SECTION I: Testing
| 1 | Has the R & D result been tested? | |
| YES | ||
| 1a | In what mode has the result been tested?
• Prototype • Pilot Application • Alpha/BETA testing |
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| ClustTour is a novel web service for automatically detecting landmarks and events in tagged image collections. The rising popularity of photosharing applications on the Web has led to the generation of huge amounts of personal image collections. Browsing through image collections of such magnitude is currently supported by the use of tags. After the design of proptotype and the scientific validation of ClustTour methodology with two publications, an alpha testing version of ClustTour has been launched on the web (http://www.clusttour.gr), using a spatial landmark illustration approach. The cities that are included in the alpha version are Thessaloniki, Athens, Barcelona, London Bratislava, Chicago, Dublin, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Stockholm, Brussels, Rome, Florence, Krakow, Milan, Madrid, Vienna, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich and Moscow. | ||
| 1b. | Please describe and discuss the testing results | |
| The technical testing was successful for a small scale data at the alpha testing version, however further testing is required for transforming ClustTour into a dynamic tool, using large scale data engineering techniques. These testing should be made available with the launch of ClustTour Beta version that will include improved user interface, enrichment of content, new crawling techniques, and mobile applications. Testing also should take place at the usability level especially in the ability of collecting global resources at the local level (glocal). Further development and testing is required for making the service available to mobile devices (iPhone, ipad, android phone, android tab). | ||
SECTION 2: Current Stage of Development
| 2a | To what extent does the development team have technical resources for supporting the production of a new product? (Researchers, human resources, hardware, etc. ) |
| The team has the research and technical development capacity to support the new product development up to the current stage (alpha version). Additional technical resources are required for the creation of beta version. Furthermore, the team needs to be enriched with marketers and business designers to build upon the commercialization and the business model for ClustTour. The idea of large number of people connected with focus local interest and local objects into a global chain is very attractive to potential investors. | |
| 2b | What are the technical issues that need to be tackled for full deployment, if needed? |
| The proposed image-clustering framework relies on the creation of two image graphs representing two kinds of similarity between images, with the similarity being based on their visual features and their tags. The transformation into a dynamic application using large scale data engineering methods. This includes data warehousing over distributed heterogeneous information sources, object-oriented database and transformation tools, semantic interoperability, heterogeneous database integration, distributed database design, semantic modeling in images, mobile query processing and query optimization. | |
| 2c | What additional technical resources are needed for the production of this new product? |
| Web designer – improvement of website and aesthetics
Web developer – improvement of user interface Research assistant – Enrichment of content Mobile developer – development of mobile applications Data architect – refinement in data processing and management Crawling and processing nodes equipment Storage 1TB per ten cities |
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| 2d | Overall assessment of the current stage of technical development. |
| The current stage of technical development is considered satisfactory. The product has successfully passed from a research outcome and a proof of concept into an alpha testing version. The plans for the implementation of beta testing version are considered feasible regarding the research capacity of the development team. Further development directions should take under consideration the priorities of usability surveys and business models. | |
SECTION 3: Deployment
| 3a | Define the demands for large scale production in terms of |
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| There are no plans for large scale production. | |
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SECTION 4: Overall Assessment
| 1 | What is you overall assessment of the technical feasibility of the research result? |
| ClustTour is considered a good case of research transformation into a pilot implementation for a new product. Clustering algorithms have been used in a novel way into images to group touristic sightseeing’s and events. The plans for launching beta version are also feasible in relation with the technical capabilities of the research team. The additional resources required could be obtained with a small scale funding support. Furthermore, the transformation from beta version into an end product is a considerably difficult task considering the lack of competences for market creation and business modeling. | |
KEYWORDS QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT (0-5).
| Please put X as appropriate. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Adequacy of testing activity undertaken so far | x | ||||
| Adequacy and availability of technical resources of the development team | x | ||||
| Current development stage | x | ||||
| Overall technical feasibility | x |
Sotiris Zygiaris
