The Economic Impact of the Arts, Film, History and Tourism Industries in Connecticut

This report contains four ecnomic impact studies corresponding to the four divisions (arts, film, historic preservation, and tourism) of the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism that commissioned them. There is an Executive Summar, the four industry studies, and a methodological overview that includes a discussion of the overall approach, economic impact multipliers, data sources, and an explanation of the conservative nature of the studies.Arts, Film, Historic preservation, heritage, Tourism, travel, impact, Connecticut,

CHORUS Deliverable 2.1: State of the Art on Multimedia Search Engines

Based on the information provided by European projects and national initiatives related to multimedia search as well as domains experts that participated in the CHORUS Think-thanks and workshops, this document reports on the state of the art related to multimedia content search from, a technical, and socio-economic perspective. The technical perspective includes an up to date view on content based indexing and retrieval technologies, multimedia search in the context of mobile devices and peer-to-peer networks, and an overview of current evaluation and benchmark inititiatives to measure the performance of multimedia search engines. From a socio-economic perspective we inventorize the impact and legal consequences of these technical advances and point out future directions of research

Artificial Intelligence in the Creative Industries: A Review

This paper reviews the current state of the art in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies and applications in the context of the creative industries. A brief background of AI, and specifically Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, is provided including Convolutional Neural Network (CNNs), Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). We categorise creative applications into five groups related to how AI technologies are used: i) content creation, ii) information analysis, iii) content enhancement and post production workflows, iv) information extraction and enhancement, and v) data compression. We critically examine the successes and limitations of this rapidly advancing technology in each of these areas. We further differentiate between the use of AI as a creative tool and its potential as a creator in its own right. We foresee that, in the near future, machine learning-based AI will be adopted widely as a tool or collaborative assistant for creativity. In contrast, we observe that the successes of machine learning in domains with fewer constraints, where AI is the `creator', remain modest. The potential of AI (or its developers) to win awards for its original creations in competition with human creatives is also limited, based on contemporary technologies. We therefore conclude that, in the context of creative industries, maximum benefit from AI will be derived where its focus is human centric -- where it is designed to augment, rather than replace, human creativity

THE MAIN APPLICATIONS OF THE INTERNET IN TOURISM MARKETING

The Internet as a marketing media can be of great benefit to virtual all areas of marketing, from marketing research, through market segmentation, targeting and positioning, to the effective use of the marketing mix, and marketing organisation and control. The following discussion does not attempt to provide an exhaustive list of the Net's use in tourism; rather, it simply intends to exemplify its common applications in and main implications for tourism marketing.Internet, tourism, web, marketing

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

Assessing the Economic Impact of Copyright Reform

In 1997, the Canadian government signed two new copyright-related international treaties adopted by the UN's World Intellectual Protection Organization (WIPO) in December 1996: the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). The objective of this paper is to assess the economic impact of the following new or revised rights (on different groups of stakeholders): extending the term of protection of photographs from "50 years" to "the life of the author plus 50 years" (on publishers), introducing an explicit distribution right (on software makers), introducing legal protection for technological protection measures such as encryption (on publishers; software makers; audio-visual producers, multimedia and movie makers), introducing legal protection for rights management information used to identify works and other subject matters (on authors, composers and artists; software makers; audio-visual producers, multimedia and movie makers; publishers). En 1997, le gouvernement canadien a signé deux nouveaux traités internationaux relatifs au droit d'auteur, adoptés en décembre 1996 par l'Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OMPI, ONU) : le Traité de l'OMPI sur le droit d'auteur (WCT) et le Traité de l'OMPI sur les interprétations et exécutions et les phonogrammes (WPPT). Ce rapport a pour objectif de caractériser l'impact économique des droits suivants nouveaux ou révisés (sur diverses parties prenantes) : l'extension de la protection des ?uvres photographiques de « 50 ans » à « la vie de l'auteur plus 50 ans » (sur les éditeurs), l'introduction d'un droit exclusif d'autoriser la mise à la disposition du public de l'original et d'exemplaires de leurs ?uvres (sur les auteurs de programmes d'ordinateur), l'introduction d'une protection juridique appropriée contre la neutralisation des mesures techniques tel le chiffrement (sur les éditeurs, les auteurs de programmes d'ordinateur, les producteurs d'?uvres audio-visuelles, multimedia et cinématographiques), l'introduction d'une protection juridique pour toute information relative au régime des droits permettant d'identifier l'?uvre et diverses conditions (sur les auteurs, compositeurs et interprètes, les auteurs de programmes d'ordinateur, les producteurs d'?uvres audiovisuelles, multimedia et cinématographiques, les éditeurs).Copyrights, WIPO, Economic impact, Droit d'auteur, OMPI, impact économique

Image sequence analysis for emerging interactive multimedia services - The European COST 211 framework

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Flexibility and efficiency of coding, content extraction, and content-based search are key research topics in the field of interactive multimedia. Ongoing ISO MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 activities are targeting standardization to facilitate such services. European COST Telecommunications activities provide a framework for research collaboration. COST 211bis and COST 211ter activities have been instrumental in the definition and development of the ITU-T H.261 and H.263 standards for videoconferencing over ISDN and videophony over regular phone lines, respectively. The group has also contributed significantly to the ISO MPEG-4 activities. At present a significant effort of the COST 211ter group activities is dedicated toward image and video sequence analysis and segmentation—an important technological aspect for the success of emerging object-based MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 multimedia applications. The current work of COST 211 is centered around the test model, called the Analysis Model (AM). The essential feature of the AM is its ability to fuse information from different sources to achieve a high-quality object segmentation. The current information sources are the intermediate results from frame-based (still) color segmentation, motion vector based segmentation, and changedetection-based segmentation. Motion vectors, which form the basis for the motion vector based intermediate segmentation, are estimated from consecutive frames. A recursive shortest spanning tree (RSST) algorithm is used to obtain intermediate color and motion vector based segmentation results. A rule-based region processor fuses the intermediate results; a postprocessor further refines the final segmentation output. The results of the current AM are satisfactory; it is expected that there will be further improvements of the AM within the COST 211 project

BECOMING A GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE PLAYER: THE CASE OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN JAMAICA

This paper uses the NSI approach to examine the prospects for industrial development in Jamaica, a small middle-income developing country. It argues that the present state of the Jamaican NSI is not adequately developed to provide the necessary support to ensure that one of its key emerging industries – the music sector – becomes competitive on global markets. It suggests various policy options aimed at industrial upgrading and better integration with those markets. The type of applied research presented here is highly original and speaks to a wider audience, as it represents a novel attempt to operationalize the concept of NSI in a developing country context, with particular reference to the music and entertainment sector, which is not traditionally treated in the NSI context. This sector, however, has been selected as one of the leading emerging sectors for the Jamaican economy identified in its national industrial policy.

Indo-US FTA: Prospects for the Telecommunication Sector

Since telecommunication is one of the main drivers of economic growth and globalization, WTO (World Trade Organization) negotiations and New Age FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) have focused on liberalizing trade in this sector. The present paper analyses the possibilities of liberalizing trade in telecommunication services if India and its largest trading partner-the US-enter into a bilateral agreement. The study found that India and the US have trade complementarities in telecommunication services and that it should be a priority sector in the FTA negotiations. The study identified certain areas such as R&D related to telecommunication and broadband infrastructure where collaboration between companies of both countries would be mutually beneficial. The study found that telecommunication services have been significantly liberalized in the US FTAs-much beyond the scope of the GATS and the Reference Paper on Basic Telecommunications. While the current policy regime in India is consistent with some of the requests made by the US in its bilateral negotiations, for meeting others, the policy regime needs to be examined and, if required, reformed. The present paper suggests certain reforms which would enhance the productivity, efficiency and global competitiveness of the sector and enable the country to benefit from the bilateral liberalization.Indo-US FTA, GATS, bilateral agreements, telecommunication, services

New advances in vehicular technology and automotive engineering

An automobile was seen as a simple accessory of luxury in the early years of the past century. Therefore, it was an expensive asset which none of the common citizen could afford. It was necessary to pass a long period and waiting for Henry Ford to establish the first plants with the series fabrication. This new industrial paradigm makes easy to the common American to acquire an automobile, either for running away or for working purposes. Since that date, the automotive research grown exponentially to the levels observed in the actuality. Now, the automobiles are indispensable goods; saying with other words, the automobile is a first necessity article in a wide number of aspects of living: for workers to allow them to move from their homes into their workplaces, for transportation of students, for allowing the domestic women in their home tasks, for ambulances to carry people with decease to the hospitals, for transportation of materials, and so on, the list don’t ends. The new goal pursued by the automotive industry is to provide electric vehicles at low cost and with high reliability. This commitment is justified by the oil’s peak extraction on 50s of this century and also by the necessity to reduce the emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere, as well as to reduce the needs of this even more valuable natural resource. In order to achieve this task and to improve the regular cars based on oil, the automotive industry is even more concerned on doing applied research on technology and on fundamental research of new materials. The most important idea to retain from the previous introduction is to clarify the minds of the potential readers for the direct and indirect penetration of the vehicles and the vehicular industry in the today’s life. In this sequence of ideas, this book tries not only to fill a gap by presenting fresh subjects related to the vehicular technology and to the automotive engineering but to provide guidelines for future research. This book account with valuable contributions from worldwide experts of automotive’s field. The amount and type of contributions were judiciously selected to cover a broad range of research. The reader can found the most recent and cutting-edge sources of information divided in four major groups: electronics (power, communications, optics, batteries, alternators and sensors), mechanics (suspension control, torque converters, deformation analysis, structural monitoring), materials (nanotechnology, nanocomposites, lubrificants, biodegradable, composites, structural monitoring) and manufacturing (supply chains). We are sure that you will enjoy this book and will profit with the technical and scientific contents. To finish, we are thankful to all of those who contributed to this book and who made it possible.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio