Linux4.TV Contest

Just because it's a TV-based device doesn't mean our finalists are catering to their inner couch potato. Using the Linux4.TV platform, they plan to interrogate suspects, run AI security systems in their homes, teach distance education classes and rock out in the home studio.

Everyone needs to relax sometime, though, so other projects will help with more slothful pursuits, such as ordering pizza, playing video games and shopping on-line for music.

Best of luck to our finalists. In addition, the Linux4.TV site has been updated for the occasion, with new software to download and a subscription form for a developer mailing list. So even if you didn't win this time, you can follow the list for information on how this software might work in your next embedded project.

Gerry Normandin, Jr. (gerrynjr@netscape.net)

http://nfn.homep.net:8004/

The Linux Centertainment System will be a DVD player and a game console for SDL games. The user also will have the ability to watch video feeds from different parts of the house and record any intruder activity. The USB ports will be used to handle a game controller and an X-10 camera.

Wilson Tang (eeleung@hkem.com)

http://engsvr.ust.hk/~eetwl95/stb/

This project will add VoIP to the set-top box to let users communicate with telephones and cellular phones. It will implement the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), a signaling protocol developed to set up, modify and tear down multimedia sessions over the Internet. [For more on SIP see page 42 of this issue.]

John Needham (graphicguy062@earthlink.net)

http://wind.prohosting.com/tealteam/

This project will include a DVD recorder/player, an individual recording device with TiVo-like functionality and a 5.1 Dolby Digital stereo unit in one box. A Pioneer DVD-A03 DVD recorder will be used in the prototype.

Charles Gales (cgales@nc.rr.com)

http://www.chazulli.com/elj/lin4tv/

This security system will provide continuous camera monitoring and recording, automatic building entry authorization, automatic intrusion detection and other security items. Face recognition may be added, and multiple systems will be operated from one central location.

Michael S. Quicquaro (mquicquaro@SNET.Net)

http://www.tvphone.com/

TvPhone will be an open-source software project aimed at integrating speakerphone capabilities with the television audio system and a microphone. It will automatically pause streamed media or live TV, DVD, CD or MP3 play if you answer the phone, then automatically resume when you hang up.

Pavel Tkatchouk (ptkatchouk@shaw.ca)

The TVRelay Project will support relaying TV data from one geographical location to another. The Linux4.TV developer kit can be used to capture and compress a TV feed at the point of its availability and send it to remote location via broadband Internet, where it can then be decompressed and scheduled for viewing. The project will work autonomously, according to a preprogrammed schedule, and allow remote monitoring, configuration and control.

John Kleven and Mark Clifton (jkleven@codefx.com)

http://www.codefx.com/set-top/

This device will browse and play media files stored on any network-attached home computer and will enable listening to MP3 audio in the living room with the best speakers and amp in the house; watching downloaded MPEG video files on the sofa in the living room with a 32-inch television instead of a 17-inch monitor; and displaying family vacation pictures to guests seated comfortably in the living room, all using a large-screen television instead of a computer monitor.