Making The Multimedia Future A Reality

Media contact:
George Chartier, (703) 306-1070, [email protected]

Program contact:
Deborah Crawford, (703) 306-1339, [email protected]

MAKING THE ëMULTIMEDIA FUTUREí A REALITY: NSF CENTER LINKS HOLLYWOOD WITH SILICON VALLEY Cutting edge projects in scientific inquiry leading to new interactive media

In the next century, a personal computer could know from the inflection in your voice -- or by a smile or frown -- what you want it to do. Basic research in multimedia technology funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is moving us much closer to that reality.

At NSFís engineering research center at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, a team of university researchers is investigating more natural ways to interact with computers than through a mouse or keyboard. The scientists have several partners in the effort, including the film and computer industries, along with federal, state, and local governments.

NSF has committed $12 million over the next five years to the Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC) to overcome numerous engineering, technological, and even psychological barriers that currently prevent ìblue skyî visions of multimedia computing from appearing on the nationís desktops.

The psychology of human-computer ìinterfacesî is just one thorny problem the center faces as researchers attempt to devise better ways to deliver sophisticated electronic presentations that combine text, still images, video, animation, and graphic elements to the desktop computer or the home.

As evidenced by much of the content available on the Internetís World Wide Web and in CD-ROM software, multimedia, although a powerful communications tool, still is in its infancy. Delivering large amounts of video and graphics in ìreal time,î in other words, without lengthy delays in processing and transmission, is a complex problem.

But Deborah Crawford, of NSFís division of electrical and communications systems, notes that ìwe now are at a point in history when we really want to harness these capabilities to improve our quality of life. This center offers us a glimpse of our multimedia future.î

During a recent media briefing at NSFís Arlington headquarters Chrysostomos L. Nikias, the associate dean of USCís engineering school and the centerís director, discussed the multi-faceted technical problems the center hopes to solve. He pointed out, for example, that although it is relatively easy to search large amounts of computerized text to find key words, it is much more difficult to search a segment of digitized video for a single image. Storing and delivering video, each frame of which contains huge amounts of data, also is a tough technical challenge.

Yet breakthroughs in these areas could produce sweeping changes in fields as wide-ranging as medicine, film, manufacturing, and education. The centerís research may one day make it possible for high-school students to conduct ìvirtual experimentsî in chemistry or biology on home computers before coming to class. Or for film editors to combine hundreds of digitally stored sounds instantly on a movie soundtrack. Or for doctors to share three-dimensional data from distant operating rooms. Or even for aerospace workers to don special glasses that superimpose electronic blueprints or X-ray video on a aircraft body to guide them in assembly work.

Nikias added that it may take years of investigation to solve these problems, and that part of the work may not have an immediate commercial benefit. ìBasic engineering research needs to be done in order to make all of these advances,î he noted.

-NSF-

Attachment: A list of IMSCís partners is attached.

Editors: For more information about the center, see:

http://www.usc.edu/dept/imsc/.

IMSCís Partners and Collaborating Entities

National Science Foundation USC Annenberg Center for Communication USC School of Engineering City of Los Angeles County of Los Angeles California Trade and Commerce Agency, State of California Employment Training Panel, State of California Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance NASA Ames

Senior Partners Junior Partners

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Analog Devices Apple Computer Inc. EDS Avid Technology Inc. National Semiconductor Boss Film Studios Natural MicroSystems Corp. Computing Devices International NCR Digital Equipment Corp. Northrop Grumman Fuji Xerox Palo Alto Laboratory Inc. TMH Corp. Goldstar (LG Electronics) Hewlett-Packard Small Company - Special Agreements Hughes IBM Half City Productions Intel Corp. Panoram Technologies Lockheed Martin Physical Optics Corp. Pacific Bell Pulson Communications Philips Multimedia Center Sierra Monolithics Inc. Segasoft Standard Telecom Co. Ltd. Sierra Semiconductor Visual Communications Silicon Graphics Sybase Inc. TRW Collaborators Whittaker Corp.

California Museum of Science and Industry Partners Chicago Pacific Entertainment

Martha Coolidge Productions American Roentgen Ray Society Economics America of California Compression Labs Inc. Ford Motor Company Dolby Laboratories Inc. International Interactive Communications Society Hitachi America Ltd. Knutsen-Rowell Inc. IIlustra Information Technologies Inc. Paramount Pictures Kaiser Electronics Record Factory McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Rocket Science Games Motorola Sound Solutions Rockwell International Two Oceans Entertainment Group Teledyne William Atherton (Actor)