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IBM, BBC join to develop image technology

Greg Sandoval Former Staff writer
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. Based in New York, Sandoval is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at @sandoCNET.
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Greg Sandoval

IBM and British Broadcasting Corporation are teaming up to develop video and image search technology for the BBC's online children shows.

The agreement between the companies, announced Monday, calls for IBM's "Marvel" research system to create interactive searches for BBC children's shows. The companies will also collaborate on several other projects.

Marvel has the ability to visually analyze images and then categorize based on appearance, the companies said.

Video filtering has been a hot topic in recent months. YouTube, a reservoir of unauthorized copyright clips has been slow to develop a technology that would prevent the uploading of pirated movie and TV shows and was criticized by executives at NBC Universal and Viacom.

Viacom demanded last month that YouTube remove 100,000 videos from the site that Viacom said featured snippets from some of its shows.

The BBC and IBM, which have worked together for years, may work together in the future work on content distribution and customer relations, the companies said.