NMM goes CeBIT 2004
NMM goes CeBIT 2004
Read the same information in German.
Today, home-entertainment systems usually operate isolated and are not
able to connect to other systems - like the PC in the workroom - in order
to access available special-purpose hardware or multimedia
content. Mobile devices like PDAs or cellular phones already offer
multimedia capabilities. But, again, these capabilities cannot be used
by other systems. A multimedia system developed at the Computer
Graphics Lab at the Saarland University in Germany allows to overcome
these limitations: Within this system, stationary and mobile devices
can be connected easily and the capabilities of all networked devices
can be used and combined. This new technology developed by the team of
Prof. Slusallek allows for completely new application
scenarios. Multimedia content can transparently be enjoyed on all
connected devices. Furthermore, media playback can be handed over
spontaneously from one device to another, e.g. from a cellular phone
to the home-entertainment system in the living room. At the same time,
different users can connect to previously started presentations and
simultaneously enjoy the same content on different devices.
All these scenarios are made possible by using a specifically developed multimedia architecture, the "Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware (NMM)". This software is the result of current research activities at the Computer Graphics Lab. The component-based approach of the architecture allows to develop distributed multimedia applications easily. In order to use the capabilities available within the network, distinct parts of a single application can be executed on different devices. This results in completely new "virtual" devices.
Together, the system consists of stationary terminals, the so called "Multimedia-Boxes", and mobile devices, like PDAs or cellular phones. The Multimedia-Box is based on an appealing PC that can be connected to a TV and is then controlled with a remote control. This system offers a customizable and extensible home-entertainment system that already provides the functionalities of a TV, digital video recorder, DVD, CD and MP3 player in a single system.
The networking capabilities of the underlying NMM architecture allow for the seamless integration of mobile devices. Location-aware services can now be realized easily, e.g. spontaneous hand over of media playback from a mobile device to a stationary terminal to use high-fidelity stereo audio output and larger screen space. Furthermore, this allows to access the current TV program received by a stationary system with any networked mobile device. If required, the multimedia data is converted on-the-fly to fit the capabilities of the mobile device.
Additionally, the NMM architecture allows to realize completely new exciting application scenarios: users can connect to already started presentations in order to enjoy the same content simultaneously on different devices. A show being watched on the TV in the living-room can then be accessed on a mobile device synchronously. Furthermore, two users can enjoy the same multimedia content on their particular mobile device -- all with synchronized audio and video presentations.
The NMM project is sponsored by Motorola, Germany, and the Government of the Saarland. The software is running under GNU/Linux and is also available as Open Source.
The system will be demonstrated from March, 18th to 24th, at CeBIT 2004, Saarland Research Parc (hall 11, booth E 30).
More information on the Multimedia-Box and NMM can be found online at http://www.networkmultimedia.org/
For making appointments during CeBIT, call phone: +49 (0)511/89-697669, fax +49 (0)511/89-697670.
For any further questions, feel free to contact Marco Lohse (Computer Graphics Lab, Saarland University, Saarbruecken, Germany; phone: +49-(0)681/302-3869, E-Mail: mlohse@cs.uni-sb.de).
The NMM architecture is also used as underlying infrastructure for two other projects demonstrated at the Saarland Research Parc.
The VCORE-System developed at the Computer Graphics Lab at Saarland University allows to record all aspects of presentations like lectures or talks. In addition to audio and video streams of the speaker, the Linux-based system also stores the slides used or annotations made on a touch-screen. More information about VCORE can be found online at http://graphics.cs.uni-sb.de/VCORE/.
Mobile services for next-generation networks are demonstrated by the UMTS-doit project (http://www.umts-doit.de). The system allows a mobile user to enjoy personalized multimedia content with a UMTS mobile phone, e.g. streaming video access to selected scenes of a TV show recorded by a multimedia system at the user's home.