Converged digital TV services: the role of middleware and future directions of interactive television

The subject of the future of the interactive Television medium has become a topic of great interest to the academic and industrial communities particularly since in the recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the pace of innovation of convergence of digital TV systems and services. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of what we know as digital TV converged services, to present and categorise the digital Television middleware technologies that contributed to it, and to present possible future trends and directions. A new Television era of converged wireless and mobile content delivery, user-authored content, multimodal interaction, intelligent personalisation, smart space awareness, and 3D content sensations is foreseen, creating ambient and immersive experiences

Multimodal Content Delivery for Geo-services

This thesis describes a body of work carried out over several research projects in the area of multimodal interaction for location-based services. Research in this area has progressed from using simulated mobile environments to demonstrate the visual modality, to the ubiquitous delivery of rich media using multimodal interfaces (geo- services). To effectively deliver these services, research focused on innovative solutions to real-world problems in a number of disciplines including geo-location, mobile spatial interaction, location-based services, rich media interfaces and auditory user interfaces. My original contributions to knowledge are made in the areas of multimodal interaction underpinned by advances in geo-location technology and supported by the proliferation of mobile device technology into modern life. Accurate positioning is a known problem for location-based services, contributions in the area of mobile positioning demonstrate a hybrid positioning technology for mobile devices that uses terrestrial beacons to trilaterate position. Information overload is an active concern for location-based applications that struggle to manage large amounts of data, contributions in the area of egocentric visibility that filter data based on field-of-view demonstrate novel forms of multimodal input. One of the more pertinent characteristics of these applications is the delivery or output modality employed (auditory, visual or tactile). Further contributions in the area of multimodal content delivery are made, where multiple modalities are used to deliver information using graphical user interfaces, tactile interfaces and more notably auditory user interfaces. It is demonstrated how a combination of these interfaces can be used to synergistically deliver context sensitive rich media to users - in a responsive way - based on usage scenarios that consider the affordance of the device, the geographical position and bearing of the device and also the location of the device

MediaSync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization

This book provides an approachable overview of the most recent advances in the fascinating field of media synchronization (mediasync), gathering contributions from the most representative and influential experts. Understanding the challenges of this field in the current multi-sensory, multi-device, and multi-protocol world is not an easy task. The book revisits the foundations of mediasync, including theoretical frameworks and models, highlights ongoing research efforts, like hybrid broadband broadcast (HBB) delivery and users' perception modeling (i.e., Quality of Experience or QoE), and paves the way for the future (e.g., towards the deployment of multi-sensory and ultra-realistic experiences). Although many advances around mediasync have been devised and deployed, this area of research is getting renewed attention to overcome remaining challenges in the next-generation (heterogeneous and ubiquitous) media ecosystem. Given the significant advances in this research area, its current relevance and the multiple disciplines it involves, the availability of a reference book on mediasync becomes necessary. This book fills the gap in this context. In particular, it addresses key aspects and reviews the most relevant contributions within the mediasync research space, from different perspectives. Mediasync: Handbook on Multimedia Synchronization is the perfect companion for scholars and practitioners that want to acquire strong knowledge about this research area, and also approach the challenges behind ensuring the best mediated experiences, by providing the adequate synchronization between the media elements that constitute these experiences

Deliverable D8.2 First market analysis

This deliverable provides an overview of a first market analysis of the IPTV market. It points out possible customers, competitors and the differences between LinkedTV and their competitive firms

A Distributed Service Delivery Platform for Automotive Environments: Enhancing Communication Capabilities of an M2M Service Platform for Automotive Application

Full version: Access restricted permanently due to 3rd party copyright restrictions. Restriction set on 11.04.2018 by SE, Doctoral CollegeThe automotive domain is changing. On the way to more convenient, safe, and efficient vehicles, the role of electronic controllers and particularly software has increased significantly for many years, and vehicles have become software-intensive systems. Furthermore, vehicles are connected to the Internet to enable Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and enhanced In-Vehicle Infotainment functionalities. This widens the automotive software and system landscape beyond the physical vehicle boundaries to presently include as well external backend servers in the cloud. Moreover, the connectivity facilitates new kinds of distributed functionalities, making the vehicle a part of an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and thus an important example for a future Internet of Things (IoT). Manufacturers, however, are confronted with the challenging task of integrating these ever-increasing range of functionalities with heterogeneous or even contradictory requirements into a homogenous overall system. This requires new software platforms and architectural approaches. In this regard, the connectivity to fixed side backend systems not only introduces additional challenges, but also enables new approaches for addressing them. The vehicle-to-backend approaches currently emerging are dominated by proprietary solutions, which is in clear contradiction to the requirements of ITS scenarios which call for interoperability within the broad scope of vehicles and manufacturers. Therefore, this research aims at the development and propagation of a new concept of a universal distributed Automotive Service Delivery Platform (ASDP), as enabler for future automotive functionalities, not limited to ITS applications. Since Machine-to-Machine communication (M2M) is considered as a primary building block for the IoT, emergent standards such as the oneM2M service platform are selected as the initial architectural hypothesis for the realisation of an ASDP. Accordingly, this project describes a oneM2M-based ASDP as a reference configuration of the oneM2M service platform for automotive environments. In the research, the general applicability of the oneM2M service platform for the proposed ASDP is shown. However, the research also identifies shortcomings of the current oneM2M platform with respect to the capabilities needed for efficient communication and data exchange policies. It is pointed out that, for example, distributed traffic efficiency or vehicle maintenance functionalities are not efficiently treated by the standard. This may also have negative privacy impacts. Following this analysis, this research proposes novel enhancements to the oneM2M service platform, such as application-data-dependent criteria for data exchange and policy aggregation. The feasibility and advancements of the newly proposed approach are evaluated by means of proof-of-concept implementation and experiments with selected automotive scenarios. The results show the benefits of the proposed enhancements for a oneM2M-based ASDP, without neglecting to indicate their advantages for other domains of the oneM2M landscape where they could be applied as well

Modern Information Systems

The development of modern information systems is a demanding task. New technologies and tools are designed, implemented and presented in the market on a daily bases. User needs change dramatically fast and the IT industry copes to reach the level of efficiency and adaptability for its systems in order to be competitive and up-to-date. Thus, the realization of modern information systems with great characteristics and functionalities implemented for specific areas of interest is a fact of our modern and demanding digital society and this is the main scope of this book. Therefore, this book aims to present a number of innovative and recently developed information systems. It is titled "Modern Information Systems" and includes 8 chapters. This book may assist researchers on studying the innovative functions of modern systems in various areas like health, telematics, knowledge management, etc. It can also assist young students in capturing the new research tendencies of the information systems' development