Designing Multimedia with Fuzzy Logic Enrique Diaz de Leon * Rene V. Mayorga ** Paul D. Guild *** * ITESM, Guadalajara Campus, Mexico ** Faculty of Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada *** Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Definitions Multimedia A set of tools (i.e. animation, graphics, video, audio, drawings, and text) commonly used to create a hyperdocument. Hyperdocument Non-sequential documents composed of text, audio and visual information stored in a computer

Hyperdocument Design with Multimedia Tools The design of a Hyperdocument consists of considering diverse tools to communicate a specific material or message The design involves addressing several concerns such as: The amount of each media that should be included The way a message or content material should be presented.

Intelligent Design of Multimedia Documents The design of hypermedia documents introduces somewhat abstract or subjective ideas. How can domains of personal expertise be tapped? How can different domains of expertise can be combined? Fuzzy Logic provides an effective framework for dealing with vague and uncertain data.

Intelligent Design of Multimedia Documents The objective is to construct a Fuzzy Logic-based intelligent system to assist users by generating guidelines for the design of their own customized descriptive modules. Information sources used to build an appropriate fuzzy engine (fuzzy rules and membership functions): Literature, books, articles, journals, conference proceedings, and WWW Expert knowledge acquired through interviews/questionnaires.

Intelligent Design of Multimedia Documents Two different aspects are considered when designing a multimedia module: Structural Aspects How to package and organize information? How to break out information? What parameters can be modified when organizing multimedia information?

Intelligent Design of Multimedia Documents Functional Aspects how to best communicate the goals or objectives of the document? What should be included as content?

Objectives To summarize some of the design principles for effective design of hypermedia documents To exemplify an application of Fuzzy Logic to deal effectively with inherent subjectivity To create an appropriate inquiry methodology to map experience of several “experts”. The result provides guidelines for the creation of an initial model of a document

Objectives To devise an expert system applying Fuzzy Logic (Matlab based) as a forward control system to generate automatically a set of guidelines for the design of hypermedia documents To investigate a suitable method for eliciting, mapping, and utilizing expertise of more than one type of expert where there may be conflicts Provide a “proof of concept” as well as to outline some future areas of study in this field

Classification of Information Input variables: These characteristics portray structure and function attributes of a particular multimedia document Accessibility of Information Guidance Hierarchy Levels of Information Loading time Maintainability Performance Portability Reading Rhythm Retrieval capabilities Synchronicity Visual appeal

Classification of Information Output variables: These are some of the tools that can be manipulated to achieve the desired degree of qualification Animated graphics Audio Colors Frames Image maps Images or graphics Length Navigational tools Search capabilities Submit forms Text Video

Fuzzy System GUI The Matlab graphical user interface (GUI) feature was used as a prototype to design a set of menus corresponding to fuzzy inputs to the system according to the type of document that the user wishes to create.

Fuzzy System GUI

Results The table below lists five input variables selected as options by a user

Results

Results The output of the system consists on a set of five guidelines regarding some of the characteristics previously mentioned as shown in the table below

Concluding Remarks The system presented here consists in five input variables representing fuzzy options for the user that wishes to create a hyperdocument The five outputs represent concrete guidelines to follow in order to get an effective design of the multimedia document

Concluding Remarks Output guidelines are based on knowledge elicited from experts in multimedia design. Some rules of inference were obtained from six experts through interview sessions. A suitable interface for appropriate interaction with the fuzzy system was designed in Matlab The interface provides users with a set of menus to choose their desired hypermedia document and obtain the output guidelines

Contributions An example of an application system of a fuzzy inference system to assist a user to design hypermedia documents. Merging two different domains of expertise (structural and functional) Use of Fuzzy Logic Toolbox of Matlab as a powerful tool to design fuzzy decision making systems A prototypic design of an interface in Matlab that permits interaction between a user and a fuzzy inference system.