Athens Information Technology (AIT) has been recently awarded an important international distinction by the National Institute of Standards of USA (NIST). The results of the international evaluation of Video Analysis and Content Extraction - VACE II have been announced in the NIST facilities in Washington DC, by the end of June. Several Universities and research centres from Europe and the US - such as University of Southern California, Carnegie Mellon University, BAE Systems, Boeing Research, Honeywell Research, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Queen Mary University of London- have participated in the evaluations. This distinction refers to the Autonomic & Grid Computing Group which had participated in the international evaluation of analysis, tracking and video technologies (VACE II). The prototype system that was developed by the Autonomic & Grid Computing Group headed by prof. Lazaros Polymenakos was ranked second in precision in detecting and tracking vehicles and humans in video scenes. The AGC video tracking system was the result of the research efforts of Prof. Aristodemos Pnevmatikakis and prof. Polymenakos with the assistance of former MSIN students and current AIT researchers A. Stergiou and V. Mylonakis. It utilized novel signal processing technologies to create visual evidence of the people and vehicles to be detected and ensure stable and accurate tracking of their motion and position. Prof. Pnevmatikakis stated: "These new technologies aim to make our living and working environment more intelligent and more autonomous, thus reducing load on humans and improving the quality of our life. They have further significant applications in security, in disaster assistance, in border protection and environment protection (fire detection, hazardous situation detection, etc.)".
The Autonomic and Grid Computing Group of AIT has been conducting state-of-the-art research over the past 3 years with partial EU funding. This research concerns analyzing, extracting context (Who, Where, When, What, How - W5H) and categorizing audio-visual signals in order to allow the development of novel systems and services that can make autonomous decisions and can interact and assist humans in an non-obtrusive way. Founded in 2002 by INTRACOM Group, Athens Information Technology is a non-profit, peripheral education and research centre of excellence with a mission to promote scientific knowledge, innovation and research. AIT is included in the broader framework of INTRACOM HOLDINGS Group CSR strategy that has high priority on technological innovation as well as R&D where it invests 5-7% of its annual turnover. More information about the AGC group activities: http://www.ait.edu.gr/research/RG1.

About INTRACOM HOLDINGS
Founded in 1977, INTRACOM SA is listed on the Athens Stock Exchange since 1990 and included in the FTSE/ASE-20 LargeCap index. In December 2005 INTRACOM was transformed to a holding company under the name INTRACOM HOLDINGS, being the largest Greek multinational technology group in telecommunications, e-government, banking and enterprise, defense electronics, and construction. The Group's major participations are: INTRACOM TELECOM (telecommunication systems and solutions), INTRACOM DEFENSE ELECTRONICS, INTRACOM IT SERVICES (IT solutions for the public sector, banking and enterprises), INTRAKAT (construction, high-tech installations, steel structures, infrastructure maintenance) and Hellas On Line (Internet and voice services provider). INTRACOM HOLDINGS, as a group, has 5,700 employees, exports to 60 countries and operates subsidiaries in 19 countries. For more information please visit:
www.intracom.com.
Information for news editors
Christina Geronicola, Communications Director,
INTRACOM HOLDINGS
tel. +30-210-667-4747,
email: christina.geronicola@intracom.com
Vivian Tsamadou,
Media Relations & Public Affairs Manager,
INTRACOM HOLDINGS
tel. +30-210-667-7121,
e-mail: vtsa@intracom.gr
Chrisanthi Giannakopoulou,
ATI, 210-668-2711,
crgi@ait.edu.gr