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Experiencing urban film and cultural heritage while on-the move

Descrizione del progetto


Access to and preservation of cultural and scientific resources
Accessing film content on the move

Many people’s first encounter with a foreign city is in the cinema. Imagine if images from the silver screen could be conjured up anew when they do visit.

A device being developed by the CINeSPACE project will give tourists, citizens and film professionals a whole new perspective when visiting a city, offering them film snippets, location-based information and interactive multimedia content to bring a little movie magic to their holidays, collective memories or even to their work.

Cities, meanwhile, will have a new means of promoting their attractions, history and cultural heritage, and possible film locations.

Reality, augmented by films

The device, which has been tested in preliminary trials in Venice in Italy, San Sebastián in Spain and Glasgow in Scotland, looks like a pair of binoculars with a small portable computer, camera and earphones attached. It uses a hybrid tracking system to provide location-based information, and the wireless network of the cities to download and share multimedia content.

As CINeSPACE’s users travel around a city, the device will provide them with film and cultural information when they look through the binoculars – generating an augmented reality experience.

For example, they could gaze through the viewfinder at Saint Mark’s Square in Venice and see snippets from movies in which the Venice landmark featured. They could look at the Lighthouse building in Glasgow and see photographs taken at the same location in the 1950s, or at the Town Hall in San Sebastián and see what films had been shot around it.

Make your own movies

One feature of the system is the ability for users to make their own movies, pictures and audio recordings, and share them with others. Using the device’s small, built-in video camera they can record snippets of what they see as they roam around the city and upload these to the network where they are made available to other users.

Though CINeSPACE is geared toward providing film-related multimedia content, the technology it employs could be used for providing a wide array of location-based services and information in many different scenarios.

Trials in Glasgow, Venice and San Sebastián

In the Glasgow trial, for example, the system has been used with local citizens so they can share stories and information about the collective memory of their home town.

In San Sebastián, the device was used for film professionals to scout potential shooting locations, letting them access historical and logistical information. The scouts could, for example, see in advance what a certain area looked like a century ago or how a building appeared before it was renovated.

In Venice, the device was tested with film tourists interested in the city’s cinematographic history and in reviewing multimedia content associated with famous Venetian set locations.

Besides providing visitors with a more enriched and immersed experience, the CINeSPACE partners expect their system to spur the production of mobile content and to create new advertising-driven business models for network providers.

Problems of current systems for accessing Cultural Heritage resources which deal with film objects include some of the following aspects: distributed sources which store huge amounts of information; different formats of the contents, ranging from traditional ones such as paper to advanced multimedia objects; and finally, and what is more crucial for the content providers, lack of systems which support currently the needs of the user such as enriched content, interaction with the information, usability, and exchange of experiences with other users.Taking into account these gaps detected by cities with a strong connection with the Film sector, CINeSPACE aims at designing and implementing a mobile rich media collaboratie information exhange platform, scalable, accessible through a wide variety of networks, and therefore, interoperable and Location-Based for the promotion of Film Heritage, going beyond the current state of the art. CINeSPACE will enable users to interact with Location-Based multimedia contents while navigating a city. Audiovisual information will be delivered through a small low-cost wireless Head Mounted Display with a high definition screen situated near to the eye and audio phones. CINeSPACE system will also comprise a small camera able to record or send what the user is "seeing". This information can be uploaded to a database through a WLAN hot spot or a 3G connection in order to create collaborative experiences with other end users.The consortium of CINeSPACE is composed by three research institutions with expertise in localization and collaborative environments (IGD), content management, indexation and semantic search (VICOM), and content personalization and knowledge representation (LH). Two industries, TRACASA as expert in LBS and administration sector, TRI as the manufacturer of the HMDs, and three Film cities (FSS, CV and SS) provide the contents for developing three scenarios.

Invito a presentare proposte

FP6-2005-IST-5
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Coordinatore

FOMENTO DE SAN SEBASTIAN SA
Contributo UE
€ 268 816,00
Indirizzo
CALLE CAMINO 2
20004 San Sebastian
Spagna

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Noreste País Vasco Gipuzkoa
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Other
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