Find the most recent information on EU Funding activities in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by visiting our ICT in FP7 website, which covers ICT in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) 2007 - 2013.
Context
Actvities
RTD Themes
Semantic based Knowledge Systems
Today's information networks give physical access to huge volumes of data and thousands of services. However, most of the data is not directly machine-processable, so humans still have to wade through terabytes and petabytes in order to extract meaningful information. Knowledge technologies aim to provide an intelligent middleware layer for information networks, which will enable machine-processing of data (eg through the Semantic Web) and of services (eg through advanced Web Services), making them more directly exploitable.
Over the last ten years, the World Wide Web has evolved into a vast - and indispensable - medium for information, communications and transactions. The downside of this success has been information overload - an explosion of resources that makes it increasingly difficult to access and utilise information and services in ways that add value in our daily lives.
Recently the concept of the Semantic Web has emerged with the aim to make Web resources more machine-understandable. By enabling the context (semantics) of information to be identified and interpreted, the Semantic Web will bring structure to the Web and make it a much more useful, and user-friendly, resource. Also, the concept of Web Services, where online transactional services are loosely coupled through common directories and exchange protocols, is starting to gain ground.
The addition of semantics is only the first step, however, and will not in itself solve the problem of information overload. As well as being able to generate semantic metadata, we need to be able to structure, filter, retrieve and maintain it in a meaningful way - so as to turn 'data' into 'knowledge'. Thus, the longer-term vision is of semantic-based knowledge systems, which automate key parts of the knowledge lifecycle.
For this to happen we need breakthroughs on several fronts. Global collections of knowledge bases should emerge, at first in information-intensive sectors such as science, infotainment and health. Knowledge acquisition and annotation, needs to be (semi)-automated, thus removing a serious bottleneck in building knowledge bases. New types of semantic-based search engines need to evolve to take advantage of these developments.
Knowledge systems will need to reach new levels of scalability. For example, systems may need to support many agents working together or information retrieval scenarios where the content is highly personalised to the users' requirements. Machine learning and inference play an important role in knowledge systems. Breakthroughs can be envisaged for limited systems that can learn continually, or continuously, and which can function over long periods of time. Finally, the quality, value and trustworthiness of content will be a key concern. New generalised trust and confidence models will be needed, based on semantic links and references.
IST's FP5 action line on the Semantic Web resulted in nearly 30 projects relating to semantic content and services, involving over 250 research and industry organisations. This RTD has helped build critical mass in Europe, in particular through supporting the worldwide effort on Semantic Web Advanced Development led by W3C.
In FP6, RTD work has both deepened and broadened. The research aims at maximising the automation of the complete knowledge lifecycle and achieving semantic interoperability between Web resources and services. Key contributing developments to this research will be: content-based multimedia analysis; knowledge representation and reasoning; information/database methods; multi-agent frameworks; adaptive information systems which work under real-life constraints; machine learning and natural language processing. A batch of new projects will be launched shortly from submissions in the first call.
See also:
Smart, cross-media content
The burgeoning array of media technology platforms presents many opportunities but also hurdles for both the creators and consumers of multimedia content. IST research on cross-media content is helping to deliver a smarter and more interactive infrastructure that will enable content to become more adaptable, not only to different technologies but also to users interests. It will aim to help exploit to the full the range and diversity of European creativity, in a world-wide industry.
Digital media have become part of everybody's lives: TV, film, radio, Internet, mobile phones are used in hundreds of millions of European households. Today's digital technologies - PCs and networks - allow users to manipulate and interact with multimedia in increasingly flexible ways. The same technology also allows multimedia to be carried across different platforms.
This is only the start of the content revolution, however. Today's systems offer limited interactivity and functionality, that does not go much beyond browsing menus and downloading streaming media. In future systems, based on digital cross-media platforms, users will have much greater control of the content itself, including objects and sequences within the file or content stream. Over the next ten years content will evolve from today's relatively passive forms into new 'smart' content that is truly interactive and context-aware, and is accessible on the move.
To meet these demands we need to overhaul the digital content value chain to make it more flexible (e.g. less linear), more adaptable to users specific needs and situations and more cost-effective through new business models. With a growing variety of media platforms, producers and content creators are looking for solutions that allow content to be easily adapted for a variety of channels and formats. The ultimate goal is device-independent content, where we 'create once, publish many times, interact everywhere', however, this goes further than reshaping and resizing content - it should also be re-formulated.
Several of the constituent technologies exist or are emerging - the problem is to integrate them and scale them up to a level where they become directly usable. Imagine a scenario where you find yourself with a new camcorder and after six months have generated several hundred digital photos and 10 hours of video. The files are loaded on your PC, together with gigabytes of existing material. A smart content analyser would sort them automatically into content-based themes, e.g. 'beach holidays', 'the children growing up', 'our cat' etc. You would then author your own presentation, and distribute personalised sets of photos and video clips to family members via their PC, PDA or mobile.
IST has a portfolio of around 90 FP5 projects in the interactive electronic publishing area, involving some 500 organisations. They are researching into audio/video creativity, mobile multimedia, personalised content, human representation, virtual reality, interactivity and entertainment, as well as into new business models. Cross media convergence is at the heart of these activities.
In the Sixth Framework Programme, EU research is continuing the long-term effort to develop added-value content technology. RTD in the 2003-2004 IST workprogramme is targeted in several ways:
- it aims at cross-media content in promising leading-edge sectors, especially entertainment and leisure;
- it focuses on the added-value of interactivity for the user;
- and it concentrates on cross-platform customer technologies, ranging from TV, radio, music and mobile phones, to portable information devices.
The strategy addresses key links in the digital content value chain, covering both content creation and content programming. In content creation the research aims to develop technologies to support the creation of new, compelling forms of content for interactive, creative or artistic consumption. The emphasis is on creativity and design, intuitive tools and visionary methods.
Research should aim to develop innovative functionalities within authoring systems, which allow them to reach new, more sophisticated levels of interactivity. Research on content programming environments addresses the need for open, robust and scalable systems and services that meet the needs of digital content suppliers and aggregators. The emphasis is on operational issues such as storage, management and delivery systems. In both areas RTD will be complemented by measures to improve the research infrastructure (e.g. through technology assessment and best practice), to explore the impact of new technologies, and support the integration of digital rights management solutions in the production chain. New projects selected under the second IST call will be launched in the second quarter of 2002.
See also:
- Technical background document for the second IST 2003-2004 call (PDF, 32KB)
- Technical background document for the fourth IST 2005-2006 call (PDF, 73KB)
Overview & Assessment of 1993-2003 activities
The following report provides a broad analysis of what has been achieved over the last 5 years in the areas of knowledge technologies and digital content RTD.
- KMCC Overview Assessment 1999-2003 (PDF, 50KB)