The ACM MMSys 2016 in Klagenfurt, Austria will host two special sessions, one on Augmented Reality (AR) and one on Media Synchronization (MediaSync). The former is a continuation of MMSys 2015 which hosted the first edition of this special session and should foster the strong connection between multimedia systems and augmented reality. The latter addresses a key research topic known from “libsync” issues back in the 90’s and is becoming an important research area again due to new ways to communicate and interact with multimodal multimedia content.
Augmented reality is an emerging interface concept which is at the confluence of many state-of-the-art technologies and trends, such as camera-equipped smartphones and tablets, head-mounted and wearable displays, wearable cameras, mobile apps and games, global-scale 3D mapping, and visual search. Research in augmented reality deals especially with systems issues and integration of technologies, and often involves innovative system design as well the development of novel system components. This broad and interdisciplinary field connects many research areas, including computer vision, computer graphics, mobile and embedded systems, displays and optics, and user interface design, and finds application in a broad range of areas, including the entertainment, industry, military and commercial sectors.
This special session is organized by Jonathan Ventura and Carl S. Marshall. Further information about the special session on augmented reality can be found here.
Media synchronization has been a key research area since the early development of (distributed) multimedia systems. Over the years, solutions to achieve intra- and inter-media synchronization in a variety of (mostly audiovisual) applications and scenarios have been proposed. However, it is not by far a solved research problem, as the latest advances in multimedia systems bring new challenges. The coexistence and integration of novel data types (e.g., multi-sensorial media or mulsemedia), advanced encoding techniques, multiple delivery technologies, together with the rise of heterogeneous and ubiquitous connected devices, are resulting in a complex media ecosystem for which evolved, or even new radical, synchronization solutions need to be devised.
This special session is organized by Pablo Cesar, Fernando Boronat, Mario Montagud, Alexander Raake, and Zixia Huang. Further information about the special session on media synchronization can be found here.
Finally, we’d like to share some pictures from around the venue taken in September 2015. We hope to welcome at MMSys in May 2016 in Klagenfurt and offer you a similar view.
