| TV meets the Web Newsletter 23 March 2001 |
IRELAND: RECORD, BROWSE AND PLAY TV PROGRAMMES DIGITALLY ON YOUR PC |
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The Centre for Digital Video Processing at Dublin City University will
develop tools and techniques to automatically analyse and digitally
index TV programmes. The centre has received funding of about IEP400,000
(E507,895) from Enterprise Ireland, as well as an additional IEP350,000
(E444,408) from the EU and other sources. The system, called Físchlár,
which is currently on trial at DCU, records TV programmes for users on
request in digital video format. The system can digitise, record and
analyse programmes from any one of the eight terrestrial TV channels:
RTE 1, Network 2, TV3, TG 4, BBC 1, BBC 2, UTV and Channel 4 and then
allow the users to play and watch them on a PC. The Físchlár system
offers flexibility by allowing users to go into a TV program through a
web browser after the programmes have been recorded and access a series
of up to a few hundred key film frames, depending on the length of the
programme. Each frame summarises one scene of up to five minutes. The
viewer can then click on the frame to see the scene and decide how much
or how little of the programme they want to watch. Físchlár is currently
available at the university's student residences and labs. It can be
accessed via desktops and personal digital assistants (PDAs), and will
in due time be available on mobile phones.
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