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Showing papers by "Marco Furini published in 2008"


Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Feb 2008
TL;DR: This work proposes a novel utilization paradigm of Internet technologies which is aimed at liberating part of resources that are captured but not used by egocentric applications to give them back to a possible common (and altruistic) use.
Abstract: Internet and the latest correlated technologies, such as Web 2.0, represent inventions that have changed the world with their social contribution. Yet, digital divide and cyber-balkanization are Internet's discriminatory phenomena well known by field experts. In addition, we want now to raise the attention on the actual employment of these technologies: the vast potential within the Internet is currently dispersed in millions of applications devoted to frivolous and egocentric utilizations. Being (almost) the only use people have made of the most pervasive communication system ever made, this represents an unacceptable waste of opportunities. To revert this trend, we propose a novel utilization paradigm of Internet technologies which is aimed at liberating part of resources that are captured but not used by egocentric applications to give them back to a possible common (and altruistic) use.

42 citations


Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Feb 2008
TL;DR: Results show that clustering techniques can be useful only for some categories of videos and only if the selection process is based on video scene characteristics, and that to provide a customized service, only fast clustering algorithm should be used.
Abstract: A tool to provide an idea of the content of a given video is becoming a need in the current Web scenario, where the presence of videos is increasing day after day. Dynamic summarization techniques can be used to this aim as they set up a video abstract, by selecting and sequencing short video clips extracted from the original video. Needless to say, the selection process is critical. In this paper we focus our attention on clustering algorithms to provide such selection and we investigate the effects of their employment in the Web scenario. Clustering algorithms are very effective in producing static video summary, but few works consider them for video abstract production. For this reason, we set up an experimental scenario where we investigate their performance considering different categories of video, different abstract lengths and different low-level video analysis. Results show that clustering techniques can be useful only for some categories of videos and only if the selection process is based on video scene characteristics. Furthermore, the investigation also shows that to provide a customized service (user can freely decide the abstract time length), only fast clustering algorithm should be used.

20 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jul 2008
TL;DR: This article proposes a software architecture to easily produce full-motion adventure games for the mobile scenario, and thus potentially transform any modern cellphone into an adventure game console.
Abstract: Simple and easy-to-play casual games are flooding the mobile gaming market and are best-sellers on the mobile game charts of several cellphone network operators. Most of the titles are mobile versions of videogames developed in the '80s and '90s, which were also very simple and easy-to-play. In this article we focus on adventure and movie games, a genre simple, easy-to-play, and very popular in the past. We propose a software architecture to easily produce full-motion adventure games for the mobile scenario, and thus potentially transform any modern cellphone into an adventure game console. The games are portable and protected against un-authorized usage. The feasibility of our approach is shown through a prototype player and an evaluation that shows the suitability of the proposed approach for the mobile scenario. The simplicity of our approach along with the ubiquity of modern cell-phones may bring new life to adventure games, which can also become an exciting genre for the current mobile gaming scenario.

19 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An experimental assessment shows that Fast Play produces videos that are informative, enjoyable, largely reduced, and also shows that users really appreciate the Fast Play feature as it produces a pleasant surrogate of the original video.
Abstract: The advent of digital devices with innovative features has changed the world of home video entertainment. Nowadays we have access to devices that store several hours of video material, skip commercials, and even pause the play out of a live event. Despite these innovative features, modern digital devices access to recorded material in a way very similar to old analog VCRs. In this paper we propose Fast Play, a mechanism that uses simple low-level audio and video analysis to provide a novel feature in digital video devices. This novel feature is a hybrid between the classic Play service and the Fast-Forward service, and aims at playing out videos in a time-reduced manner, by maintaining the time evolving nature of the original video, and by providing videos with completely intelligible audio. An experimental assessment shows that Fast Play produces videos that are informative, enjoyable, largely reduced, and also shows that users really appreciate the Fast Play feature as it produces a pleasant surrogate of the original video.

19 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The approach evaluation shows that the employment of an effective incentive mechanism can mitigate the problems of the current mobile music scenario, as it provides benefits to customers, cellphone network providers and music stores.
Abstract: Record labels and telecoms are using the pervasiveness of mobile technologies to create a mobile music market, where customers can have their preferred music at any time and in any place. The idea is to replicate the successful strategy of the Internet-based music market into the mobile scenario. In this paper we first analyze the current mobile music market and we show that this strategy leads to several problems (e.g., excessive download time, cost and protection). As a second contribution, we propose and analyze a multi-channel distribution strategy, where customers can cooperate to music distribution. The approach is based on the cellphone network, the free-of-charge communication technologies provided by cellphones, and on an incentive mechanism that financially compensates users for their cooperation in music distribution. The approach evaluation shows that the employment of an effective incentive mechanism can mitigate the problems of the current mobile music scenario, as it provides benefits to customers, cellphone network providers and music stores.

17 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An architecture to produce interactive audiobooks, so as to transform a passive listener into a story director and to ensure transparency the approach uses AAC/MP3 format for the audio stream encoding and the ISO Base Media File Format for the audiobook file format.
Abstract: The digital home entertainment market is growing at an exceptional speed and, although limited to passive listeners, audiobook applications are growing at an annual rate of nearly 20% and hence are playing an important role inside this market. In this paper we propose an architecture to produce interactive audiobooks, so as to transform a passive listener into a story director. Our approach allows interacting with the storyline and the story develops according to the user choices. To ensure transparency the approach uses AAC/MP3 format for the audio stream encoding, the MPEG7 MDS for the audio description and the ISO Base Media File Format for the audiobook file format. A security mechanism protects contents from piracy and malicious alterations. The simplicity of our approach, along with the growing usage of portable devices, may increase the attractiveness and the popularity of audiobooks.

5 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: One of the key issues is how to structure this universe of devices and applications, without bothering users with an explicit awareness of the underlying communications and computing technologies, while guaranteeing to them a full control on the results.
Abstract: Recent technological advancements have transformed almost any computer, electronic device and appliance into concrete multimedia systems. From a simple laptop to the hype iPod, from wearable computers to wireless sensors, from RFID tags to cell phones, those systems have pervasively got into our homes, offices and places where we have fun, deeply revolutionizing our lifestyle and common habits. What’s really new here is that, surprisingly, not only we can use these devices in a passive way, to listen to music or watch TV for example, but we can use them to customize and adapt all the information we want to receive: We are about to spend our days in an environment saturated with computing and communication devices able to produce and/or adapt a lot of multimedia contents, based on a set of sophisticated interactions these systems carry out with us, as well as with the environment surrounding us. One of the key issues is how to structure this universe of devices and applications, without bothering users with an explicit awareness of the underlying communications and computing technologies, while guaranteeing to them a full control on the results. To this Multimed Tools Appl (2008) 37:261–262 DOI 10.1007/s11042-007-0175-y

1 citations