Research from Microsoft: zCast: Datacasting to Fixed and Mobile Devices

Note: On a related note, we use several tools including MobiTV and PocketTunes to stream data (radio and TV) to our mobile device. Sounds great. Looks good (and getting better). Btw, here’s a great site for direct links to stream to your mobile.

zCast, a research project out of Microsoft Research’s lab in Cambridge, England, is exploring the possibilities of using datacasting—sending various associated files along with broadcast signals—to provide services to mobile devices. Tim Regan, a research software-design engineer with the Socio-Digital Systems group within that lab, is fascinated by the potential such a technique could offer.

“zCast is looking at how to get media content to handheld devices,” he says. “What kind of media would people want on the move on their mobile phones? When and why? How do we get it to them?”

The answers to those sorts of big questions could, before long, enable you to share a movie trailer, send a game clip, or e-mail a late-night talk-show anecdote to friends or colleagues as easily as if you were telling them about it—without having to burnish your skills as a film critic, a play-by-play announcer, or a professional quipster.

Source: “Pseudo Press Release” from MS

See Also: Many Interesting Research Projects from MSR’s Social Computing Group.

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