Hundreds of Internet fans expected at annual tech-fest in Spain
Some 800 Internet enthusiasts from across Europe are expected to attend the four-day Campus Party, one of the world's biggest online entertainment events, which gets underway Wednesday in Spain, organisers said.
Participants will gather at the new Caja Magic sports complex in Madrid, used for tennis tournaments, to share ideas, experiences and all types of activities related to computers, communications and new technology.
The goal of the event is to showcase the talents of European youths in this area, organisers said Wednesday at a presentation of the event in Madrid.
A humanoid robot called the ICub, which learns the way a child does, will be presented at the gathering.
It was developed by the RobotCub project, a five-year-long cognition study funded by the European Commission that started in 2004.
Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica will unveil a new tool which will allow video clips taken with mobile phones to be seen from multiple angles.
"Not only are we going to talk about innovation, we are going to show it," said Enrique Nimo, the co-director of the event.
French astronaut Jean Francois Clervoy, a veteran of three NASA space shuttle missions, and Sebastian Sylwan, the head of research and development at New Zealand visual effects company Weta Digital which worked on the film "Avatar" are among the scheduled speakers.
The annual event began in Spain in 1997, and was held last year in the Mediterranean port of Valencia. Versions of the event have also been organised in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
(c) 2010 AFP
