From: Eric Mankin Subject: CONF: MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCE AT USC, Los Angeles 10/5/1993 Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA USC Conference to Explore the Promise Of Multimedia & Creative Technologies The University of Southern California School of Engineering will present an overview of the burgeoning field of multimedia and creative technologies on Tuesday, Oct. 5. Faculty from the university and experts from industry will discuss the latest developments in the wave that is bringing together the fields of computer science, entertainment, publishing and consumer electronics. Aimed at industry executives, engineers, designers and entertainment producers, the one-day industrial associates research review is designed to give participants greater understanding of how and why multimedia technology is changing business, home and office environments. The conference will also introduce participants to some of the key scientists, engineers and artists who are creating this new technology at USC, which is estab-lishing itself as a center of multimedia studies. "USC is committed to becoming the regional and national catalyst for exploring this new engineering frontier," says Chrysostomos L. "Max" Nikias, associate dean for research at the USC School of Engineering. The engineering school and the USC School of Cinema- Television have already established an Entertainment Technologies Center and have also joined forces to secure funding from the National Science Foundation in multimedia and creative technology. Multimedia and creative technologies embrace all forms of communication between humans and computers, and among humans via computers, Dr. Nikias explains. Advancements in electronics have made computers and networks fast enough to process and transmit visual and audio media in the digital domain, dramatically affecting the way people interact with information and create new information products. Traditional media, such as paper, vinyl and celluloid, are being supplanted by large memories and high-speed digital networks Q resulting in the merging of consumer electronics, publishing, computer and telecommunications industries we see occurring today. Innovations such as desktop video and PC-based workstations for manipulating audio have replaced expensive studios and brought the power to create new media works to the common person. Interactive systems are just on the horizon, promising everything from video conferencing to multimedia information databases, view- on-demand films, home shopping and computer games. These services have the potential to fundamentally alter the ways in which we entertain ourselves, educate ourselves and earn a living. Publishers, movie studios and broadcasters are already experiencing a new wave of business in converting books, films and videos into interactive multimedia products. According to the Project California Update of February 1993 (Vol. 2, No. 1), the building of a multimedia and creative technologies industry will represent a total new market size of $40 billion by the year 2000 and $65 billion by the year 2010. Here's a schedule of the conference presentations: *Keynote Address: The Promise of Multimedia. Robert W. Lucky, vice president for applied research, Bell Communications Research. *Multimedia and the Creative Research Initiative. Chrysostomos L. "Max" Nikias, associate dean for research, USC School of Engineering. (He will discuss plans for collaboration between the USC cinema-television and engineering schools and private industry.) *Video Games as Teaching Tools. Marsha Kinder, professor of critical studies, USC School of Cinema- Television. *Continuous Retrieval of Multimedia Data Using Parallelism. Shahram Ghandeharizadeh, assistant professor of computer science, USC School of Engineering. *Interoperability for Distributed Multimedia Applications. Steven B. Weinstein, Systems Integration Research, Bellcore, Bell Communications Research. *Research Challenges in Wireless Media. Andreas Polydoros, professor of electrical engineering/systems and co-director of the Communication Sciences Institute, USC School of Engineering. *Developments in Interactive Television. Greg Riker, director, Future Home Technology Advanced Technology Group, Microsoft Corp. *Computer Animation at USC. Richard Weinberg, research assistant professor of computer science and cinema-television and director of the Computer Animation Laboratory, USC School of Engineering and USC School of Cinema-Television. *Trends in the Cable Industry. Edward D. Horowitz, senior vice president, Viacom International, chairman and CEO, Viacom Broadcasting. *Interactive Multimedia Musical Demonstration. Gilbert L. Blount, associate professor of music history and literature and director of the Ethnomusicology Research Laboratory, USC School of Music, and Charlotte Crockett, coordinator of digital workstations, Music Library, USC School of Music. *Current Trends in Video Compression. Wen H. Chen, senior vice president for research and development, Compression Labs Inc. *Image Compression Techniques and Developments. C.C. Jay Kuo, assistant professor of electrical engineering/systems, USC School of Engineering. *High-Speed Photonic Interconnects for Multimedia Applications. Anthony F.J. Levi, professor of electrical Engineering/electrophysics, USC School of Engineering. *Virtual Chimps and Cyborg Gorillas. Gary Seaman, associate professor and chair of anthropology, USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. *High-Performance Computing for Multimedia. Ellis Horowitz, professor and chair of computer science, USC School of Engineering. *Film Sound: Systems for Post-Production. Tom Holman, associate professor of sound, USC School of Cinema- Television. The conferees will meet in the auditorium of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center at 3715 McClintock Avenue on USC's University Park Campus. Admission to the full-day affair is $99, which includes the cost of parking, a continental breakfast and full lunch, plus a binder containing program materials. For further information or to register, call the USC School of Engineering development office at (213) 740- 2502. Eric Mankin USC NEWS AND FEATURES University of Southern California News Service KAP 246 Los Angeles, CA 90089-2538 e-mail mankin@mizar Voice (213-740-9344)/ FAX (213)740-7600