In this paper we introduce a novel technique to discover groups of users sharing the same environment: a room, an of fice, a car. Using a smartphone device, we propose a method based on the joint usage of GPS and acoustic fingerprints, al lowing to greatly improve the precision of GPS only group detection. To reach the objective, we use a novel variation of an existing audio fingerprinting algorithm with good noise tolerance, assessing it under several conditions. The method is shown to be especially effective for groups of listeners of audio and audio visual content. We finally propose an ap plication of the method to deliver content recommendations for a specific use case, hybrid content radio, an adaptive radio service discussed in the European Broadcasting Union, allow ing the enrichment of traditional broadcast linear radio with personalized and context-aware audio content.

Abstract

Welcome to The Best of IET and IBC 2015-16. This is the seventh volume of an annual joint publication between the Institution of Engineering and Technology and IBC.The IET is a formal member of the IBC's partnership board but, beyond this, it has a long-standing and close relationship with the organisation, through which they together encourage and promote professional excellence in the field of media technology. Nowhere is this relationship more strongly reflected than in the pages of this publication, which celebrates the very best technical media papers from this year's IBC Proceedings and the IET's flagship journal, Electronics Letters.This year, our editorial takes a look at the exciting technology on show in IBC's Future Zone -an area of exhibition space where the world's most hi-tech media companies and research organisations proudly demonstrate their very latest concepts and experimental technologies. Here, you can not only see tomorrow's media but you have the opportunity to experience it personally, leaving impressions that will remain with you long after you have left Amsterdam.We then present nine papers chosen as the best contributions to IBC2015 by the IBC Technical Papers Committee and the executive team of the IET Multimedia Communications Network. These include the overall winner of IBC's award for the Best Conference Paper, 'A Display-independent High Dynamic Range Television System' and papers representing other hot topics of 2015: UHDTV (Ultra High Definition Television), HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding), second screen applications, 4G broadcasting, MPEG DASH (Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP) technologies, hybrid content radio and some remarkable new results in on-screen subtitling.We are also pleased to present personal interviews with individuals whose significant work appears in this volume. First, Andrew Cotton and Tim Borer of the BBC, authors of IBC2015's Best Conference Paper, who discuss their work on HDR. Find out where their inventive ideas come from, how they combine both psychology and engineering in their work and what the most memorable parts of their project have been.We then interview IBC's Best Young Professionals: Raphaël Guénon and François Manciet. Both researchers in their mid20s whose work has revealed some fascinating conclusions about second-screen media applications. Get a glimpse of their personal worlds. Find out: what motivates them to work in this area, whether they use second screens themselves and what they think about the future of immersive media.From Electronics Letters this year we include a selection of media-related papers which have been published since IBC2014. Electronics Letters has a very broad scope, covering the whole range of electronics-related research and the papers chosen this year are those which we believe will have the greatest impact on media technology as well as the greatest potential for expanding service provision with existing infrastructures.The IBC papers printed here represent the best of almost 300 synopses submitted to us ...

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The paper introduces the MPEG-21 User Description standard, referred to as MPEG-21 UD, aimed at enabling the horizontal integration of recommendations coming from different service providers. MPEG-21 UD specifies standard descriptions for a given user, her context and available services. In addition MPEG-21 UD specifies standard formats for recommendations. In this way a generic provider can horizontally integrate standard descriptions belonging to different recommendation services thus possibly returning to the user richer recommendations and, likely, a better fruition.