Axmedis
Encyclopedia
AXMEDIS was initially created as a research project partially supported by the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

 under the Information Society Technologies (IST DG-INFSO) programme of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). It stands for "Automating Production of Cross Media Content for Multi-channel Distribution". Now it is under distribution as a framework, and is still being maintained and improved. A large part of the framework is under open source licensing. The AXMEDIS framework includes a set of tools, models, test cases, documents, etc. supporting the production and distribution of cross media content.

In Brief

The AXMEDIS framework supports the whole content production 'food chain' for cross media content creation, aggregation, adaptation, repurposing, protection and multichannel distribution, with a strong focus on automation.

The market for digital content is rapidly changing. Users are becoming more interested in using more interactive and intelligent content, that example can:
  • include/describe/package several kinds of media (audio, video, games, documents, etc.), reproducing in a single digital object the interactivity and much more powerful entertainment capabilities than DVDs;
  • provide enhanced interactivity such as navigating and selecting content elements to be played, making queries into the content elements, reacting to user commands and changes, providing annotations, etc.;
  • be exchanged and distributed among different devices/tools: PC, mobiles, smart-phones, STB/PVR, HDR
    Hard disk recorder
    A hard disk recorder is a type of direct to disk recording system that uses a high-capacity hard disk to record digital audio or digital video. Hard disk recording systems represent an alternative to more traditional reel-to-reel tape or cassette multitrack systems, and provide editing...

    , PDA
    PDA
    A PDA is most commonly a Personal digital assistant, also known as a Personal data assistant, a mobile electronic device.PDA may also refer to:In science, medicine and technology:...

    , game station, etc.;
  • be obtained from several different interoperable distribution channels based on Internet, P2P
    Peer-to-peer
    Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...

    , wireless mobile, satellite and/or terrestrial networks, etc.;
  • change content behavior according to the context and/or to the user profiles, context, device capabilities, etc.;
  • protect and manage the IPR, that means that the content format has to support some DRM
    Digital rights management
    Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

     model and that this support a set of business models, for example: renting, pay per play, subscription, advertising, etc.;
  • be stored in media centers to be redistributed to other devices;
  • present some autonomy of control, asking to the user to provide information and data;
  • provide autonomous capabilities for example to create an electronic guide, to issues content usage licenses, ask at the user to provide content, etc.;
  • be personally produced at home and/or shared in the network.

These new forms of content and content usages can be fully exploited for digital content distribution, and are opening paths for a larger set of new applications and markets beyond the limitations of the physical media. With AXMEDIS the combinations of digital content formats and digital distribution channels are creating new applications including: user content, shared content, IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...

, DVB, VOD
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

, POD
Point of Delivery
A point of delivery, or POD, is "a module of network, compute, storage, and application components that work together to deliver networking services. The POD is a repeatable pattern, and its components maximize the modularity, scalability, and manageability of data centers." The concept of a design...

, WEBTV, etc., for PC, PDA
PDA
A PDA is most commonly a Personal digital assistant, also known as a Personal data assistant, a mobile electronic device.PDA may also refer to:In science, medicine and technology:...

, mobiles and STB
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...

/PVR. Recent distribution models have been enabled by a set of new technologies grounded on content formats, content processing and adaptation capabilities, content protection models and solutions, hardware capabilities, and new solutions for Digital Rights Management, DRM.

AXMEDIS aims

According to the official AXMEDIS website the main aims are to:
  • reduce the costs of cross media (Multi-media) production and distribution
  • search for and integrate objects and components through a query support system
  • manage and monitor distribution

These objectives are being pursued by integrating research results, algorithms and tools.
AXMEDIS is also a powerful cross media format, in which any kind of content can be hosted for its direct access. It has been derived extending MPEG-21 format with a powerful binary file format based on ISOMEDIA, and several metadata, descriptors and tools.

AXMEDIS objects and their file format

An axmedis object is an MPEG-21
MPEG-21
The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework .MPEG-21 is based on two essential concepts:...

 multimedia object which can virtually contain any kind of multimedia resource, metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

 and rights-related information supporting the MPEG-21
MPEG-21
The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework .MPEG-21 is based on two essential concepts:...

 "Rights Expression Language" (REL).

AXMEDIS content format supports from simple files to complex collections of multimedia for a large range of applications, from business to business to personal and/or global scale production, protection and distribution, with and without DRM. AXMEDIS format and solution can be used:
  • for describing and/or packing and may be protected any kind of digital content, with standard, custom and extended metadata;
  • for cultural heritage valorization and distribution, educational and infotainment content: lessons, coursewares;
  • for content distribution: VOD
    Video on demand
    Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

    , IPTV
    IPTV
    Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...

    , WEBTV, etc.;
  • for modeling content for PC, PDA
    PDA
    A PDA is most commonly a Personal digital assistant, also known as a Personal data assistant, a mobile electronic device.PDA may also refer to:In science, medicine and technology:...

    , P2P, Kiosks and mobiles with interactive parts;
  • as intelligent content having the possibility of defining the internal business model and actions on the content itself, dynamic modeling of content behavior;
  • as interchange content format, wrapping any kind of files, including SMIL
    Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
    SMIL , the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, is a W3C recommended XML markup language for describing multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things...

    , HTML
    HTML
    HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

    , FLASH
    Adobe Flash
    Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

    , MXF
    MXF
    Material eXchange Format is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.- A brief summary of MXF :...

    , etc., for safer audio/visual sharing;
  • for sharing content among B2B
    Business-to-business
    Business-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...

     actors of the value chain, in protected and non protected versions;
  • for leisure and entertainment content: video, TV, games, etc.;
  • for distributing and protecting governmental, military, clinical information;
  • for packaging, protecting and distributing newsML
    NewsML
    NewsML is an XML standard designed to provide a media-independent, structural framework for multi-media news. NewsML was developed by — and is a registered trademark of — the IPTC...

    ;
  • for creating audio guides for PDA
    PDA
    A PDA is most commonly a Personal digital assistant, also known as a Personal data assistant, a mobile electronic device.PDA may also refer to:In science, medicine and technology:...

     and mobiles: windows mobile and iPhone
  • for producing content with advertising (customized and/or real time personalized advertising inside the package or linked to outside);
  • for producing and delivering personalized content inside the package or linked to outside;
  • for managing personally produced content from final users and customers;
  • to provide multichannel experience and distribution: different content on different channels at the same time for multichannel experience of the user.

The above mentioned scenarios and many others can be realized thanks to AXMEDIS technology and tools of: AXMEDIS content format, DRM, controlled P2P, and Content Processing, see
AXMEDIS Technical Notes http://www.axmedis.org/documenti/documenti.php

Main Tools

The AXMEDIS framework consists of a set of tools, accessible also in source code, plus documentation, test cases, specification, content for validation, workflow procedures, examples, grid rules, etc. Following is a (non exhaustive) overview of major tools.

AXMEDIS Editors

These tools enable the manual editing of AXMEDIS MPEG-21 objects.
While the automated production can be performed by using AXCP tools.

AXMEDIS Players

These tools are needed to play axmedis cross media objects (when they are in clean and/or protected). There are various flavours of the players for different devices for PC (standalone, browser plug-in, skinned), mobile, PDA, set top box.
  • PC Windows XP and Vista players: capable of executing many video and audio formats and SMIL, HTML, MPEG-4, video, audio, documents, images, etc., and JavaScript methods. AXMEDIS PC player may provide different skin; Most of the AXMEDIS players can be customized in terms of GUI and functionalities. AXMEDIS Skin based player can be easily customized by a designer changing the graphical look and feel.
  • Active X for IE player to integrate the player into WEB pages and other applications, for example .NET based; See the CrossMedia Finder of AXMEDIS as example http://mobmed.axmedis.org.
  • Plugin for Mozilla FireFox and other internet browsers.
  • PDA Windows Mobile 5 and 6 player, supporting: SMIL
    Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
    SMIL , the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, is a W3C recommended XML markup language for describing multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things...

    , HTML
    HTML
    HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

    , MPEG-4
    MPEG-4
    MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...

    , video, audio, documents, images, etc.;
  • STB/PVR player based on (i) Linux, supporting audio visual, SMIL
    Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
    SMIL , the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, is a W3C recommended XML markup language for describing multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things...

     and HTML
    HTML
    HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

     and on (ii) Kreatel STB;
  • Pure java player for mobiles, supporting: MPEG-21, SMIL, images and audio visual;

AXMEDIS Content Processing, AXCP

These tools are used for the automatic creation, aggregation, processing and distribution of multimedia content with the AXMEDIS format. This is done via scripts written in enhanced Javascript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

. These tools include a Javascript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....

 Integrated development environment
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...

 (IDE), a scheduler and a GRID environment, and a visual designer for AXCP JS rules.
AXMEDIS AXCP can be used to automate your content production, protection and distribution as stated above and in more details into the technical note: AXCP Technical Note. AXCP solution and tools is presently free of charge for any no profit institution. In addition, the full source code is provided to those institutions that are interested to join the develoment community of the AXCP.
The AXCP offers functionalities to support and set up integrated activities of:
  • content Ingestion and gathering, database management, crawling, indexing, archiving, gathering from OAI
    Open Archives Initiative
    The Open Archives Initiative is an attempt to build a "low-barrier interoperability framework" for archives containing digital content . It allows people to harvest metadata...

     (see OAI-PMH), etc.;
  • query, download and publication on social networks: YouTube
    YouTube
    YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

    , Flickr
    Flickr
    Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...

    , XMF, mobile medicine;
  • content storage and retrieval, active querying;
  • content processing, repurposing, adaptation, transmoding, transcoding for text, docs, images, audio, video, multimedia, XML
    XML
    Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

    , SMIL
    Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
    SMIL , the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, is a W3C recommended XML markup language for describing multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things...

    , HTML
    HTML
    HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

    , styles, MXF
    MXF
    Material eXchange Format is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.- A brief summary of MXF :...

    , newsML, MPEG-4
    MPEG-4
    MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...

    , MPEG-21
    MPEG-21
    The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework .MPEG-21 is based on two essential concepts:...

    , etc.;
  • metadata repurposing, adaptation, transcoding, integration, enrichment, validation;
  • content descriptors, extraction and comparison, fingerprint, MPEG-7
    MPEG-7
    MPEG-7 is a multimedia content description standard. It was standardized in ISO/IEC 15938 . This description will be associated with the content itself, to allow fast and efficient searching for material that is of interest to the user. MPEG-7 is formally called Multimedia Content Description...

    , MPEG-21
    MPEG-21
    The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework .MPEG-21 is based on two essential concepts:...

    , etc.;
  • content composition, formatting, layout, styling;
  • communication with databases, FTP, HTTP, P2P and distribution servers via several protocols;
  • content packaging: MPEG-21
    MPEG-21
    The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework .MPEG-21 is based on two essential concepts:...

    , MXF
    MXF
    Material eXchange Format is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards.- A brief summary of MXF :...

    , OMA
    Open Mobile Alliance
    The Open Mobile Alliance is a standards body which develops open standards for the mobile phone industry.- Principles :Mission: To provide interoperable service enablers working across countries, operators and mobile terminals....

    , newsML
    NewsML
    NewsML is an XML standard designed to provide a media-independent, structural framework for multi-media news. NewsML was developed by — and is a registered trademark of — the IPTC...

    , ZIP
    ZIP (file format)
    Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...

    , etc.;
  • content protection via several algorithms;
  • content DRM
    Digital rights management
    Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

     with MPEG-21
    MPEG-21
    The MPEG-21 standard, from the Moving Picture Experts Group, aims at defining an open framework for multimedia applications. MPEG-21 is ratified in the standards ISO/IEC 21000 - Multimedia framework .MPEG-21 is based on two essential concepts:...

     and OMA
    Open Mobile Alliance
    The Open Mobile Alliance is a standards body which develops open standards for the mobile phone industry.- Principles :Mission: To provide interoperable service enablers working across countries, operators and mobile terminals....

    , with tracking and reporting rights exploitation;
  • content licensing, licensing the production of licenses;
  • content publication and distribution toward multiple channels;
  • workflow management integration with BizTalk and OpenFlow;
  • user management: registration, licensing, profiling, advertising.

AXMEDIS P2P: AXEPTool

The AXEPTool is a BitTorrent based legal P2P
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...

 client for sharing AXMEDIS content. AXMEDIS P2P Controlled Network, for content distribution via P2P. It utilizes BitTorrent Technology with query support and cataloguing servers, for protected or non protected content. It has capabilities of automating content publication, controlling P2P network, and extracting statistical data and reports. The AXMEDIS P2P solution allows to control the network by means of control nodes that can be geographically distributed AXP2P technical Note

AXMEDIS DRM, MPEG-21 DRM

AXMEDIS DRM which adopts MPEG-21 DRM, including servers and licensing tools and allowing DRM, detection of attacks, black list management, collection of actions logs containing traces about the rights exploitation, tools for administrative management, etc. AXMEDIS DRM Technical Note

Cross Media Finder

AXMEDIS Cross Media Finder: an integrated portal for demonstrating AXMEDIS content and distribution: AXMEDIS Cross Media Finder technical note. A Moble Medicine Social network hasbeen developed on this basis
see Mobile Medicine.

Object Finders for Mobile Devices

They are a set of tools developed by DISIT lab to acquire and collect AXMEDIS content on mobile devices. AXMEDIS Object Finder is available for iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...

/iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...

/iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...

and Windows Mobile devices. They van be obtained from the Mobile Medicine portal see Mobile Medicine.
See also ECLAP project and best practice network see http://www.eclap.eu.

Consortium

The AXMEDIS project gathers many partners consisting of leading European digital content producers, integrators, archives, distributors and researchers.

Project partners

  • Advance Concepts for Interactive Technology GERMANY
  • Associazione dei Fonografici Italiani ITALY
  • Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Fondazione ITALY
  • British Broadcasting Corporation UNITED KINGDOM
  • COMVERSE LTD ISRAEL
  • Consorzio Pisa Ricerche ITALY
  • Societa consortile a responsanilita limitata Centro di Ricerca, Sviluppo e Studi Superiori in Sardegna ITALY
  • Dipartimento di Italianistica, Università degli Studi di Firenze ITALY
  • DISIT lab, Dipartimento di Sistemi e Informatica, Universita degli Studi di Firenze, (project leader) ITALY
  • ELION Enterprises Ltd ESTONIA
  • Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne SWITZERLAND
  • Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute KOREA, REPUBLIC OF
  • EUTELSAT S.A. FRANCE
  • EXITECH srl ITALY
  • FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. GERMANY
  • Foundacio Barcelona Media University Pompeo Fabra SPAIN
  • GIUNTI INTERACTIVE LABS S.R.L. ITALY
  • HEWLETT PACKARD ITALIANA S.R.L. ITALY
  • Kaunas University of Technology LITHUANIA
  • MBIGROUP ITALY
  • OD2 UNITED KINGDOM
  • Peking University CHINA
  • Sociedad Digital de Autores y Editores SPAIN
  • SEJER REPRESENTING BORDAS AND NATHAN FRANCE
  • STRATEGICA (spin-off of Consorzio Pisa Ricerche, CPR) ITALY
  • TEO LT, AB (formerly Lithuanian Telecom) LITHUANIA
  • Telecom Italia ITALY
  • TISCALI S.P.A. ITALY
  • ICSRiM, University of Leeds UNITED KINGDOM
  • Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya SPAIN
  • The University of Reading UNITED KINGDOM
  • Video Reklamos Studija LITHUANIA
  • XIM LIMITED UNITED KINGDOM

Affiliated Partners and Subcontractors

  • PSItrust/focuseek ITALY
  • SOCIETA' ITALIANA DEGLI AUTORI ED EDITORI ITALY
  • HEXAGLOBE FRANCE
  • RIGEL ITALY
  • GESFOR SPAIN
  • PENTEX ITALY
  • ALBENIZ Foundation SPAIN
  • maat Gknowledge SPAIN
  • AXMEDIATECH

Conferences and Workshops

Since 2005 the AXMEDIS consortium has been organizing international conferences about cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, protection and rights management interoperability.
AXMEDIS framework is continuously maintained and distributed, this news is from the February of 2010.
DISIT lab has produced compatible players with the AXMEDIS framework for iPhone and iPad (updated in August 2010).

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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