dualStream now offers a complete set of products for broadcast head-ends, analyzing & monitoring, hybrid broadcast-broadband networks and connected TV applications. The DVB-T2 focused solutions lead the field in terms of flexibility and efficiency. Visit their website www.dualstream.com!

Abstract

This article presents a summary of the research work of the same title, developed thanks to the grant awarded by the CAC in the VII call of research projects on audiovisual communication. After studying the degree of implementation of speech synthesis systems in Catalonia, we analyze the feasibility of its use for the creation of audiovisual productions.

This article presents the findings of the field study and the experiments developed after adapting the speech synthesis system of La Salle (Universitat Ramon Llull) to the Catalan language.

Keywords
speech synthesis, audiovisual productions, audio description, subjective assessment of quality.

Link to the paper here.

Medialab La Salle is a unique infrastructure that consist of a 24 cameras of the award winning Vicon system that provides high quality motion capture that can be used for computer animation, videogames or biomechanics applications, among others.  You may have a look to this video to learn about the process.

Title:  Transmission of videogames on hybrid TV platforms

Abstract:  In this paper we present a new transmission system of videogames on hybrid interactive TV platforms, combining games that come from broadcast and broadband channels according to user needs and available technology. In fact, the technology developed for this project is based on the HbbTV standard, extending some modules to adapt this standard to TRANSGAME project needs.

This work has been supported by Plan Avanza 2 of the Spanish Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio.

These are the first trials carried out in Spain with Multi-PLP and SFN and aim to validate the interoperability among different equipment and the performance of the standard especially in mobile and portable scenarios. The network consists of a DVB-T2 Gateway with Multiple-PLP and SFN support and two transmitters (Collserola and Zona Franca).

CTMedia La Salle has provided its DVB-T2 Gateway with support for Multi-PLP and SFN and it has been successfully tested against different modulators (MIER, Teamcast, EGATEL, ENENSYS) and receivers (Teamcast, ENENSYS, SONY). University of the Basque Country has been working on the definition of the test modes and on the measurement process that has been carried out in the area of Barcelona.

CTMedia La Salle will continue its work in DVB-T2 during the coming months by the development of advanced DVB-T2 functionalities (FEF’s, DVB-T2 Lite, …) that will be tested in this framework.

UPDATE (5/10/12) : this DVB-T2 gateway is currently commercialized under the brand dualStream, have a look to this web site for further information: www.dualstream.tv/products/dvb-t2-multi-gateway/

La Salle is participating in a DVB-T2 field trial in Spain together with
Abertis Telecom within the framework of the ENGINES project
(www.it.abo.fi/engines). ENGINES is a CELTIC project and has as main
objective the validation and development of the DVB-T2 and DVB-NGH
technologies. 

These trials are the first carried out in Spain with Multi-PLP and SFN and
aim to validate the interoperability among different equipment and the
performance of the standard especially in mobile and portable scenarios.
The network consists of a DVB-T2 Gateway with Multiple-PLP and SFN support
and two transmitters (Collserola and Zona Franca).

La Salle has provided its DVB-T2 Gateway with support for Multi-PLP and
SFN and it has been tested against different modulators (MIER, Teamcast,
EGATEL, ENENSYS) and receivers (Teamcast, ENENSYS, SONY). Universidad del
Pais Vasco has been working on the definition of the test modes and on the
measurement process that has been carried out in the area of Barcelona.

La Salle will continue its work in DVB-T2 during the coming months by the
development of advanced DVB-T2 functionalities (FEF’s, DVB-T2 Lite, ...)
that will be tested in this framework.

Complete reference:

Oriol Guasch, “A direct transmissibility formulation for experimental statistical energy analysis with no input power measurements”, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 330 (25), pp. 6223-6236 (2011).

Abstract:

An experimental statistical energy analysis method is proposed that requires neither input power measurements nor strong restrictive hypothesis on the nature of coupling between subsystems. Coupling loss factors are obtained from direct or blocked energy transmissibilities provided that total or internal loss factors are known, for instance, from application of the energy decay rate method. In turn, direct transmissibilities are computed from standard measurable energy transmissibilities, following the ideas of the direct transfer approach to transmission path analysis. The theoretical background of the proposed formulation is presented together with a numerical example to indicate how it could be applied in a practical case.

Link:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022460X11006249

Pere Artís presented the paper “Experimental analysis and numerical methods applied to transmission path analysis in buildings: VITRASO project”, co-authored with Dr. Oriol Guasch and Carlos García. The paper is an outcome of the VITRASO project that La Salle leads in partnership with FCC, Applus and ICR, among others.

Xavier Valero presented the contribution “Automatic monitoring of environmental noise sources”, co-authored with Dr. Francesc Alías. Xavier also chaired the students and young professionals meeting, organised as satellite event within the congress.

“Experimental analysis and numerical methods applied to transmission path analysis in buildings: VITRASO project”

Experimental as well as numerical methods are usually required to store noise and vibration transmission path problems between sources and receivers in buildings. In this piece of research new experimental methods have been developed based on the direct transmissibility concept. These have been correlated with finite element (FEM), hybrid and statistical energy analysis (SEA) models. All work has been performed in the framework of the VITRASO project, led by FCC and with participation of Applus, ICR, IMAT and La Salle.

“Automatic monitoring of environmental noise sources”

Traditionally, research in the audio recognition field has focused on the analysis of voice and music signals. However, in recent years a growing interest in the recognition of environmental sound has been observed, given its multiple potential applications such as automatic identification of acoustic scenes, their integration into surveillance and security systems or the automatic monitoring of environmental noise sources. This paper deals with the latter application, focusing on the search of acoustic signal descriptors that enable an optimal representation of the different noise sources.

TITLE: User’s Emotional Evaluation of the Architectural Imagery Experience according to the Visualized Environment

SUMMARY:

Throughout history, imagery visualization has extended practically to all fields: painting, photography, medicine or education, are some of the examples that illustrate the importance of imagery in different societies.Previous studies have demonstrated that imagery visualization has implications in the user’s psychological and emotional ambit. Mostly, these studies have focused their efforts in how and to what extent imagery is capable of influencing emotions. In our work, we pretend to go one step further. An image by itself lacks importance without the user who sees, interprets and associates a meaning.

When viewing, we are dependent on factors that influence the emotional creation: the environment in which the image is visualized, the typology, the user, the surroundings where this process occurs, etc. and should have been taken into account at the beginning of the process: the moment when designing the image.

In the empirical way, the data we have obtained, demonstrate how the user, imagery and environment influence the process of generating an emotion. The differences obtained must serve as premises in the designing of the contents so that we are capable of personalizing every element of the study (user, imagery and environment) in order to maximize the empathy of the visual information, in our case, architectural imagery.

KEYWORDS: Photography, Media and Technology, Usability, User Experience, Architecture.

Abstract: Consensus clustering, i.e. the task of combining the outcomes of several  clustering systems into a single partition, has lately attracted the  attention of researchers in the unsupervised classification field, as it  allows the creation of clustering committees that can be applied with  multiple interesting purposes, such as knowledge reuse or distributed  clustering. However, little attention has been paid to the development  of algorithms, known as consensus functions, especially designed for  consolidating the outcomes of multiple fuzzy (or soft) clustering  systems into a single fuzzy partition—despite the fact that fuzzy  clustering is far more informative than its crisp counterpart, as it  provides information regarding the degree of association between objects  and clusters that can be helpful for deriving richer descriptive data  models. For this reason, this paper presents a set of fuzzy consensus  functions capable of creating soft consensus partitions by fusing a  collection of fuzzy clusterings. Our proposals base clustering  combination on a cluster disambiguation process followed by the  application of positional and confidence voting techniques. The modular  design of these algorithms makes it possible to sequence their  constituting steps in different manners, which allows to derive versions  of the proposed consensus functions optimized from a computational  standpoint. The proposed consensus functions have been evaluated in  terms of the quality of the consensus partitions they deliver and in  terms of their running time on multiple benchmark data sets. A  comparison against several representative state-of-the-art consensus  functions reveals that our proposals constitute an appealing alternative  for conducting fuzzy consensus clustering, as they are capable of  yielding high quality consensus partitions at a low computational cost.

On-line publication here.

More information about loudness can be found here