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A BT researcher is helping television
viewers create their perfect programme. Dr Doug Williams, of the BT group chief technology office's research and venturing department, is technical project manager of a £5.1 million project funded by the European Union - called new media for a new millennium (NM2). Its aim is to help viewers edit programmes so they can watch their favourite moments - and cut out bits they'd rather forget. NM2 will have as its end game the development of a completely new media genre - allowing audiences to create their own media worlds based on their specific interests or tastes. Viewers will be able to participate in storylines, manipulate plots and even choose the sets and props of TV shows. BT is one of 13 partners involved in the three-year project and will be contributing software that uses content recognition algorithms. The project will work on seven productions as it develops a set of software tools that will allow viewers to edit content to their needs. Doug said: "The BBC is allowing us access to the material so that we can prove the technology and the principles. "The TV at the moment is a relatively dumb box which receives signals. This project is about teaching the machine to look at content like Lego blocks that can be reassembled to make perfect sense. "At the moment we have interactive gaming and a limited form of interactive TV, which usually means allowing audiences to vote on shows. We are hoping to occupy the space in between," he added.
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