New Tools for Collaborative Media Production
The AccessFabrik Lab's New Tools for Collaborative Media Production offer a high-definition, low bandwidth, streamlined experience for transmedia content creation. These tools enable both media researchers and practitioners to work more effectively in a co-production environment. They include: a shared desktop and videoconferencing utility, remote mouse control, as well as captioning and translation services. A practical implementation of these tools would allow video post-production houses to receive instantaneous feedback from participants while working across geographic divides. This reduces the need to transfer large video files between facilities, making workflows more efficient.
Flash Media IP Based Video Switcher
A prototype Virtual Studio, allowing real time production and switching of IP-based audio and video sources from around the world. The system architecture utilizes Flash Media Enterprise Server, allowing a studio client to connect to multiple camera clients and communicate to operators via audio and text intercom. Standard switcher functions including preview and synchronization are provided, and the live show can be unicast or multicast to viewer clients. The virtual studio is designed to act as a test bed for research and development that lowers the barriers to developing real-time multicast applications, such as making adaptive bitrate multi-platform streaming simpler, creating re-usable components to extend social interactions, and moving video production out of the studio and into the ether.
The Global Campus Television Network
This project demonstrates innovative technologies and collaborative productions forums, which have many applications for student broadcasters and researchers. Ryerson's adaptation of Haivision technology allows high definition signals (including bidirectional 1080 HD video, intercom, IFB, and audio, all with imperceptible delay) to be sent via the internet, circumventing prohibitively expensive, delay prone, and complex satellite feeds. The prospective "Global Campus Network" (GCN), will present the first truly collaborative international student perspective of worldwide events and creative endeavors.
Emoti-Chair
The Emoti-Chair is a multisensory interface that uses air jets, actuators, a visual display, and vibrations to enhance the audio-visual experience of film entertainment. By presenting alternative sensory stimuli to the user, the Emoti-Chair creates a crossmodal sensory experience that can invoke, reinforce, and create emotional sensations associated with film or other visual media. One of the components of the Emoti-Chair is the Model Human Cochlea (MHC): this is a sensory substitution technique that displays music using multiple discrete vibrotactle channels that are presented along the back of a canvas chair.
Enhanced Captioning
Due to limitations of conventional text-based closed captions, expressions of paralinguistic and emotive information contained in the soundtrack of television and film content are often missing. We are developing a framework for enhancing captions that uses animation or graphics. It maps a set of standard animation or graphical properties to express five basic emotions. Original animated captions for "Deaf Planet" were created using a graphic designer's interpretation and forms a basis for the framework.
EnACT
EnACT (Emotive and Affective Captioning Tool) allows users to create animated captions. Specifically, EnACT allows the user to assign emotions and emotional intensity values to a television or movie script. The link below will provide a direct link to download the EnACT software.
Alternative Audio Description
Our audio description project is focused on creating and evaluating non-convential audio description techniques for television and film. While a third person narrator is the conventional form, we are evaluating the feasibility of introducing first person narration as an alternative approach to conventional audio description with our content creation partners Smiley Guy Studios.
LiveDescribe
LiveDescribe is a tool created for amateur audio description that will automatically detect non-dialogue portions of a television show. The user is then able to use these empty spaces to input their own custom audio description. Descriptions can then be uploaded to the wiki at livedescribe.com and shared with the world.
ATSC M/H Transmedia Content Development
The purpose of openmobiledtv.org is to create a space where interested and like minded content creators can share information on how to create content, including interactive content, for the new medium of Mobile DTV as standardized by the Advanced Television Standards Committee, ATSC. While the standard has yet to be fully completed and adopted, it has reached a stage where prototypes can be developed. The site's purpose is to develop content authoring skills for the medium as well as developing a means to author content using as much open (or free) software as possible or by employing low cost software solutions that will allow for the creation and testing of content in the Mobile DTV.