Singapore - Singapore-based `Agency for Science, Technology, and Research` has announced a global competition to develop a next generation multimedia search engine.
The eight-month competition called "Star Challenge 2008" is open to anyone located anywhere in the world -- particularly software engineers, researchers, and search media enthusiasts, and has a cash prize of $100,000 to be won.
"Star Challenge 2008" is aimed at creating a search engine that works across all multi-media platforms, especially Web 2.0 and user-generated media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr.
Those participating in the challenge will have to develop a search engine that is smart enough to identify text, audio, and video containing any word, even if that word, or search term, has not yet been tagged in Internet material.
For example, the engine should be able to know how the word `exuberant` sounds in a song, even in the absence of any tagged information for the word `exuberant` in a song.
Typically, Internet search today is text-based. Results delivered by current online search technologies originate from specific "tagging" of materials on the Internet. Simply put, how successful a person is in a search depends on how extensively the information for which he/she is searching has been tagged by its creators or users.
According to Lim Chuan Poh, chairman of the `Agency for Science, Technology, and Research`, the next generation search engine will radically change the way people interact with multi-media information, creating seamless and accessible platforms for people across different online communities.
Meanwhile, the technology competition will be overseen by an international advisory panel comprising experts from all over the world.
The top five teams will be flown to Singapore for the finals to be held in October this year at Fusionopolis, a science and technology center.
Source: www.techtree.com (19 Januari 2008)
