This book provides a concise and comprehensive introduction to multimedia. It arose out of the need for material with a strong academic component, that is material related to scientific research.
Don't complain, and take the exam. After all it makes you aware of the rules governing the (broadband) digital highway.
themes and variations
In other words, either by developing the technology for extracting features or attributes from multimedia objects, or by applying content annotation for such objects, multimedia information retrieval should be considered as a necessary asset to make a multimedia web an effective information repository.
what do we have to learn?
...
...
intended audience(s)
multimedia course
part(s)
This book is the result of developing the course notes for an introduction to multimedia for first year Computer Science and Information Science students. Hence, first of all, I like to thank the students that had to endure all the rough drafts of this material, and perhaps not to forget my experiment(s) with the presentation format of it.
more than the art of turning base metals into gold, alchemy is a system of cosmic symbolism
perfect solutions
perspectives -- digital convergence
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to define the notion of multimedia, recount the history of digital entertainment, explain the concept of digital convergence, discuss the future of cyberspace, and speculate about the commercial viability of mobile multimedia.
We live in the digital era,
Some of us watch televion on our PCs, and may be even looking forward to watch television on their mobile phone. This is multimedia. For others, the PC is still a programmable machine. Being able to program it might earn you a living. Understanding multimedia, however, might even provide you with a better living.
In this chapter, we study what trends may currently be observed in the creation and delivery of multimedia information, and we explore what impact the digital revolution may have from a commercial perspective.
levels of meaning
cultural convergence
The cultural convergence of art, science, and technology provides ample opportunity for artists to challenge the very notion of how art is produced and to call into question its subject matter and its function in society.
standardization and uniformity
The barriers between TV, movies, music, videogames and the Internet are crumbling.
Audiences are fetting new creative options. Here is what entertainment could become if the technological and legal hurdles can be cleared ...
there is no business without show business
evolution of digital entertainment
experience is fundamental to human life
The
desire to share experiences will be the motivating factor in the development of exciting multimedia technology in the foreseeable future.
television, video cassettes, video tape-recorder/players, video games, and personal computers all form an encompassing electronic system whose various forms interface to constitute an alternative and absolute world that uniquely incorporates the spectator/user in a spatially decentered, weakly temporalized and quasi-disembodied state.
virtual reality
virtual reality (is) when and where the computer disappears and you become the
'ghost in the machine' ...
the union of audio, video and data communication into a single source, received on a single device, delivered by a single connection
subsidiary convergences
convergence
acronyms
TV or PC
The roadblock to the Entertainment PC could be the PC itself. Even a cheap TV doesn't crash or freeze. The best computers still do.
distribution
technological determinism
technological determinism was not the answer, ... more attempts were to be made to provide answers about the social consequences of television than had ever been asked about radio.
information
Information became a major concern anywhere during the late 1960 and 1970s where there was simultaneous talk both of 'lack of information' and 'information saturation'.
[ Briggs and Burke (2001)] , p. 555
Peter Greven 23/3/2001 (Volkskrant)
new media sucks
-- people like new technology.
they don't like new media.
streaming media (audio and video), interactive gaming, virtual reality and 3D animation, interactive TV programming, interactive advertising, video on-demand, webcasting and multimedia
strategic questions
the players
Alltel, AT&T Wireless, AtomShockwave, Cingular Wireless, Clear Channel, HitHive, Ifilm, Infinity, KDDI, Liquid Audio, LMIV, Mannesmann, MP3.com, MTV, NetCom, Myplay, Nortel Networks, NTT DoCoMo, Omnitel, Sprint, Telefonica, Telstra, Vitaminic, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Megastores, Vodafone, Voicestream.
information society
the new term 'information society' gave form to a cluster of hitherto more loosely related aspects of communication -- knowledge, news, literature, entertainment, all exchanged through different media and different media materials -- paper, ink, canvas, paint, celluloid, cinema, radio, television and computers.
From the 1960s onwards, all messages, public and private, verbal and visual, began to be considered as 'data', information that could be transmitted, collected, recorded, whatever their point of origin, most effective through electronic technology.
Second Life seems to be overtaking the world. In the whole range of cummunity-building platforms, Second Life stands out as an immersive 3D world with an almost stunning adoption, by both individuals, companies and institutions, followed attentively by the Press. Not entirely without an understanding of the value of press coverage, the VU University Amsterdam decided to create presence in Second Life, by creating a virtual campus, to realize a (virtual) community of learners,
[ Eliens et al. (2007)] . And, indeed, we succeeded in being the first university in The Netherlands with presence in Second Life and, as hoped, this was covered in the 8 o'clock nation-wide TV news.
success factors (1/2)
success factors (2/2)
reference model
critical theory
attempt(s) to link the arts, literature, media studies, politics, sociology, antropology, philosophy and technology in an interdisciplinary search for relevant concepts and frameworks with which to understand the current world.
contemporary perception(s)
... in the contemporary world, the perceptual task has changed, in both leisure and work, to monitor data displays, ready for events.
californian dream(s)
... the new faith has emerged from a bizarre fusion of the cultural bohemianism of San Francisco with the high-tech industries of Silocon Valley...
and, to further de-construct the digital utopianism:
... the californian ideology promiscuously combines the freewheeling spirit
of the hippies and the entrepeneurial zeal of of the yuppies
digital class
... the shadow side of the digital class's freedom and individuality is a lack of connection ... and an unrealized acceptance of work as the main life value.
cyberfeminism(s)
... empowerment of women in the field of new electronic media can only result from the demystification of technology and the appropriation of access to (these) tools.
concepts
technology
As a project, consider
the development of a Java-based mobile game
using J2ME, see
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to define information spaces in a precise manner, position the hypertextual capabilities of the web in a historical perspective, explain the difference between multimedia and hypermedia, and argue why computational support for narrative structure in multimedia applications is desirable.
However entertaining it might be presented to you, underlying every multimedia presentation there is an information space. That is to say, irrespective of the medium, there is a message. And being confronted with a message, we might want to inquire for more information.
In this chapter, we will define the notion of information space more precisely.
We will extend this definition to include information hyperspaces, by looking at the history of hypertext and hypermedia.
Finally, we will discuss visualisation as a means to present (abstract) information in a more intuitive way, and we will reflect on what is involved in creating compelling multimedia.
Current day multimedia information systems
distinguish themselves from older day
information systems not only by what information
they contain, that includes multimedia objects such
as images and sounds, but also by a much more extensive repertoire
of query mechanisms,
visual interfaces and rich presentation facilities.
See
S.K. Chang and M.F. Costabile -- Visual Interfaces to Multimedia Databases
The Handbook of Multimedia Information Management
geographical information systems, office automation, distance learning, health care, computer aided design, scientific visualization, and information visualization.
an information space is a representation of the information
stored in a system or database that is used to present
that information to a user.
we must distinguish between a visual information space (for presentation), a logical information space (in which we can reason about abstract information objects) and a physical information space (where our concrete multimedia objects are stored).
a logical information space is a multidimensional space where each point represents an object from the physical information space (read database).
www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points
XML is a set of rules (you may also think of them as guidelines or conventions) for designing text formats that let you structure your data.
XML in 10 points
related technologies
information hyperspace
the logical information space may further be structured in a logical information hyperspace, where the clues become hyperlinks that provide directional information, and the information space can be navigated by the user following directional clues.
history
A curriculum promotes a false simplification of any subject,
cutting the subject's many interconnections and leaving
a skeleton of sequence which is only a charicature
of its richness and intrinsic fascination.
research issues
visualization
Grasping the whole is a gigantic theme, intellectual history's most important.
Ant vision is humanity's usual fate; but seeing the whole is every thinking person's aspiration.
David Gelernter, Mirror Worlds 1992
data types
Whatever your target audience, whatever your medium, whatever your message, you have to be convincing if not compelling.
Convergence is the mutual remediation of at least three important technologies -- telephone, televison and computer -- each of which is a hybrid of technical, social and economic practice, and each of which offers its own path to immediacy.
The telephone offers the immediacy of voice or the interchange of voices in real-time. Television is a point-of-view technology that promises immediacy through its insistent real-time monitoring of the world. The computer's promise of immediacy comes through the combination of three-dimensional graphics, automatic (programmed) action, and an interactivity that television can not match. As they come together, each of these is trying to absorb the others and promote its own version of immediacy.
daft punk -- technologic (cn / jp)
service(s)
the most powerful mashups don't just mix code and data, they mix cultures.
which provides a challenge that trancends all issues of mere technological correctness.
built-in(s)
resource(s)
flash/quicktime in SL
Quicktime supports Flash, but only up to Flash version 5. We're up to version 9 on that now! Luckily, I have been dabbling with Flash since the early days, so already knew how to do this 'the old way'... So, Flash is doing all the work. No LSL at all... I heart feeds. Did I say 'I heart feeds?
concepts
technology
As a project, I suggest the development of a virtual tour
in a city, museum or other interesting locatoion.
if you linger for a long time in one place you'd almost think there must be something there
wittgenstein
perspectives -- delivery & presentation
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to demonstrate the necessity of compression, to discuss criteria for the selection of codecs and mention some of the alternatives, to characterize the MPEG-4 and SMIL standards, to explain the difference between MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, and to speculate about the feasibility of a semantic multimedia web.
Without compression and decompression, digital information delivery would be virtually impossible. In this chapter we will take a more detailed look at compression and decompression. It contains the information that you may possibly need to decide on a suitable compression and decompression scheme (codec) for your future multimedia productions.
We will also discuss the standards that may govern the future (multimedia) Web, including MPEG-4, SMIL and RM3D. We will explore to what extent these standards allow us to realize the optimal multimedia platform, that is one that embodies digital convergence in its full potential. Finally, we will investigate how these ideas may ultimately lead to a (multimedia) semantic web.
media | uncompressed | compressed |
---|---|---|
voice 8k samples/sec, 8 bits/sample | 64 kbps | 2-4 kbps |
slow motion video 10fps 176x120 8 bits | 5.07 Mbps | 8-16 kbps |
audio conference 8k samples/sec 8bits | 64 kbps | 16-64 kbps |
video conference 15 fps 352x240 8bits | 30.4 Mbps | 64-768 kbps |
audio (stereo) 44.1 k samples/s 16 bits | 1.5 Mbps | 128k-1.5Mbps |
video 15 fps 352x240 15 fps 8 bits | 30.4 Mbps | 384 kbps |
video (CDROM) 30 fps 352x240 8 bits | 60.8 Mbps | 1.5-4 Mbps |
video (broadcast) 30 fps 720x480 8 bits | 248.8 Mbps | 3-8 Mbps |
HDTV 59.9 fps 1280x720 8 bits | 1.3 Gbps | 20 Mbps |
statistical redundancy in signal
irrelevant information
B. Vasudev & W. Li, Memory management: Codecs
codec = (en)coder + decoder
codec design problem
From a systems design viewpoint, one can restate the codec design problem as a bit rate minimization problem, meeting (among others) constraints concerning:
- specified levels of signal quality,
- implementation complexity, and
- communication delay (start coding -- end decoding).
MPEG-1 video compression uses both intra-frame analysis, for the compression of individual frames (which are like images), as well as. inter-frame analysis, to detect redundant blocks or invariants between frames.
frames
GigaPort
item | streaming | downloaded |
bandwidth | equal to the display rate | may be arbitrarily small |
disk storage | none | the entire file must be stored |
startup delay | almost none | equal to the download time |
resolution | depends on available bandwidth | depends on available disk storage |
formats
Quicktime, introduced by Apple, early 1990s, for local viewing; RealVideo, streaming video from RealNetworks; and Windows Media, a proprietary encoding scheme fromMicrosoft.
Examples of these formats, encoded for various bitrates are available at Video at VU.
standards
"Perhaps the most immediate need for MPEG-4 is defensive. It supplies tools with which to create uniform (and top-quality) audio and video encoders on the Internet, preempting what may become an unmanageable tangle of proprietary formats."
Imagine, a talking figure standing next to a desk and a projection screen, explaining the contents of a video that is being projected on the screen, pointing at a globe that stands on the desk. The user that is watching that scene decides to change from viewpoint to get a better look at the globe ...
The data stream (Elementary Streams) that result from the coding process can be transmitted or stored separately and need to be composed so as to create the actual multimedia presentation at the receivers side.
benefits
parallel and sequential
Authoring a SMIL presentation comes down, basically, to
name media components for text, images,audio and video with URLs, and to schedule their presentation either in parallel or in sequence.
presentation characteristics
applications
example
history
Experience from both the CD-ROM community and from the Web multimedia community suggested that it would be beneficial to adopt a declarative format for expressing media synchronization on the Web as an alternative and complementary approach to scripting languages.
Following a workshop in October 1996, W3C established a first working group on synchronized multimedia in March 1997. This group focused on the design of a declarative language and the work gave rise to SMIL 1.0 becoming a W3C Recommendation in June 1998.
SMIL 2.0 Modules
module-based reuse
The Web3D Rich Media Working Group was formed to develop a Rich Media standard format (RM3D) for use in next-generation media devices. It is a highly active group with participants from a broad range of companies including 3Dlabs, ATI, Eyematic, OpenWorlds, Out of the Blue Design, Shout Interactive, Sony, Uma, and others.
RM3D
The Web3D Consortium initiative is fueled by a clear need for a standard high performance Rich Media format. Bringing together content creators with successful graphics hardware and software experts to define RM3D will ensure that the new standard addresses authoring and delivery of a new breed of interactive applications.
requirements
working draft
Since there are three vastly different proposals for this section (time model), the original <RM3D> 97 text is kept. Once the issues concerning time-dependent nodes are resolved, this section can be modified appropriately.
meta data
Metadata is data about data. Specifically, the term refers to data used to identify, describe, or locate information resources, whether these resources are physical or electronic. While structured metadata processed by computers is relatively new, the basic concept of metadata has been used for many years in helping manage and use large collections of information. Library card catalogs are a familiar example of such metadata.
Dublin Core example
information repository
The Web is becoming a universal repository of human knowledge and culture, which has allowed unprecedented sharing of ideas and information in a scale never seen before.
browsing & navigation
To satisfy his information need, the user might navigate the hyperspace of web links searching for information of interest. However, since the hyperspace is vast and almost unknown, such a navigation task is usually inefficient.
investigating a new approach to navigation through information spaces, based on a personalised and social navigational paradigm.
The AGNETA & FRIDA system seeks to integrate web-browsing and narrative into a joint mode. Below the browser window (on the desktop) are placed two female characters, sitting in their livingroom chairs, watching the browser during the session (more or less like watching television). Agneta and Frida (mother and daughter) physically react, comment, make ironic remarks about and develop stories around the information presented in the browser (primarily to each other), but are also sensitive to what the navigator is doing and possible malfunctions of the browser or server.
In this way they seek to attach emotional, comical or anecdotal connotations to the information and happenings in the browsing session. Through an activity slider, the navigator can decide on how active she wants the characters to be, depending on the purpose of the browsing session (serious information seeking, wayfinding, exploration or entertainment browsing).
game as social system
actors | rule(s) | resource(s) |
---|---|---|
players | events | game space |
roles | evaluation | situation |
goals | facilitator(s) | context |
criteria
climate star
simulation parameters
game elements
argument(s)
concepts
technology
As a project, you may think of implementing for
example JPEG compression, following
perspectives -- multimedia information retrieval
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to describe scenarios for information retrieval, to explain how content analysis for images can be done, to characterize similarity metrics, to define the notions of recall and precision, and to give an example of frequence tables, as used in text search.
Searching for information on the web is cumbersome. Given our experiences today, we may not even want to think about searching for multimedia information on the (multimedia) web.
Nevertheless, in this chapter we will briefly sketch one of the possible scenarios indicating the need for multimedia search. In fact, once we have the ability to search for multimedia information, many scenarios could be thought of.
As a start, we will look at two media types, images and documents. We will study search for images, because it teaches us important lessons about content analysis of media objects and what we may consider as being similar. Perhaps surprisingly, we will study text documents because, due to our familiarity with this media type, text documents allow us to determine what we may understand by effective search.
media types
Information retrieval, according to
To see what is involved, imagine that we have a (user) query like:
information retrieval models
vector models
content-based description
example
similarity-based retrieval
How do we determine whether the content of a segment (of a segmented image) is similar to another image (or set of images)?
transformation approach
Given two objects o1 and o2, the level of dissimilarity is proportional to the (minimum) cost of transforming object o1 into object o2 or vice versa
image repository
problems
effective search
precision and recall
anomalies
user-oriented measures
concepts
technology
As a project, you may implement simple
image analysis algorithms that, for example, extract
a color histogram, or detect the presence of
a horizon-like edge.
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to explain the difference between content and meta information, to mention relevant content parameters for audio, to characterize the requirements for video libraries, to define an annotation logic for video, and to discuss feature extraction in samples of musical material.
Current technology does not allow us to extract information automatically from arbitrary media objects. In these cases, at least for the time being, we need to assist search by annotating content with what is commonly referred to as meta-information.
In this chapter, we will look at two more media types, in particular audio and video. Studying audio, we will learn how we may combine feature extraction and meta-information to define a data model that allows for search. Studying video, on the other hand, will indicate the complexity of devising a knowledge representation scheme that captures the content of video fragments.
Concluding this chapter, we will discuss an architecture for feature extraction for arbitrary media objects.
audio databases
signal-based content
windowing
feature extraction
video content
object instance: (oid,os,ip)
example
frame | objects | frame-dependent properties |
---|---|---|
1 | Jane | has(briefcase), at(path) |
- | house | door(closed) |
- | briefcase | |
2 | Jane | has(briefcase), at(door) |
- | Dennis | at(door) |
- | house | door(open) |
- | briefcase |
frame-independent properties
object | frame-independent properties | value |
---|---|---|
Jane | age | 35 |
height | 170cm | |
house | address | ... |
color | brown | |
briefcase | color | black |
size | 40 x 31 |
example
video libraries
query language for video libraries
example
To improve library access, the Informedia Digital Video Library uses automatic processing to derive descriptors for video. A new extension to the video processing extracts geographic references from these descriptors.
The operational library interface shows the geographic entities addressed in a story, highlighting the regions discussed in the video through a map display synchronized with the video display.
The map can also serve as a query mechanism, allowing users to search the terabyte library for stories taking place in a selected area of interest.
More recently, it has been recognized that the process of spatialization -- where a spatial map-like structure is applied to data where no inherent or obvious one does exist -- can provide an interpretable structure to other types of data.
atlas of cyberspace
We present a wide range of spatializations that have employed a variety of graphical techniques and visual metaphors so as to provide striking and powerful images that extend from two dimension 'maps' to three-dimensional immersive landscapes.
feature grammar
melody detector
prediction techniques
definition(s)
guided tour(s)
concepts
technology
As a project, think of implementing musical similarity matching,
or developing an application retrieving video fragments
using a simple annotation logic.
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to dicuss the considerations that play a role in developing a multimedia information system, characterize an abstract multimedia data format, give examples of multimedia content queries, define the notion of virtual resources, and discuss the requirements for networked virtual environments.
From a system development perspective, a multimedia information system may be considered as a multimedia database, providing storage and retrieval facilities for media objects. Yet, rather than a solution this presents us with a problem, since there are many options to provide such storage facilities and equally many to support retrieval.
In this chapter, we will study the architectural issues involved in developing multimedia information systems, and we will introduce the notion of media abstraction to provide for a uniform approach to arbitrary media objects.
Finally, we will discuss the additional problems that networked multimedia confront us with.
issues
content organisation
Principle of Uniformity
... from a semantical point of view the content of a multimedia source is independent of the source itself, so we may
use statements as meta data to provide a description
of media objects.
tradeoffs
is it?
software architecture
information retrieval cycle
media abstraction
example -- image database
example -- video database
structured multimedia database
SMDS -- functions
SMDS-SQL
FROM
WHERE
example
hybrid representations: HM-SQL
example HM-SQL
digital libraries
Digital libraries are constructed -- collected and organized -- by a community of users. Their functional capabilities support the information needs and users of this community. Digital libraries are an extension, enhancement and integration of a variety of information institutions as physicalplaces where resources are selected, collected, organized, preserved and accessed in support of a user community.
... federated structures that provide humans both intellectual and physical access to the huge and growing worldwide networks of information encoded in multimedia digital formats.
digital libraries (5S)
networked multimedia
network criteria
Quality of Service
Quality of Service is a concept based on the statement that not all applications need the same performance from the network over which they run. Thus, applications may indicate their specific requirements to the network, before they actually start transmitting information data.
QoS requirements
networked virtual environments
challenges
The JavaTM Media APIs meet the increasing demand for multimedia in the enterprise by providing a unified, non-proprietary, platform-neutral solution. This set of APIs supports the integration of audio and video clips, animated presentations, 2D fonts, graphics, and images, as well as speech input/output and 3D models. By providing standard players and integrating these supporting technologies, the Java Media APIs enable developers to produce and distribute compelling, media-rich content.
recommender economy
interpretation(s)
concepts
technology
As a project, you may implement a multi-player
game in which you may exchange pictures and videos,
for example pictures and videos of celebrities.
perspectives -- multimedia applications
learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to characterize the notion of virtual context, discuss the issue of information retrieval in virtual environments, explain what is meant about intelligent multimedia and discuss the potential role of intelligent agents in multimedia applications.
From a user perspective, virtual environments offer the most advanced interface to multimedia information systems. Virtual environments involve the use of (high resolution) 3D graphics, intuitive interaction facilities and possibly support for multiple users.
In this chapter, we will explore the use of (desktop) virtual environments as an interface to (multimedia) information systems. We will discuss a number of prototype implementations illustrating, respectively, how paintings can be related to their context, how navigation may be seen as a suitable answer to a query, and how we can define intelligent agents that can interact with the information space. Take good notice, the use of virtual environments as an interface to information systems represents a major challenge for future research!
virtual context
augmented virtual reality
problems
VRML
...
Web Agent Support Program
3D GUI
Wishful thinking about the widespread adoption of three-dimensional interfaces has not helped spawn winning applications. Success stories with three-dimensional games do not translate into broad acceptance of head-tracking immersive virtual reality. To accelerate adoption of advanced interfaces, designers must understand their appeal and performance benefits as well as honestly identify their deficits. We need to separate out the features that make 3D useful and understand how they help overcome the challenges of dis-orientation during navigation and distraction from occlusion.
Ben Shneiderman
Does spatial memory improve with 3D layouts? Is it true that 3D is more natural and easier to learn? Careful empirical studies clarify why modest aspects of 3D, such as shading for buttons and overlapping of windows are helpful, but 3D bar charts and directory structures are not. 3D sometimes pays off for medical imagery, chemical molecules, and architecture, but has yet to prove beneficial for performance measures in shopping or operating systems.
Ben Shneiderman
RIF + WASP
multi-user soccer game
agents in virtual environments
Living Worlds
programming platform
taxonomy of agents
presentation agent
Given any collection of results, PAMELA could design some spatial layout and select suitableobject types, including for example color-based relevance cues, to present the results in a scene. PAMELA could then navigate you through the scene, indicating the possible relevance of particular results.
A variety of applications may benefit from deploying embodied conversational agents, either in the form of animated humanoid avatars or, more simply, as a 'talking head'. An interesting example is provided by Signing Avatar, a system that allows for translating arbitrary text in both spoken language and sign language for the deaf, presented by animated humanoid avatars.
Here the use of animated avatars is essential to communicate with a particular group of users, using the sign language for the deaf.
STEP
DLP+X3D
The DLP+X3D platform provides together with the STEP scripting language the computational facilities for defining semantically meaningful behaviors and allows for a rich presentational environment, in particular 3D virtual environments that may include streaming video, text and speech.
evaluation criteria
conversational agents in VR
applications
system perspective
user perspective
initial target(s)
The history of Second Life is extensively descibed in the official Second Life guide,
What is the secret of the success of Second Life?, we asked in
What has been characterized as a shift of culture,
from a media consumer culture to a participatory culture,
The first idea that comes to mind, naturally, is to use Second Life to offer courses online. But, although we did have plans to give lectures (college) on law, probably including the enactment of a particular case, we did consider this approach as rather naive, and frankly I see no reason to include what may be considered an outdated paradigm of learning in our virtual campus, where there might be more appealing alternatives. Similarly, using the virtual laboratory for experiments might not be the best way to offer courses, although, again, we do intend to provide a model of a living cell, allowing students to study the structure, functionality and behavior of organic cells in virtual space.
active learning
concepts
technology
As a project, I suggest the implementation of storytelling in virtual environments, with (possibly) an embodied agent as the narrator.
You may further explore or evaluate
the role of agents in multimedia applications
and virtual environments.
perspectives -- game development
media equation(s) 1/4
We regularly exploit the media equation for enjoyment by the willing suspension of our critical faculties. Theatre is the projection of a story through the window of a stage, and typically the audience gets immersed in the story as if it was real.
multimedia equation(s) 4/4
perfect solutions
Much more than the art of turning base metals into gold, alchemy is a system of cosmic symbolism. The alchemist learns how to create within a sealed vessel a Model of the Universe in which the opposing complementary forces of Male and Female, Earth and Air, Fire and Water attain the perfect synthesis of which gold is the emblem.
multimedia engineering
"engineering is the art of moulding materials we do not wholly understand ... in such a way that the community at large has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance."
outline
perspective(s)
authoring | convergence | standards | retrieval | |
review/background | - | ++ | ++ | + |
case study | + | + | + | + |
technical analysis | - | ++ | ++ | ++ |
formal study | - | - | ++ | - |
tutorial | -- | - | ? | - |
\vspace{0.0cm} This book provides a concise and comprehensive introduction to multimedia. It arose out of the need for material with a strong academic compontent, that is (simply) material related to scientific research. Indeed, studying multimedia is not (only) fun. Compare it with obtaining a driver license. Before you are allowed to drive on the higway, you have to take a theory exam. So why not take such an exam before entering the multimedia circus. Don't complain, and take the exam. After all it makes you aware of the rules governing the (broadband) digital highway. The book and accompanying material is available at www.cs.vu.nl/~eliens/media |
\parbox{5cm}{© \hspace{0.2cm}Æliens, Amsterdam (2002)} |