MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT Multimedia Systems

The Concept 50 years ago, Vannevar Bush (advisor President Roosevelt): “Individual stores his books, records and communications and which is mechanised so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory” Innovative proposition forms the fundamental theoretical background for present-day interactive multimedia systems.

Multimedia “Multimedia is the seamless integration of text, sound, images of all kinds and control software within a single digital information environment” ~ Tony Feldman, Multimedia Consultant “The implementation of multimedia capabilities in computers is just the latest episode in a long series: cave painting, hand-crafted manuscripts, the printing press, radio and television…These advances reflect the innate desire of man to create outlets for creative expression, to use technology and imagination to gain empowerment and freedom of ideas” ~ Glen Ochsenreiter, Director Multimedia PC Council “Defining multimedia reminds me of an ancient proverb about three blind men, each encountering an elephant for the first time. One, touching the tail, said it was like a rope. Another, embracing the beast’s leg, described it as a tree. The third, holding the elephant’s trunk, likened it to a snake. Multimedia can appear to be different things, depending on whom you ask” ~ Jeff Burger, NewMedia Magazine

Multimedia - definition The presentation of a computer application, usually interactive, that incorporates media elements such as text, graphics, video, animation, and sound on a computer. Multimedia melds the sensory power of television with the data manipulation and interactive powers of computer. A multimedia system is characterized by computer-controlled, integrated production, manipulation,presentation, storage and communication of independent information,which is encoded at least through continuous (time-dependent) and a discrete (time-independent) medium.

Media “A means to distribute and represent information” (text, graphics, pictures, voice, sound and music) Perception Media (How do humans perceive information) What we see and what we hear Representation Media (How is information encoded in the computer) Text – ASCII, image – JPEG, audio – PCM Presentation Media (Input/Output Information) Keyboards, cameras, mouse, microphones, monitors, speakers Storage Media (Where is information stored) CD, disk Transmission Media (Which medium is used to transfer data) Cables, satellite

Interaction Thought Something that you do to yourself ~ internal process (mental state) Action Something you do to an object in the world. The effect is that something in the world has changed. E.g.: pressing key, clicking mouse button Interaction Involves the participant in going outside the individual. Two way process. E.g.: give a query to search engine which can return an outcome of my search. Complex task 2 types: 1. Physical interaction and 2. Communicative interaction

Interaction Physical Interaction E.g.: You hit me, I hit you. Communicative Interaction Occur between 2 agents

Interactive Multimedia (IMM) Multimedia + Interaction How do we get user involvement in our multimedia product? Input/Output devices User friendly Interface Study of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), ergonomics

Hypermedia Hypermedia is a way of organising multimedia information by linking media elements. Hypermedia has grown out of a fusion between hypertext and multimedia. Hypertext was developed to provide a different structure for basic text in computer systems : text is essentially sequential in nature, even though its structure is hierarchical (chapters, sections, subsections, paragraphs) hypertext was developed to permit more random access between components of text documents, or between documents, to allow a greater degree of flexibility and cross-referencing than a purely linear or sequential model would allow.

Chap.1Chap.2Chap.3Chap.4Chap.5Chap.6 A sequential text Chap.6 Chap.5 Chap.4 Chap.3 Chap.2 Chap.1 A linked, self-referencing text Hypermedia - continue

The structure of a hypermedia organisations is called a hypermedia web, which consists of a number of multimedia elements or nodes with links between them. Links represent semantic relationships, thus when a link exists between two nodes they must be related in some fashion : a digital image linked to a textual description of it a slide-show linked to an audio commentary Most widely used hypermedia tools are hypermedia browsers, which let users view nodes and traverse links between them, and markup languages, such as HTML, which allow users to create hypermedia webs as structured documents. Hypermedia - continue

A Simple Hypermedia Web Text Node Image Node Audio Node Hypermedia - continue

Application Areas for IMM Education Computer Aided Learning (CAL) Training Using Multimedia 40% more effective (study by US DoD) Point of Sales Kiosk News Delivery, Broadcasting and Advertising WWW, Web TV Commerce and Business Applications Amazon.com (first on-line bookstore recorded 230% increase in their profit)