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Togetherness in the cloud

TA2 – or Together Anywhere, Together Anytime - is an exciting project attracting much attention in the exhibition hall at the FI Conference Week in Ghent.

The project, which began in February, 2008, is working on video communication in the home market, looking to enhance user experience by employing a virtual director. Instead of a static screen shot of the person or people you are speaking to, the director automatically responds to voice, movement and other cues to focus in on the speaker, change angles and generally create a much more dynamic viewing experience for all involved, an experience that focuses on all those taking part dynamically rather than one at a time.

That is the basic demonstration the project, which has partners including Alcatel-Lucent, BT, Philips, Ravensburger, Fraunhofer and many more, taking place in Ghent. Further applications for the technology include the playing of games and other social activities for families and friends over distance, all with the overall vision of “improving relationships between groups”.

There is huge commercial potential for this work in the domestic market place and TA2 will be seeking to exploit this when the project ends in January 2012. Already there are extensions to the work planned, with further work looking at potential use for enterprise.

For more information about the project visit the website at www.ta2-project.eu. The technical project manager for TA2 is Doug Williams at BT Exact. Email him at doug.williams@bt.com