Newsletter
IMSC e-News, September 2004
Contact: Nichole Phillips, (213) 740-3237 nicholep@imsc.usc.edu.
IMSC DEMONSTRATES FIRST LIVE IMMERSIVE INTERNET ENVIRONMENT - IMSC researchers demonstrated the first-ever live immersive environment over the Internet for a performance by the Mir— Quartet, a nationally known chamber music group, at the annual member meeting of the Internet 2 organization at the University of Texas, Austin, in late September. While the quartet performed for one audience, researchers transmitted their performance in real time to a second audience in another auditorium. At intermission, the two audiences switched places, and, at the end of the show, they were surveyed to assess their experience of immersive environments. The survey results will be reported in an upcoming newsletter. (http://imsc.usc.edu/news/releases/i2_040929.html)
AUDYSSEY LABS INTRODUCES BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGY IN HOME THEATERS - IMSC spin-off Audyssey Laboratories, Inc., of Los Angeles, has introduced breakthrough technology for home theater systems that customizes the listening experience for each person in the room. The technology, called MultEQª, is a feature of the AVR-5805, a new audio/video receiver from Denon Electronics of Japan, a leading manufacturer of high-quality home theater receivers. Denon introduced the receiver at the Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) Exposition in Indianapolis, IN, in early September. The MultEQ technology turns every seat into the best seat in the house, breaking through today's Òsweet spotÓ limitation where only one seat gets the best sound. MultEQ resulted from research in audio signal processing, acoustics, and psychoacoustics at IMSC's Immersive Audio Laboratory, headed by IMSC key investigator Prof. Chris Kyriakakis, a Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Audyssey Labs. (http://imsc.usc.edu/news/releases/audyssey.html).
PROF. SHAHABI AWARDED PRESIDENTIAL EARLY CAREER AWARD - Prof. Cyrus Shahabi, IMSC's Research Area Director for Information Management, received the prestigious 2003 Presidential Early Career Award in a White House ceremony in mid-September. Prof. Shahabi, an associate professor of computer science, received the award for his pioneering research into the management of streams of sensor data created as humans interact with virtual reality environments. Only 20 out of the 400 recipients (or five percent) of the National Science Foundation's annual Early Career Award were selected to receive this additional honor. (http://imsc.usc.edu/news/releases/shahabi_040929.html)
IMSC GRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATED AT SIGGRAPH - At the August SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles, ATI, a graphics vendor, demonstrated technology used in the film, Matrix Reloaded, that was co-developed by J.P. Lewis of IMSC's Computer Graphics and Immersive Technologies Laboratory (CGIT). The Òhuman skin appearance algorithm (subsurface scattering)Ó is a new approach to simulate skin translucency with digital techniques to make virtual characters look real. SIGGRAPH is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques. (IMSC's CGIT Lab: http://graphics.usc.edu/cgit/index.php)
IMSC IN THE NEWS - The Austin American-Statesman, the main paper in Austin, TX, covered the IMSC immersive environment event at the September Internet 2 conference (see above) with numerous photos and an article headlined, ÒConcert demonstrates the future of the Internet.Ó (http://imsc.usc.edu/press/pdfs/04_09_29_austin.pdf) The paper also printed an article two days in advance to announce the event. (http://imsc.usc.edu/press/pdfs/04_09_27_I2_austin_paper.pdf)
Technology Research News published an article on a system being developed by researchers at IMSC, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and ESC Entertainment that will automatically generate detailed icons for specific files. The system will allow people to use visual sensing to identify files and objects to improve computer navigation and real-world organization, according to IMSC key investigator J.P. Lewis. IMSC Director Ulrich Neumann is also a researcher on the project. (http://imsc.usc.edu/press/pdfs/04_09_08_trn.pdf) The article was reprinted in part by the MIT Technology Review. (http://imsc.usc.edu/press/pdfs/04_09_17_mit.pdf)
The Integrated Media Systems Center is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center at the University of Southern California.