|
NSF PR 97-12 - February 13, 1997
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone
numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current
contact information at media
contacts.
Making the 'Multimedia Future' 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 NSF's 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 "blue sky" visions
of multimedia computing from appearing on the nation's
desktops.
The psychology of human-computer "interfaces" 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
Internet's 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 "real time," in other words,
without lengthy delays in processing and transmission,
is a complex problem.
But Deborah Crawford, of NSF's division of electrical
and communications systems, notes that "we 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."
During a recent media briefing at NSF's Arlington
headquarters Chrysostomos L. Nikias, the associate
dean of USC's engineering school and the center's
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 center's research
may one day make it possible for high-school students
to conduct "virtual experiments" 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. "Basic
engineering research needs to be done in order to
make all of these advances," he noted.
Attachment: IMSC's Partners
and Collaborating Entities
Editors: For more information about the center,
see: http://www.usc.edu/dept/imsc
Attachment
IMSC's 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
- Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
- Apple Computer Inc.
- Avid Technology Inc.
- Boss Film Studios
- Computing Devices International
- Digital Equipment Corp.
- Fuji Xerox Palo Alto Laboratory Inc.
- Goldstar (LG Electronics)
- Hewlett-Packard
- Hughes
- IBM
- Intel Corp.
- Lockheed Martin
- Pacific Bell
- Philips Multimedia Center
- Segasoft
- Sierra Semiconductor
- Silicon Graphics
- Sybase Inc.
- TRW
- Whittaker Corp.
Junior Partners
- Analog Devices
- EDS
- National Semiconductor
- Natural MicroSystems Corp.
- NCR
- Northrop Grumman
- TMH Corp.
Small Company - Special Agreements
- Half City Productions
- Panoram Technologies
- Physical Optics Corp.
- Pulson Communications
- Sierra Monolithics Inc.
- Standard Telecom Co. Ltd.
- Visual Communications
Partners
- American Roentgen Ray Society
- Compression Labs Inc.
- Dolby Laboratories Inc.
- Hitachi America Ltd.
- IIlustra Information Technologies Inc.
- Kaiser Electronics
- McDonnell Douglas Aerospace
- Motorola
- Rockwell International
- Teledyne
Collaborators
- California Museum of Science and Industry
- Chicago Pacific Entertainment
- Martha Coolidge Productions
- Economics America of California
- Ford Motor Company
- International Interactive Communications Society
- Knutsen-Rowell Inc.
- Paramount Pictures
- Record Factory
- Rocket Science Games
- Sound Solutions
- Two Oceans Entertainment Group
- William Atherton (Actor)
|
