VISNET II

VISNET II is a Network of Excellence supported by the European Commission within the VI FP-ICT (VI Framework Programme, Information and Communication Technologies) with a clear vision for integration, research and dissemination plans. VISNET II aims at strengthening scientific and technological excellence on the area of networked audiovisual media technologies by integrating resources and expertise on that topic. The project includes a wide range of jointly executed research activities that are clustered in three themes: video coding, audiovisual processing and security.

More specifically, the VISNET II consortium members are conducting research in topics such as:

• Videol coding techniques to enable rich visual services with scalable formats, advanced video coding techniques (e.g. distributed video coding) looking at aspects of coding efficiency by experimenting new coding techniques, and of error resilience and scalability with emphasis on quality optimisation in both error free and error prone networking conditions; adaptation of content to users’ contextual information, preferences and psychological conditions (e.g. mood, perceptions, emotions etc) and natural environments.
• Intelligent audiovisual content analysis to enhance and facilitate the personalised and seamless access to and retrieval of audio visual content, covering topics such as intelligent metadata extraction techniques, automatic annotation and multimedia indexing, video segmentation and tracking; human body detection and tracking, face recognition as well as music/audio and speech analysis.
• Distributed and secure access platforms using middleware layers and providing the architectural support for interoperability and context-aware and adaptable services; network technologies embracing new paradigms to QoS and security; cross-network delivery and access/retrieval of audio visual content via low power terminals and using low-complexity techniques.

VISNET II demonstrates the formation of a critical mass by putting together 12 leading organizations across Europe in the field of networked AV systems and home platforms. The consortium consists of 9 universities, 1 research institute, and 2 industrial Telecom companies.

·      University of Surrey, UK
·       Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz Institute, D
·       Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH
·       Instituto Superior Técnico, PT
·       Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, SP
·       Thales Research and Technology, UK
·       Technical University Berlin, D
·       Telecom Italia Lab, IT
·       Universitat Pompeu Fabra, SP
·       Politecnico di Milano, IT
·       Warsaw University of Technology, PL
·       Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores do Porto, PT

All members are known for their proven track record in audiovisual information and networking technologies and enjoy a national and international reputation in the field. VISNET II integrates a number of researchers who have made significant contributions to the advance of this field through standardization activities, books and paper publications, patents and spin-off SMEs, as well as many other academic and industrial achievements.