FascinatE will create an innovative end-to-end system and associated standards for future immersive and interactive TV services. It will allow users to navigate around an ultra-high resolution video panorama, showing a live or recorded content, with matching accompanying audio. The output will be adapted to the viewing device, covering anything from a mobile handset to an immersive panoramic display with surround sound, delivering a true personalized multi-screen experience.

Imagine the following use-case of enhancing home viewing: Jim has returned home from his business trip to Barcelona, and decides to watch the UEFA match Ajax – Barcelona on his 60-inch LCD set. He selects the FascinateURtv service and the current match. The match has already started but it is still 0-0. Jim points his remote at the screen, „grabs“ a player with his remote and drags him to the top of the screen. After „releasing“ the player, the top left corner of his screen shows a close-up of Thierry Henry, always from the best possible camera angle. In the same manner he selects the two goals, but now he chooses to watch always from the back of the goal, to have a good view on the 16-metre area. The match is halfway through when Jim’s daughter comes in and starts making gestures to the TV. She is using the gesture recognition system to try to change the channel to MTV, to watch her favourite show. The TV set refuses since Jim has control over the set. Jim sighs and allows the TV to change channels. He moves to another room with a small TV set. The screen is much smaller, but here he can at least watch the game without being disturbed. But he notices that, after watching the game on such large screen for a long time, his preferences are different from those of the director’s default scripting for a small screen. So he changes the mode and navigates freely in the scene to follow his favourite Thierry Henry again or to select more wide shots than the default setting gives.

To achieve these aims 11 project partners from 8 countries will implement a system during the next three and a half years meeting the requirements of a paradigm shift in video production, towards capturing a format-agnostic representation of the whole scene from a given viewpoint, rather than the view selected by a cameraman based on assumptions about the viewer’s screen size and interests. FascinatE is concentrating on an approach that will deliver true high-quality images, whilst allowing a significant degree of interactivity, and which is practical within the timeframe of the project.

FascinatE is partially supported by the European Community under the 7th framework programme (FP7/2007-2013).