Singapore’s A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) has received an overwhelming response to its global competition with an idea of conceiving technologies for a rich, dynamic media search engine. The new search engine would be smart enough for identifying text, audio & video containing any word - even if that particular word, or relevant search term, hasn’t been tagged yet in the internet material. Millions of online search engine users across the globe stand to benefit from such advanced technologies, which will help them in navigating the abundant material on the Internet.
Termed ‘The Star Challenge 2008’, this eight-month contest has a prize of USD100,000. The Star Challenge 2008 is open to people all over the world. The top software engineers, researchers and amateur search media enthusiasts taking part in it have embarked on an enchanting discovery of the new search technology. The contest is part of the Fusionopolis, Singapore’s science and technology powerhouse, which looks to shape or alter the lifestyles & economy of the future.
Slated to be held in October 2008, Fusionopolis will attract over 1500 talented people from a diverse scientific domains integrating their amazing capabilities for jointly creating the complex technologies. Developing such advanced search capabilities will radically alter the way individuals interact with large amount of multi-media information, thus creating seamless, accessible platforms across different online communities.