SkyMedia Final Demonstration at Turin Mararthon 2012

The final demonstration of the European FP7 project SkyMedia will be held during the Turin Marathon 2012 race on Sunday, November 18, 2012.
Turin Marathon is a sporting, cultural and touristic event that involves the city of Turin and its province. It is a full marathon that is now at its 26th edition.

The 2012 edition features a renewed path passing through Turin, Moncalieri, Nichelino, Grugliasco and Collegno.
The SkyMedia project aims at improving the experience of amateur runners and spectators in a unique and innovative way.

At the SkyMedia booth, located in Piazza Castello, spectators and VIPs will be involved in interactive experiences and will follow the live performance of SkyMedia runners.
Live tracking includes the monitoring of position, speed, pace, and biometric parameters. These data will be tracked live and made available to spectators and VIPs through mobile applications and touchscreen interactive displays. 3D video augmentation technologies will also be demonstrated.
Additionally, a dedicated iPad application is available for download from the AppStore.

A team of 20 athletes has volunteered to participate to the demonstration. Each SkyMedia Runner has a dedicated micro-website with a detailed profile and showing real-time data and statistics.

To view the dedicated micro-site of each SkyMedia runner, just scan the following QR codes with your phone:

Official SkyMedia Runners

MASSIMO ZAMBELLI

FILIPPO SACCHI

 DAVIDE  ETTANGI 

OSVALDO FOGO

MARIO RECCHIA

Test 1 Runners

Valerio Vergani

Simone Curi

Ariademo Carmignani

Giancarlo Porta

Francesco Chiappara

Lorenzo Trabucchi

Test 2 Runners

Antonio Lorusso

Fabrizio Donetto

Michele Stravato

Salvatore Gorgone

Ilaria Pasa

Pier Paolo Panciani

Davide Baratella

Massimiliano Milani

Marcello Occhi

SkyMedia at AIMS Congress

The SkyMedia project has been mentioned during the "Innovative Technologies" session at the 19th World Congress of AIMS, the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races.

The Congress took place in Prague from 10 to 12 May 2012, prior to the Prague International Marathon, which has been held on May 13, 2012.

SkyMedia at WhyMCA

SkyMedia will be present at the next WhyMCA, the most important conference in Italy completely devoted to mobile development, which will be held in Bologna,  on May 24-25, 2012.

The talk "SkyMedia - Technology for entertainment" will be presented in the session "Crossplatform" on Friday, May 25, 2012.

SkyMedia integration pre-test at Tutta Dritta 2012

The SkyMedia consortium carried out the integration pre-test during the Tutta Dritta 2012 race, which was held in Turin on April 22, 2012.

This race was very particular, since its was a 10Km race "all straight", starting from the centre of Turin, in San Carlo square, and finishing in the wonderful Hunting residence of Stupinigi, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. This year edition, the 9th, saw the participation of more than 7.300 runners from all over the world.

Tutta Dritta race course

The SkyMedia consortium was present with a booth at "Tutta Dritta Village" in Piazza San Carlo, exhibiting the project activities and technologies to the audience.

The SkyMedia booth in piazza San Carlo

The consortium arranged the test preparing the integration of the SkyMedia MSP (Multimedia Service Platform) with the other platform components in the days before the race at Nimbus premises.

To perform the integration test, three SkyMedia runners were involved to run the whole course of the race.
They were equipped with a hearth rate sensor which was connected, through a Bluetooth® transmitter, to the runner application installed on their Android smartphones.
The runner application collected and sent to the server data about runner's heart rate, position (retrieved through the GPS of the smartphone), and general performance (time, pace, steps, covered distance).

Moreover, a SkyMedia booth was set up close to the finish line in order to perform further live tests during the race.

The main components of the tested platform were the following.

3D cameras

Two 3D cameras were pointed in order to shoot the end of the race. A smartphone with the SkyMedia camera application retrieved the camera position and orientation, in order to detect the passing of the runners.

Transcoding and streaming server

A multimedia server collected the feeds from the cameras and performed a live transcoding to a live adaptive HTTP streaming format.

Data Fusion server

The Data Fusion server collected all the data coming from the runners and from the cameras, making them available to the SkyMedia Interactive application.

Interactive End User Applications

The Interactive application run on a 46'' HD touch screen monitor. The application showed a 2D live feed from one of the 3D cameras, runners' performance data and the map reporting their live position during the race. The application also showed interesting touristic information about the most important monuments in Turin.

Also the iPad application was tested, to verify its capability to scan QR codes worn by the SkyMedia runners or mounted close to some monuments in Turin. Through QR codes, spectators got a link to runners' performance or were redirected to a touristic information page.

  

SkyMedia at the Paris Marathon

From the 13th to the 15th of April 2012, SkyMedia and Turin Marathon were present at the Expo area set up in the occasion of the 36th Paris Marathon, which saw the participation of more than 40.000 runners.

Turin Marathon presented its events calendar for 2012, that will culminate in the 26th Turin Marathon on November 18, 2012, when the final demo of the SkyMedia project will take place.

On the other hand, the SkyMedia partner Vitec showed some 3D videos taken during the first SkyMedia pre-test in occasion of the 25th Marathon of Turin, held on November 2011. The audience enjoyed with interest the opportunity to have such an immersive experience, as if they were participating to a live event.

Report on SkyMedia at Berliner Half-Marathon

SkyMedia and Turin Marathon were present in the Exhibition area at the Berliner Half Marathon, March, 29-31, 2012.

The Berlin Vital Spring Expo 2012 was a great success, it was indeed visited by almost 40.000 participants and the SkyMedia project was presented to a very large audience.

SkyMedia at 32nd Berlin Half-Marathon

SkyMedia will be present at Berlin Vital Spring Expo 2012, which will take place from Thursday, March 29 to Saturday, March 31, 2012 in the framework of the 32nd Berlin Half-Marathon, which will be held on April 1, 2012.

The SkyMedia project will be hosted by Turin Marathon in the exhibition area on the premises of the former Berlin Tempelhof Airport, in the Hangar 6 - Stand 312.