SPATION 
project summary

Ended January 2004


IST-2000-28304

Services Platforms and Applications for Transparent Information management in an in-hOme Network
Project Abstract
The characteristics of PCs, huge storage capacity, tremendous processing power, and high flexibility are becoming available for consumer devices like set-top boxes, TVs, and VCRs. Interconnection of these devices and wireless communication with various portable devices will create a complex home system with the capacity to store many types of data and offer new ways of interacting with it. To offer the user high flexibility and ease of use, new solutions are required. Advanced retrieval methods are needed to support accessing data stored anywhere in the home system from any device. Meta-data obtained through analysis, services, and logging user behaviour is needed to support these functions. Transfer of data must be easy, and transfer and adaptation of accompanying meta-data must be transparent to the user. The combination of broadcast, storage, and internet will open the way to new types of applications and interactions with the home system.
Objectives
A large distributed storage space will be available in future home networks consisting of CE equipment, PCs and handheld devices. The objective of this project is to find innovative solutions for the movement, organization and retrieval of information in such a heterogeneous home system. Three major technical issues are to be solved: 
  1. New Meta-data computing methods are needed to support advanced retrieval methods.  This means, we need to solve how to generate meta-data by analyzing the content, how  to combine meta-data from various sources and how to transform meta-data for use by different devices.
  2. We will realize new services providing meta-data, applications and UIs to make retrieval of information easier for non-IT-expert users.
  3. Standards for inter-storage communication need to be extended in the area of handheld devices, meta-data storage and services. 
 Description of work
The project consists of three phases.
During the first phase usage scenarios will be defined and available network technology will be evaluated.
The work performed in the second stage includes the following important tasks:
  • Communication between handheld device and stationary device will be set up.
  • Finding solutions for distributed information and defining APIs for accessing information.
  • Algorithms for the generation, combination and transformation of meta-data will be developed.
  • Results of content analysis will be used for development of applications showing visualization, summarization and retrieval functionality.
  • User interface designs will be defined, and validated by user testing.
  • Applications targeted at services that enrich TV-content by means of meta-data will be developed.

The last phase deals with implementation of a final demonstrator. It will show movement, organization and retrieval of information in a heterogeneous home system consisting of at least three different stationary devices and handheld devices. The final demonstrator will be targeted at presentation at a relevant conference or tradeshow.
Milestones and expected results
M 1 month: 3   -Definition of usage scenarios
M 2 month: 9   -Implementation of handheld device,
M 3 month: 18 -Algorithms for semantic characterization of the content
M 4 month: 24 -Applications finished
M 5 month: 30 -Final Public Demonstration

The project will show user friendly non-expert solutions for the movement, organisation and retrieval of information in a heterogeneous home network.

Participants:

Country:

Role:

Philips Electronics Nederland BV

NL

CO

TOMORROW FOCUS Next Media GmbH

D

CR

Università degli Studi di Brescia

I

CR

Technical University of Denmark

DK

CR

INSTITUT EURECOM

F

CR

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Last update:  02-Feb-2005. (c)  SPATION  project, 2001-2003