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FOVEAL SYSTEMS
The Center of Vision

Press Release
For Immediate Release

FOVEAL SYSTEMS, LLC
190 Loantaka Way
Madison NJ   07940-1910

Date   December 7, 2001
Contact   Michael Bianchi
Voice   +1 973 822-2085
E-Mail   MBianchi@Foveal.com
Foveal Home Page   http://www.Foveal.com
AutoAuditorium Home Page   http://www.AutoAuditorium.com
Foveal Press Releases   http://www.Foveal.com/PressRelease
This Press Release   http://www.Foveal.com/PressRelease/PR_2001_12_07.html


AutoAuditorium Systems Produce Videos for IBM's e-Seminar Service

There are now three AutoAuditoriumTM Systems, in use at IBM Watson Research in New York state, working in rooms ranging from the 290 seat auditorium in Yorktown Heights to a couple of small classrooms.  Each AutoAuditorium System produces 3-camera video programs of talks, lectures and seminars automatically, without a crew. 

Most of these programs are encoded as MPEG digital recordings and are then made available at the IBM Research laboratories around the world as part of IBM's e-Seminar research project.  A paper published by IBM researchers at the Multimedia Computing and Networking Conference in January 2001 said the archive of programs then totalled 250 hours and was growing by 5-to-10 hours each week.  The addition of the third AutoAuditorium System in August 2001 helped bring the e-Seminar research project to a level of use where people expect talks to be recorded, and those recordings are being watched, globally, with increasing frequency.

While a few programs are still created using production crews, the vast majority of programs are made by the AutoAuditorium Systems.  With the addition automatic video production capabilities in some of the most popular meeting rooms in Hawthorne and Yorktown Heights NY, the barriers of time, schedule and distance are being attacked.  Anyone unable to be in a particular room at a particular time now may have the option of viewing that event as an e-Seminar telecast, either live at another New York location through the IBM video network, or as recordings played from IBM's VideoCharger servers at all of their Research locations.

And when a System is not being used for formal events, there are informal uses.  For example, the AutoAuditorium System in the Hawthorne NY auditorium is part of the "public" facilities available to employees when the room is not reserved or after hours.  If someone wants to rehearse a talk, they can go into the empty auditorium, plug in their laptop computer, turn on the projector and practice.  If they bring a VHS video tape, they can put it in the AutoAuditorium recording VCR, press the AutoAuditorium START button on the lectern, and make a 3-camera video for review later.

Foveal Systems LLC of Madison New Jersey develops and markets the AutoAuditorium System. 

www.AutoAuditorium.com


Where does the name FOVEAL come from?
The fovea is the most sensitive part of the eye, where we see with the greatest clarity.  
Foveal Systems' products are based on computer vision technology, so . . .  


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