Davey Winder
Friday, 27 June 2008 20:17
Business IT -
Networking
Page 2 of 3
The
BBC reports how one group of
hackers, having just been introduced to a new interactive television
programming language called MHEG during a seminar by the BBC, were
quick to prove they could mash something up using it.
And so it was, for the first time in 52 years, a
TV signal was broadcast from Alexandra Palace. Not a very strong one,
mind you, but it had the range to fill the hall which was all that
mattered. The developers got stuck in to using this full DVB-T
multiplex broadcasting to a number of channels, along with the provided
back end interactive systems, to create an automatic language
translation for live television.
In fact, the collected judges were so impressed by the efforts of the
Northender team that it was awarded the 'best hack of the event' prize.
The mashup worked by feeding the digital subtitles sent in a broadcast
into a computer which then translated them into another language before
passing the end result through a speech synthesizer, and all
lip-synched to the TV output.
To demonstrate this mashup, the team used a broadcast of the popular UK
soap 'EastEnders' nut turned the cast from cockneys into a bunch of
robotic sounding Germans instead.
Another team also used the subtitles but to a much different effect.
Team Bob parsed them for certain keywords which were then painted by
the computer onto the cards being held by Bob Dylan in a broadcast of
the classic Subterranean Homesick Blues video.
Saving the best until last. Read about the carbon goggles on the next page...
CONTINUED
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