[By Vimita Mohandas, Channel News Asia]
To find out the meaning of a particular Chinese character, all one will have to do is point it towards a camera, and an image of what it represents will be flashed on a monitor.
Such a virtual augmented Chinese learning aid to benefit non-Chinese learners is just one of the prototypes developed by the new research centre jointly set up by Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Fraunhofer – one of Europe’s largest research organisations – to develop 3D technology.
The S$14 million Fraunhofer Interactive Digital Media @NTU, funded by NTU, Fraunhofer and the Media Development Authority, will focus on interactive and digital media research and will also look into commercialising applications.
The centre also hopes to develop breakthrough projects for the benefit of sectors such as tourism, culture and transport.
Engaging youths will be key for the centre as media technologies constantly change.
Professor Freddy Boey, Provost-Designate at NTU, said: “Today, our young people are very media-savvy, very visual. Everybody has an iPhone, iPad and this is where we’re coming in. With good graphic improvements, it will engage our young people, not only in Singapore but the whole of Asia.”
The centre will also work on research areas like computer graphics and computer vision.
The facility will also offer joint PhD-programmes in visual computing with two leading universities from Germany and Austria.
As a start, a total of 20 scholarships will be given to promising PhD students – 10 from NTU and another 10 from the universities in Germany and Austria.
Under this programme – graduate researchers can go to Austria or Germany for at least a year to do their thesis and research at the Fraunhofer institutes there and vice versa.
Agreements for the two joint programmes with Graz University of Technology and Technische Universitat Darmsradt have been signed.
See the original story here: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1136265/1/.html