N1005 IBM Research: EU

IBM Scientists Bring Trust and Reliability to the Cloud with AdvancedCryptography in EU Project

<br /><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Editor's note: this interview is by <a href="https://ch.linkedin.com/in/katherina-elefheriou-a452a3117/en" target="_blank">Katherina Eleftheriou</a>, IBM Research-Zurich media relations.</span></i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Connected</span><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;"> </span>“things”</span> <span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">– everything from hospital beds, train tracks, cars, buildings and more – are generating massive amounts of data that can be analyzed to provide quick, actionable insights. But before this can happen, the data needs to be collected in the cloud where advanced algorithms can detect patterns to predict, for example, when the hospital bed will be available or when the train tracks will require repairs. </span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlDaOJZ2FFh3T7-DTecVLDl42inlTdVtH_XIV5HX7YtIZuKeA0132YbFsMSZtH305sddwDrj7lj2B7Y3UyOv2QCpzPv0ahtbL7Uam_9NSXLVFENCpK0Wpe5E5DGrajiOi3tLVrTv9r6BU/s1600/UasZXQii.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlDaOJZ2FFh3T7-DTecVLDl42inlTdVtH_XIV5HX7YtIZuKeA0132YbFsMSZtH305sddwDrj7lj2B7Y3UyOv2QCpzPv0ahtbL7Uam_9NSXLVFENCpK0Wpe5E5DGrajiOi3tLVrTv9r6BU/s200/UasZXQii.png" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The security of this data is of the utmost importance, which is why many organizations are so focused on building trust and security into the cloud. </span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Last June, the European Union’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">Horizon2020</a> program granted </span><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span class="_Tgc">€</span>6.4M euros to a consortium called <a href="http://www.tredisec.eu/">TREDISEC</a>to improve cryptographic protocols and system security mechanisms for the cloud.<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;"> </span>IBM’s <span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">r</span>esearch lab in Zurich is one of the TREDISEC partners. I recently sat down with several of the scientists on the project, including <a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-aso">Alessandro Sorniotti</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-de-caro-7954625">Angelo De Caro</a>, <a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-KUR">Anil Kurmus</a>and <a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-EUG">Matthias Neugschwandtner</a>, to discuss the upcoming challenges of this ambitious open source project and it’s impact on security and efficiency in tomorrow’s cloud.</span><br /><a name="more"></a></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Q. Please give us an overview of the project.</span></b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Alessandro Sorniotti (AS): <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The scope of the project is security in cloud, with a focus on outsourcing. We are taking a holistic approach, which we hope will allow us to study the problem in its entirety and discover security gaps that are currently hidden. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For example, if you take a single problem like “I don’t trust the cloud provider, therefore I need to encrypt my data” or “I would like to use the storage system as efficiently as possible, so I will compress and deduplicate data and I do it with the best and fastest algorithms.” Both of these singular problems are solvable and have been solved. But if you combine them together, the problem becomes exponentially more difficult because it becomes the proverbial blanket that doesn’t cover everything.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When we wrote the proposal, we tried to be bold and consider all of the aspects<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">:</span> to build a system that needs to be used by multiple users who do not trust one another<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">;</span> to allow for data outsourcing<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">;</span>and be encrypted to use the storage system in an efficient way. </span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJoDFbyda0sp4ab4hhi9z38E4ijALvgcjEyeOYaTXO7BZpYZ1nMo4y9AQVDcLvKy1I_u4NH3iK49j0tSiffNoDhEpICKQf5zCXDIPlOdhqB8jIgX8KMyzUeSt5oEiaoRDVvkEpart31M/s1600/10992881175_75ba873d1d_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJoDFbyda0sp4ab4hhi9z38E4ijALvgcjEyeOYaTXO7BZpYZ1nMo4y9AQVDcLvKy1I_u4NH3iK49j0tSiffNoDhEpICKQf5zCXDIPlOdhqB8jIgX8KMyzUeSt5oEiaoRDVvkEpart31M/s320/10992881175_75ba873d1d_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sorniotti keeps clouds secure.</td></tr></tbody></table><b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Q. How hard is it to prevent users from tapping into someone else’s data?</span></b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Anil Kurmus (AK): <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">It depends on the security model, and it depends on the degree of access you give the users. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If the interface with the server is rather restrictive, maintaining control is fairly easy. But if you want to give a wider degree of access, for example, access to the bare metal server like IBM Softlayer offers, where you outsource not only storage but also computation, the problem becomes harder. It’s like giving the keys of your house to a curious stranger and then trusting them to stay in the kitchen all day.</span><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Q. What is the aim of this project consider<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">ing</span> it’s a European open-source project?</span></b></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">AK: <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">We want to develop the mechanisms and the protocols, and then see if they can be applied to proprietary as well as open-source solutions. We also want to help make any system multi-tenant ready so it can accept requests from different users without any fear of compromise.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLDmPk0LDS7l10SMWsim0L5psmJrc-J7ym30UTAkL9wAZ8LDUZYeDOCbqpX7gnikc9PQE9ixG7ZFdLJ30W09r4rm8ElbAioUx9WXsc5HOMGjGMtj_Muw2tDpIyTW8VSkn_MA1aqaCId0/s1600/tredisec.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLDmPk0LDS7l10SMWsim0L5psmJrc-J7ym30UTAkL9wAZ8LDUZYeDOCbqpX7gnikc9PQE9ixG7ZFdLJ30W09r4rm8ElbAioUx9WXsc5HOMGjGMtj_Muw2tDpIyTW8VSkn_MA1aqaCId0/s400/tredisec.jpg" width="287" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(click to enlarge)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">AS:<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> Another interesting facet of this project is that it combines different aspects of security. For example, my colleague <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelo-de-caro-7954625">Angelo De Caro</a> is a cryptographer, and <a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-EUG">Matthias Neugschwandtner</a> is system security researcher (a white-hat hacker). They have complementary skills<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">;</span>one looks at the cryptographic aspects of the problems, solutions and the protocols, while the other one looks at the security of its implementation and possible vulnerabilities. </span></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At the end of the day the system is as strong as its weakest link, so the problem must be analysed and understood from both standpoints.</span><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Q. So what’s the first demonstration where this could work? Do you have a milestone in<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;"> mind</span> to test this in a data-center with a client? </span></b></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-EUG">Matthias Neugschwandtner</a> (MN): <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">We’re working with a good set of use<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;"> </span>case partners, including cloud service providers from both Greece and Spain where we will test some of our work. This should give us a good platform for testing and improving<span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif;">.</span></span> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At this point we are making good progress and will have more to report in the coming months.</span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Follow updates on the project <a href="https://twitter.com/TREDISECproject?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TREDISECproject</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">. </span></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The project has received funding from the European Commission under the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) theme of the Horizon 2020 framework programme (H2020-ICT-2014-1). The project started in April 2015, coordinated by Atos with partners NEC Europe (United Kingdom), ETH Zurich (Switzerland), IBM Research (Switzerland), Eurecom (France), Arsys (Spain), GRNET (Greece), SAP (Germany) and Morpho (France). </span></i><br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">More information about the project is available at </span></i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.tredisec.eu/"><b><i>www.tredisec.eu</i></b></a><i>.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="mso-element: comment-list;"><div style="mso-element: comment;"><div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_1" language="JavaScript"></div></div></div>

cloud EU H2020 IBM Research - Zurich IBM Scientists Bring Trust and Reliability to the Cloud with AdvancedCryptography in EU Project

Editor's note: this interview is by Katherina Eleftheriou , IBM Research-Zurich media relations. Connected “things” – everything fro...

What are the sounds of the city saying?

12:32 AM N1000 0

<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">IBM develops analytics and classification technology to provide data for a new kind of multimedia-based search engine</span></i></span></i></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZuNwW6oeIz0HZ_9vrmjy3ldcCRtdGO762gZeskZg9DeqrfP9Jvn5zKiPRKR4i-lepXdLNSqOCT6Wmg7IM4ZL7vcWGKvbvCW925x-C7ZKAIVLVRmt3dT6laCV54n4cSDlRBOR1CnVMQ4Z/s1600/zvi_kons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvZuNwW6oeIz0HZ_9vrmjy3ldcCRtdGO762gZeskZg9DeqrfP9Jvn5zKiPRKR4i-lepXdLNSqOCT6Wmg7IM4ZL7vcWGKvbvCW925x-C7ZKAIVLVRmt3dT6laCV54n4cSDlRBOR1CnVMQ4Z/s1600/zvi_kons.jpg" /></a></div><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Editor’s note: This posting was authored by Zvi Kons, researcher in the Speech Technologies group at IBM Research - Haifa</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When you walk down a busy street, do you ever notice the sounds that surround you? People, traffic, music; city sounds are often like the foreign language the couple next to you at the café is speaking—background chatter. That city buzz, though, together with related visual images, has the potential to generate a continuous stream of information that can indicate real-time dynamics of the city.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To gather, process, analyze and ultimately separate useful sound from white noise, my team at IBM Research-Haifa is working on new technology for searchable audio analysis as part of the EU-funded project called </span><a href="http://www.smartfp7.eu/"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">SMART</span></a><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> (<b>S</b>earch Engine for <b>M</b>ultimedi<b>a</b> Envi<b>r</b>onment Generated Conten<b>t</b>).</span><br /><a name="more"></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We’re developing algorithms and an engine to analyze those city sounds, extracting information that can be cross referenced with video images to generate real-time content. Our research on audio classification is an integral aspect of a new kind of internet search engine that could provide locally oriented, readily available and informative content with practical applications.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></b><br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Capturing the sights and sounds of city streets to gain insight</span></b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our team collected data from two locations in Santander, Spain. Because the municipality is a partner in the SMART project, they offered to support the technical aspects of the infrastructure needed and are helping test the technology. Cameras and microphones set up in the town square and market area provided continuous audio and visual data of normal daily activity for one month, collecting more than 1,000 hours of data. We analyzed the sounds to note various types of activities, and to identify patterns and anomalies, like peak hours for busy crowds in the market square, traffic, and special events. </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/m829xQcChuw" width="420"></iframe> <br /><i>Santander city square</i><br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSztpxCinEdoH2kkPwMQtKPatA0KzwQNKojq_1gfZKtooxqesa4U38G3klJgu6_PsMgcb2K5NJBDZqBa66Ji4uaPfuTHofMYwBfUZom3bRbHXj1WoAh64cL9lKvgLpi2a_dNkBYsm1bVY/s1600/SMARTsounds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSztpxCinEdoH2kkPwMQtKPatA0KzwQNKojq_1gfZKtooxqesa4U38G3klJgu6_PsMgcb2K5NJBDZqBa66Ji4uaPfuTHofMYwBfUZom3bRbHXj1WoAh64cL9lKvgLpi2a_dNkBYsm1bVY/s1600/SMARTsounds.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Visual representation of weekly audio from the city square</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The audio from the video above and others produced this diagram that shows a visual representation of the weekly crowd activity level; blue for low activity, red for high activity.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Another sample detected a day with unusual crowd noise, music, and applause. By cross-referencing with video footage from nearby street cameras, it turned out to be from a protest rally on a nearby street, which could be important information for analyzing any immediate security risk, or the need to send a news team to report on a developing story.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Listen to the mid-day rally as it passed on the top right corner of the frame:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></b><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6hIjKuw6N5k" width="420"></iframe><br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Applying audio analytics</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"></div><br /><div align="right"><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin-left: 6.75pt; margin-right: 6.75pt; mso-border-alt: solid white .5pt; mso-border-insideh-themecolor: background1; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid white; mso-border-insidev-themecolor: background1; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid white; mso-border-themecolor: background1; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-overlap: never; mso-table-rspace: 9.0pt; mso-table-top: .05pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">  <td style="border: solid white 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid white .5pt; mso-border-themecolor: background1; mso-border-themecolor: background1; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.25in;" valign="top" width="216"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><b><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The   sounds of privacy </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;"><span style="color: #444444;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">To address   potential privacy and legal issues, the SMART team used wide angles and low   resolution for the video cameras. The microphones were placed at a distance   to pick up crowd noise rather than intelligible speech or individual   conversations.</span></i></span></div></td> </tr></tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The idea behind SMART’s new multi-media-based search engine is the incorporation of information gleaned from the environment. We can use data from city sounds and video images, as well as social media like tweets, to identify events and situations in real-time and make that information available online. The sounds of the city can help identify a drunken brawl, a spontaneous demonstration, a musical event, or an accident during rush hour. This kind of readily available information could be valuable for security systems, municipal and media use, and helpful knowledge for city residents.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our research highlights the enormous potential of easily accessible information in our physical surroundings. The technology to use that information has exciting and practical applications for smart cities, with innovative ways to interpret sounds and images.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></div>

audio EU IBM Research - Haifa multimedia Santander search SMART speech analytics Zvi Kons What are the sounds of the city saying?

IBM develops analytics and classification technology to provide data for a new kind of multimedia-based search engine Editor’s note: This po...