A Universal Video Technology for Mobile Telephony

Professor Oscar Au of HKUST's Electronic and Computer Engineering Department has developed a breakthrough technology "Pan-V" that turns a mobile phone into a mobile media centre, and has this high impact technology successfully commercialized for the world market.

Speaking at a press conference today (Tuesday), Professor Au said, "For a long time, mobile users have very limited choices of mobile contents. Pan-V gives an exciting alternative. Often people have a wide range of paid or free video/audio contents at home, including TV, DVD, cable TV, surveillance video, photos from digital camera, Hi-Fi, etc. Pan-V can turn these into their personal mobile contents easily accessible on their 3G/3.5G phones any-time any-where. Pan-V provides a much wider choice of mobile contents without a subscription fee."

Pan-V is designed to connect a computer to TV, surveillance camera or audio-visual equipment. With real-time video and audio feed, it can capture, store and stream (place-shift and time-shift) private live or on-demand video and audio content via convergence network (such as 3G/3.5G, Wi-Fi and internet) to the users' remote terminals (such as smart phone, PDA, notebook or even a computer). Its remote control features allow users to remotely change channels, start/stop recording, switch video input, etc.

"In a harmonious union of university, industry and government, we have developed a novel technology that can revolutionize the behavior of mobile users throughout the world, bringing about better life and greater convenience." Professor Au remarked.

The locally developed Pan-V complies with international standards of data computing and communications and can be used anywhere in the world. Using server-side-only technology, it can accommodate most mobile phones including even the low-end models, without the need to install any client programs on the phones.

While mobile data are typically charged by kB and can be very expensive, local operators are offering competitive unlimited package. In particular, one of the operators has a tailor-made plan that charges not by kB but by video-minute, allowing users to view hours of Pan-V video for only a small monthly fee.

The research project was funded by the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC). The technology is licensed to an incubatee called AnTech MPS (Global) Limited in the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks, also one of the project sponsors.