HP Labs India unveils personalised video application

HP Labs India today announced the public beta release of its ''personalised video'' application.

The application helps users personalise their online video experience through user generated channels. Users can create channels on topics of their choice and the application will deliver multiple videos by matching the keywords and video metadata. The beta application is currently available for free download at http://www.personalized-video.com/

Online video has matured over the years and the proliferation of portals such as YouTube has enabled users to view and create video content online. Emerging economies such as India are not far behind when it comes to online video consumption. According to a recent comScore report1, 71 per cent of Indian internet users have streamed online videos despite having a broadband penetration of less than 1 percent.

Researchers at HP Labs believe that video will dominate the internet experience in non-English speaking countries such as India by virtue of its ability to transcend challenges posed by text based content creation in local languages.

''At HP Labs we believe that video will dominate the internet in India primarily due to the ease with which content in local languages can be accessed,'' said Sudhir Dixit, director of HP Labs India.  ''We are piloting the personalised video application to understand user preferences and also receive feedback for future enhancements. A key focus at HP Labs India is to innovate for the next 1 billion HP customers and we believe innovating for them requires a more collaborative approach.''

According to Krishnan Ramanathan, senior research scientist, HP Labs India, ''The number of videos available online runs in the order of billions and this can be overwhelming for the average user. We have designed the application to deliver a truly personalized experience through user defined channels that deliver highly relevant videos based on user supplied topics. These channels will only deliver videos that are relevant to the topic supplied and we are able deliver this through innovative algorithms developed at HP Labs. ''