preface -- topical media

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.

Indeed, studying multimedia is not only fun. Compare it with obtaining a driver license. Before you are allowed to drive on the highway, 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.

themes and variations

• digital convergence -- all for one, one for all
• broadband communication -- entertainment
• multimedia information retrieval -- as an afterthought?
• multimedia and game application(s) -- from design to development

An underlying thought that motivated the writing of this book is that somehow the gap between authoring and retrieval should be bridged.

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?

• concepts,
• facts,
• history,
• applications
• standards
• technology
• multimedia and games

digital convergence

• concepts -- digital revolution
• facts -- from the entertainment industry
• history -- from Pong to Big Brother
• applications -- infotainment
• standards -- MPEG, RM3D, SMIL
• technology -- TV, PC, DVD

...

broadband communication

• concepts -- Quality of Service
• facts -- compression is needed
• history -- the internet
• applications -- entertainment and communication
• standards -- HTTP, TCP/IP, RTP
• technology -- cable, (X)DSL

...

multimedia information retrieval

• concepts -- features, precision, recall
• facts -- the problem is utterly complex
• history -- from text to multimedia
• applications -- digital libraries
• standards <-- distance metrics
• technology -- indexing & algorithms

assignment

Annotated Tour in Amsterdam

multimedia

• Give a short description of the contents and structure of your presentation.

  Indicate how the information contained in your presentation can be made accessible (for example in search).

intended audience(s)

• students (beginning and advanced)
• instructors
• professionals and interested laymen

multimedia course

• presentations for all chapters, including the preface in dynamic HTML slides
• presentable versions of the MPEG-4 standard, and other relevant material
• possible exam questions, with back links into the text for quick learning and review
• seven sample lectures, with additional explanation for the instructor

part(s)

• part i -- digital convergence
• part ii -- delivery & presentation
• part iii -- multimedia information retrieval
• part iv -- applications & tools
• part v -- game development

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.

references

1.  [Convergence],  [Entertainment],  [Experience].
2.  [Spaces],  [Hypermedia],  [Magic].
3.  [Codecs],  [MPEG-4],  [Web].
4.  [Game],  [Animation],  [Cg]
5.  [MMDBMS],  [IR].
6.  [MMDBMS],  [Meldex],  [ACOI].
7.  [MMDBMS],  [Networked],
8.  [Networked],  [Query],  [Community].
9.  [Effects],  [Remediation],
10.  [Chapman1],  [Chapman2],  [Magic],
11.  [Ultimate],  [VirtualArt],
12.  [HalfReal],  [Film],  [Cinema],  [Semiotics].