Research Tuned to the Needs of Content Creators
Research at Thomson is structured in three programs that correlate with Thomson’s business segments. Each program is further divided in two large projects that incorporate expertise from compression, networking, signal acquisition and processing, storage, and security technologies. Long-term innovation stems from a set of small exploratory projects and from continued cooperation with top academic researchers worldwide.
The three programs in Thomson Corporate Research are:
3D & Content Coding
By delivering compelling new 3D technology and improving audio/visual content quality, projects in this area aim to help content creators fully achieve their desired visual results, from acquisition through production to delivery. We aim to exploit the way the human brain and our senses work in processing information. Long-term goals include novel content representations (e.g. actual 3D object models) beyond the limits of video. These goals not only strive to improve quality but also functionality and efficiency. Research aspects include such techniques as rendering, animation, 3D and compression.
Workflow & Content Access
This research program is designed to help our content creator customers’ shift to digital production. Specifically, it aims to deliver technologies for creation and management workflows of any type of AV content such as 2D, 3D Computer Generated Images (CGI), Mixed-Reality, Visual effects (VFX) and games. It targets new techniques for content management, such as semantic metadata generation and indexing for efficient content preparation, restoration, structuring and repurposing. Our objective is to dramatically advance content search, presentation and access with an efficient understanding of content creators and users through profiling and recommendation. Security is a critical element of the workflow to protect content owners with robust fingerprinting and watermarking techniques.
Home Networking
The focus of this program is the delivery of content and media services in innovative, reliable, high-performance ways, with a particular focus on home delivery. Research projects in this area cover such in-home delivery methods as home networks and consumer devices, the management of content and services, and delivery of content outside the home via multiple devices.
In support of these programs and projects, five technology domains of research focus on forming a solid foundation for forward-facing innovation. The domains include:
Compression Providing audio and video compression solutions for today's applications and for tomorrow's innovative new products all the while growing the content distribution market.
Networking Advancing digital communications and networking solutions for consumer and enterprise delivery of audio, video, data and other entertainment content.
Signal Acquisition & Processing Developing techniques for the efficient processing of images during acquisition, transmission and consumption.
Storage
Pioneering research in optical recording and solid-state storage systems and enabling new generations of workflows and content distribution media.
Security Developing and enabling IP and technology to build solutions for securing content all along the production, distribution and consumption chain, while preserving both owner and user rights.
Key Facts & Figures:
- 400 researchers
- 3 key programs
- 7 research centers
- 50,000 patents