Networked Media of the Future

Abstract

This vision of pervasive personalised media services without a central control requires research in several domains. In terms of content and services, there is a need to enable non-professional production of content, creating services that reflect societal needs and facilitate the emergence of multi-party, multi-play services. In terms of access, people require to retrieve their multimedia assets and use them on their devices while being mobile. In terms of collaboration, technologies need to leverage the increasing computing power, data capacity and connectivity of surrounding devices, and exploit them in a distributed fashion. It will require as well to enhance virtual reality and conferencing technologies to enable a more natural and effective team collaboration, and also empower virtual communities to create content and services. Consequently, research need to focus on creating an environment, where all of the human senses are engaged (but not overwhelmed) and where communication via technological means preserves (and maybe augment) the richness and subtle characteristics of human-to-human communications.