Project to develop urban-scale internet ecosystems
The University of Southampton, UK, is to develop next-generation internet ecosystems using new technology to provide flexible service delivery technologies to revolutionise personalised, interactive, mobile and localised media services.
The newly launched €7m FLAME project brings together leading industrial players such as Disney, Atos and InterDigital Europe along with smart city operators in Bristol, UK, and Barcelona, Spain, to carry out new urban-scale experimentation of media products and services using adaptive infrastructures.
The project’s co-ordinator Professor Michael Boniface, technical director at the IT Innovation Centre, said: “FLAME provides a unique opportunity to explore the viability of new media ecosystems building on mixed reality, augmented reality and highly localised content, which can be efficiently delivered using adaptive software-defined infrastructures in urban environments.
“Multimedia will dominate the next generation of internet systems driven by citizens’ increasing participation and use of pervasive technologies to have fun, learn and understand the world.
“Success depends on establishing transformative media ecosystems that benefit everyone from consumers and content providers through to the operators of communications, transport and building infrastructures.
The new platform emerging from FLAME will initially be deployed in Bristol and Barcelona with advanced network access points located across the cities and later rolled out to three further cities in Europe through a competitive open call.
The consortium is led by the University of Southampton IT Innovation Centre and includes Atos Spain SA, Spain; InterDigital Europe Ltd, UK; Fundacio Privada i2CAT, Internet I Innovacio Digital a Catalunya, Spain; University of Bristol, UK; Nextworks, Italy; Martel GmbH, Switzerland; De Vlaamse Radio En TelevisieomroeporganisatieNV, Belgium; The Walt Disney Company (Switzerland) GmBH, Switzerland; Eidgenoessische Technische Hockschule Zuerich, Switzerland; and the Institut Municipal d’Informàtica de Barcelona, Spain.
