Contact: Nichole Phillips, (213) 740-3237 nicholep@imsc.usc.edu.
TECH TRANSFER SUCCESS - Rhythm & Hues, a Hollywood special effects house, used new software from IMSC to add computer-generated effects more easily and many times faster to three new movies - "XMen II," "Daredevil," and "Gigli." IMSC's software, termed "Fastrack" by Rhythm & Hues, reduces the time it takes for a key part of the process-feature tracking in image sequences-from minutes to seconds per frame. The software also reduces the need for hand-corrections by robust tracking of the features. Contact Isaac Maya for more information about IMSC technologies (213-740-2592; imaya@imsc.usc.edu).
IMSC MEDIA SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY DEMOS - IMSC offers a wide array of technology demonstrations developed over the years. This month, we focus on technologies related to media systems, including streaming and collaborative education. For a list of media systems technology demos, go to http://imsc.usc.edu/openhouse/demos/tech. Contact Ann Spurgeon (213-740-4877; aspurgeo@imsc.usc.edu) for more information or to arrange a visit for a personal demonstration.
VIRTUAL CLASSROOM HONORED - The Virtual Classroom, developed by Dr. Albert "Skip" Rizzo, IMSC faculty, for the assessment and treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, received the Best of Show award at the Laval Virtual Reality International Conference and Exhibition in Laval, France, May 12-18. The project also placed first in the medicine and healthcare category in the show, a juried competition. More than 3,000 specialists in virtual reality research and application development attended the conference, and the awards ceremony was broadcast live on French television. For more information, visit http://imsc.usc.edu/research/project/virt_class.html.
CENIC AWARDS IMSC'S RMI - The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) awarded IMSC's Remote Media Immersion (RMI) project an Honorable Mention in the "Gigabit or Bust" award category at its Seventh Annual Conference in May 2003 in Santa Barbara. RMI is the Center's landmark Internet streaming technology. The Gigabit or Bust Award honors the high-performance networking application/technology that best exemplifies what life would be like in a gigabit-connected world. For more information on the competition, go to http://www.cenic.org/CENIC2003/NGIAwards/NGIWinners.htm.
IMSC PRESS PROVIDES LATEST ON RMI & MULTIMEDIA - IMSC Press, the Center's publishing program in partnership with Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference (PHPTR), has just published Streaming Media Server Design, which includes a discussion of major elements of the RMI project. The authors of Streaming Media Server Design are Ali Dashti, Seon Ho Kim, Cyrus Shahabi and Roger Zimmermann. Other IMSC Press titles are:
MULTIMEDIA DEGREE PROGRAMS AVAILABLE - Three Master of Science degree programs created by IMSC faculty that focus on multimedia technologies are offered by USC. Courses can be taken over the Internet through the School of Engineering's Distance Education Network. The degrees are:
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO COMPLETE OUR SURVEY:
Please recommend three prospects for IMSC industry program membership.
Please indicate which five demonstrations and technical areas on our list you are most interested in.
Go to http://imsc.usc.edu/e-news/survey/ for the easy-to-complete web form.
The Integrated Media Systems Center is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center at the University of Southern California.