that of a non web-based implementation.     

Evolving semantic web with social navigation

The Semantic Web (SW) is a meta-web built on the existing WWW to facilitate its access. SW expresses and exploits dependencies between web pages to yield focused search results. Manual annotation of web pages towards building a SW is hindered by at least two user dependent factors: users do not agree on an annotation standard, which can be used to extricate their pages inter-dependencies; and they are simply too lazy to use, undertake and maintain annotation of pages. In this paper, we present an alternative to exploit web pages dependencies: as users surf the net, they create a virtual surfing trail which can be shared with other users, this parallels social navigation for knowledge. We capture and use these trails to allow subsequent intelligent search of the web.People surfing the net with different interests and objectives do not leave similar and mutually beneficial trails. However, individuals in a given interest group produce trails that are of interest to the whole group. Moreover, special interest groups will be higher motivated than casual users to rate utility of pages they browse. In this paper, we introduce our system KAPUST1.2 (Keeper And Processor of User Surfing Trails). It captures user trails as they search the internet. It constructs a semantic web structure from the trails. The semantic web structure is expressed as a conceptual lattice guiding future searches. KAPUST is deployed as an E-learning software for an undergraduate class. First results indicated that indeed it is possible to process surfing trails into useful knowledge structures which can later be used to produce intelligent searching.     

The Accademia della Crusca: New perspectives in lexicography

The Accademia della Crusca is involved in historical, philological and lexicographical research into the Italian language. First, we provide some background information on the Accademia. Second, we discuss the problems of selectivity and inertia of nineteenth century lexicography, and define modern day requirements. We then consider the contribution of the computer to modern lexicography, and some computer-based dictionary projects, including those undertaken specifically at the Accademia. Giovanni Nencioni is the President of the Accademia della Crusca (Florence, Italy), quondam professor of Italian linguistics in the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa. His main research interests are the history of the literary Italian language and lexicography. He has two major publications: Tra grammatica e retorica, Torino: Einaudi Paperbacks, 1983; and Saggi di lingua antica e moderna, Torino: Rosenberg e Sellier, 1989.     

Sparse feature selection based on graph Laplacian for web image annotation

Confronted with the explosive growth of web images, the web image annotation has become a critical research issue for image search and index. Sparse feature selection plays an important role in improving the efficiency and performance of web image annotation. Meanwhile, it is beneficial to developing an effective mechanism to leverage the unlabeled training data for large-scale web image annotation. In this paper we propose a novel sparse feature selection framework for web image annotation, namely sparse Feature Selection based on Graph Laplacian (FSLG)². FSLG applies the l_2,1/2-matrix norm into the sparse feature selection algorithm to select the most sparse and discriminative features. Additional, graph Laplacian based semi-supervised learning is used to exploit both labeled and unlabeled data for enhancing the annotation performance. An efficient iterative algorithm is designed to optimize the objective function. Extensive experiments on two web image datasets are performed and the results illustrate that our method is promising for large-scale web image annotation.     

一种基于有向图模型的数据广播终端缓存算法

数据广播是将宽带数据广播到智能终端的一项技术,在数字电视领域被广泛采用.越来越多的数据广播前端采用基于浏览器的数据广播,网页内容在这些前端被打包成TS流,经过数据广播信道传输到终端,由集成在机顶盒内的浏览器解析,最终被显示到电视屏幕.本文分析了基于浏览器的数据广播系统,在前端为待传输的树型文件系统构建了有向图模型,并将其转移矩阵播发到终端;在终端提出了基于有向图的LRU-G缓存算法.仿真实验表明,相比LRU和LIX,LRU-G能够有效提高命中率,降低等待时间,改善用户体验.     

Movement in the interface

Interface design for the Web has received less attention in composition and rhetoric than other areas of computer-based communication. In this paper, we introduce the term dynamic interfaces to refer to developments in single screen environments. We see that kinetic interface design involves movement in the interface, through content and via media types. We relate this to a case the BallectroWeb that we developed to report on an educational research project with choreography students. We annotate and discuss this interface and its design, composition and communicability. We suggest that developments in dynamic interfaces may be read as part of an ongoing shift from Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) generated web ‘pages’ to emergent and shifting screen spaces in which movement is significant. We refer to the software Macromedia Flash and close by suggesting some of the main features of dynamic interfaces.