A*STAR has announced a new technology push for the mobile media that "will not just pioneer a new dimension in the tourism industry, but also create exciting developments in the growing trend of online media content sharing."

Among the new applications is a location-based technology that works like a "Time Machine", by peer tagging of media images and videos in the phone. Amazingly, a digital photo snapped by the mobile phone can be instantly analysed and identified. Images of the exact location as it was seen 50 years ago can then be sent directly to the phone.

Altogether there are eight research grants awarded by A*STAR's Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) totalling $6.6million to researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Institute of Infocomm Research (I2R).

These have been selected from amongst 14 research projects received through a public call for proposals in Dec 2006.

Professor Chong Tow Chong, Executive Director of the SERC said: "With new developments and strong support for R&D in the mobile media industry, A*STAR is excited to continue leading the growth for a key sector which is rapidly embracing commercial application of technology R&D."

A*STAR offers a peek into the future of mobile technology, with some synopses of potential projects:

What you see is what you get?or maybe not?

With increasing sophistication of available photo editing software, it has become increasingly difficult to detect if digital images have been manipulated. Even reputable news agencies have fallen prey to "doctored" images in which they have been unable to verify its authenticity.

Hence, a research project in the field of multimedia forensics by I2R entitled " Mobile Multimedia Forensics Research: Towards the Next Level " has been selected for the award. Amongst many other uses, it aims to eliminate unscrupulous manipulation of images and video in the information age. Think of it as the CSI of digital images.

How about a mobile phone that actually "knows" what you like?

Another research team from NTU is trying to get your mobile phone to automatically filter and customise the vast amount of media-rich content out there to suit the individual's taste.

Entitled " Context-Aware Content Adaptation for Pervasive Mobile Media Access and Applications" , it aims to do this with intelligent content analysis tools where users can personalize, share, browse and retrieve mobile media according to their preferences, network conditions, and device capabilities.

With such new found powers of EQ and intelligence, manufacturers might just have to start warning users not to grow too emotionally attached to your mobile devices.

SERC's Mobile Media Thematic Strategic Research Programme (TSRP)

The above projects are some of the awarded grant recipients made possible by SERC's Mobile Media Thematic Strategic Research Programme (TSRP).

These grants will intensify the development of talents and infrastructure in Interactive Digital Media, and open up "exciting new opportunities for the industry" in Singapore.

According to the press release, the Mobile Media TSRP is focused on research relating to the creation, processing, storage, distribution and application of such media types as text, graphics, animation, sound, speech, image, video and their various possible combinations that are of potential use in mobile devices with wireless network connectivity.

Launched in 2003, the TSRP Programme is one of two SERC extramural research programmes aimed at building research capabilities in appropriate public sector institutions.

Other ongoing TSRP worth a total of $45 million are in nanomanufacturing, polymer and molecular electronics, integrated manufacturing and service systems, and ultra-wide band technologies.

The other programme, the Public Sector Funding Programme aims to seed and support investigator-led research activity across a wide range of disciplines.

Says Professor Chong Tow Chong: "We see the success of our Thematic Strategic Research Programme as laying a strong foundation for technology R&D in strategic and high growth sectors of the economy."