Multimedia Technology

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Multimedia Technology

• Ahmed M. Zeki
• Semester 1 June 2002/2003

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What is Multimedia?

• In a generic sense, multimedia is simply the use
  of many media.
• A speaker making a presentation using a slide
  projector and VCR would be making a multimedia
  presentation. But the word multimedia has been
  popularized as a term that applies to a broad
  spectrum of computer-related products and
  processes.
• There are multimedia CDROM titles, games,
  interactive kiosks, CBT (Computer Based Training)
  materials, instructional courseware, and online
  services.

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• What all of these have in common is that...
• they are computer-based,
• they can incorporate several elements, such as
  sound and graphics,
• and they are interactive.
• Consequently, multimedia can be defined as a
  computer based interactive communications process
  that incorporates text, graphics, sound,
  animation and video.

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Definition

• The multimedia is a tool that allows you to use
  text, images, sound and video to deliver your
  messages and content in meaningful way.

Multimedia Project
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• The capability of the computer to incorporate
  various elements -such as sound and animation- is
  necessary to develop and deliver a multimedia
  title.
• For example a computer equipped with CDROM
  drives, sound cards, speakers and sufficient
  speed and processing power can be used in
  developing and playing multimedia titles.

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• The most important feature of multimedia is the
  interactivity, which is the ability of the user
  to interact with the program.
• The movie combines several elements such as
  graphics, sound and animation but it is presented
  in a linear way (there is a beginning, middle and
  end), and watching a movie is a passive process
  (the viewer has no control -or little control in
  the case of VCR such as controlling the volume,
  adjusting the quality, rewind- ).

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• Multimedia allows the content to be presented in
  a nonlinear way with the user being active rather
  than passive. Thus it is interactive, which means
  the user determines
• what contents is delivered
• when it is delivered
• how it is delivered

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• The number of households that own a multimedia
  computer (MPC) which is a computer with a CDROM
  drive, audio card and speakers is an indicator of
  of the growth of multimedia.

24 M
1 M
1992
1996
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• Another indication of the growth of multimedia
  industry is the increase in the number if
  multimedia titles.

15000
5000
1992
1996
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• The reasons for the growth
• (1) Price As price declines, demand increases.

2500
100
MPC price
1500
Title price
30
1992 1996
1992 1996
1000
300
Upgrading
1992 1996
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• (2) Hype MM would do for the home computer
  market what desktop publishing did for the
  publishing industry.
• Billions of dollars would be spent on hardware
  component such as CD players, audio cards, video
  cards and speakers, as well as on software such
  as animation, authoring, video and sound editing.

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• (3) Value added With an investment of a few
  hundred dollars, the computer can be changed into
  an entertainment center, educational resource and
  marketing tool.
• If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a
  full motion video is worth even more.

1000 words ? gt 1000 pictures!!
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• (4) User control
• No longer are we lecturing at us in a mostly
  one-way, passive process.
• No longer are we constrained by the limitations
  of the printed page (instead of reading a printed
  version in a linear fashion, we can hear the
  actual person deliver a famous speech and skip
  around at will).
• No longer do we have to manipulate (rewind or
  fast forward) the VCR to find the desired video
  chip. The user decided what information to
  access, when to access and the way it will be
  presented.
• (5) Action
• Active process (not passive process). Example
  dissecting a bird in a virtual lab is an active
  process.

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• (6) Individualization the ability of a
  multimedia title to address different learning
  styles and needs.
• Example English learning system might have these
  features
• allowing you to hear the word
• run an animation or video clip that illustrates
  how the words are used in context
• display the translation to another language
• allowing you to record your pronunciation and
  compare it with the correct one
• it is up to you to decide how the material is
  presented based on listening, to practice
  vocabulary, adjusting the level of difficulty.

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Major Categories of Multimedia Titles

• Creating multimedia title may vary depending on
  its category. For example the use of animated
  cartoon characters might be appropriate for a
  multimedia game, but inappropriate for a
  marketing presentation.
• The titles could be classified by
• market home, business, government and school.
• user child, adult, teacher and student.
• Category education, entertainment and reference.
• Many titles could fall on many groups.

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• (1) Entertainment
• Game developers were pioneers in the use of
  multimedia.
• The developers needs to attract, engage,
  captivate and challenge the user.
• (2) Education
• One of the greatest challenges to an educator is
  the diversity of students, especially in the
  different ways they learn. Multimedia can
  accommodate different learning styles Some
  students learn better through association, others
  by experimentation some are more visually
  oriented and others are more auditory.

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• (3) Corporate Communications
• a) Marketing and Training
• The goal of the marketers is to sell a product,
  through informing or presenting, by attracting
  attention to a message. Multimedia can accomplish
  this through the use of sound, animation and
  graphics.
• Companies now distribute their product catalogs
  on CD-ROM allowing the buyer to customize the
  product (change the color, size, add
  accessories..).
• b) Presentation and Training
• Thousands of multimedia presentations are made in
  the business world everyday, annual reports,
  training employees using multimedia enhanced
  materials.

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• (4) Reference
• Encyclopedias, census data, Yellow Pages
  directories and dictionaries are examples of CD
  reference titles.

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• Other Categories
• Edutainment is a combination of education and
  entertainment, such as childrens games.
• Training Focus on developing specific skills
  usually related to a particular job, such as
  Boeing training CD which instruct the pilots on
  new aircraft systems.
• Recreation Hobbies and sports

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Delivering Multimedia

• (1) Compact Disc
• CDs are a popular medium because they can hold
  substantial amounts of data, including sound and
  video, inexpensive, easy to mass produce, easy to
  distribute and transport, and they take little
  retail shelf space.
• (2) Kiosk
• A Kiosk is a stand alone or networked computer
  system that allows the user to access
  information, perform transactions and even play
  games.

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• Examples of Kiosks
• A college informational kiosk that students use
  to to learn about academic programs.
• Kiosks that allow customers to locate
  merchandise, print out coupons and purchase
  products.
• Kiosks are useful in
• Disseminating information especially in high
  traffic areas.
• Providing value-added services to customers
  (convenience) and reducing personnel costs.
• They are expensive because of the investment in
  hardware and require continual updating of the
  content.

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• (3) Online
• One of the fastest-growing areas for multimedia
  delivery which includes
• Telecommunications involving phone line,
  satellite, and cable transmission is being used
  by educational institutions to deliver multimedia
  courseware to rural areas, and by companies for
  teleconferencing and training.
• Internet The use of the Internet is growing
  exponentially. Companies are developing home
  pages for the World Wide Web (WWW) that allow
  customers to purchase products, access product
  information including video demonstrations and
  even subscribe to real-time multimedia events.

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Inappropriate Use of Multimedia

• (1) Text-Intensive Content
• Reading large amounts of text on a computer
  screen is tedious and tiring, both physically and
  mentally. Placing a book on a CD and expecting
  the user to read it from cover to cover is not
  realistic. But developing interactive books in
  which the user becomes an active participant and
  can make choice that affect the story line and
  outcome can be effective and you can overcome the
  drawbacks of being text intensive.

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• (2) Linear Content
• Watching a full movie on CD from beginning to end
  is not multimedia.
• Even with all of its advantages, multimedia
  cannot make up for a lack of content, poor
  design, targeting the wrong audience or delivery
  by a mediocre presenter.

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• As recently as the start of the 1990s, multimedia
  meant a combination of text with document images.
• Document image management was an outgrowth of
  facsimile technology.
• Facsimile provided a means of scanning and
  converting a document into coded information that
  described each pixel as white or black.
• When the number of pixels per inch was low, the
  information was easily manageable. When the pixel
  densities increased as better fax machines were
  developed, the information became very large.

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• For example, at 200 dpi, an A-size page (8.5 x 11
  inch) contains 1700 x 2200 data points, that is,
  3,740,000 data points. If gray-scale images are
  used, with 64 shades of gray, each data point
  requires a byte of storage. The same image, using
  300 dpi resolution, grows to 8.4 Mbytes of
  information.

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Multimedia Elements

• Facsimile
• Document Images
• Photographic Images
• Geographic Information Systems Maps
• Voice Command Voice Synthesis
• Audio / Video Messages
• Full-Motion Stored Live Video
• Holographic Images
• Fractals

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• Facsimile
• Facsimile transmissions were the first practical
  means of transmitting document images over a
  telephone line. The basic technology, now widely
  used, has evolved to allow higher scanning
  density for better quality fax.
• Document Images
• Document images are used for storing business
  documents that must be retained for long periods
  of time or may need to be accessed by a large
  number of people. Providing multimedia access to
  such documents removes the need for making
  several copies of the original for storage or
  distribution.

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• Photographic Images
• Photographic images are used for a wide range of
  application such as employee records for instant
  identification at a security desk, real estate
  systems with photographs of houses in the
  database containing the descriptions of houses,
  medical cases histories, for identification such
  as security badges, fingerprint cards, photo
  identification systems, bank signature card,
  patient medical histories, and so on.

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• Geographic Information Systems Maps (GIS)
• Maps created in a GIS system are being used
  widely for natural resource and wildlife
  management as well as urban planning. These
  systems store the graphical information of the
  map along with a database containing information
  relating highlighted map elements with
  statistical or item information such as wildlife
  statistics or details of the floors and rooms and
  workers in an office building.

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• Voice Commands and Voice Synthesis
• Voice commands and voice synthesis are used for
  hands-free operation of a computer program. Voice
  commands are primarily an input voice recognition
  consideration. Voice commands allow hands-free
  usage of computer applications by allowing
  command entry via short commands rather than a
  keyboard or pointing device. Of course,
  recognition of the command requires specialized
  techniques and powerful processing capabilities
  to compensate for differences in pitch, accents
  and voice modulation of users.

Which one is easier to be achieved?
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• Voice synthesis is easier to achieve than voice
  recognition. The initial attempts used fully
  stored messages or actual voice clips that were
  strung together. Voice synthesis is used for
  presenting the results of an action to the user
  in a synthesized voice. Applications such as a
  patient monitoring system in a surgical theatre
  will be prime beneficiaries of these
  capabilities. Voice commands allow the user to
  direct computer operation by spoken commands.

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• Audio Messages
• Annotated voice mail already uses audio or voice
  messages as attachments to memos and documents
  such as maintenance manuals.
• Video Messages
• Video messages are being used in a manner similar
  to annotated voice mail. Video messages can range
  from a single snapshot to full motion video
  clips.

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• Full-motion stored and live video
• Full motion video started out as a very useful
  idea for on-line training and maintenance
  manuals. The capability to use full motion stored
  video for electronic mail or live video for
  presentations and videoconferencing are important
  evolutionary steps. Three-dimensional video
  techniques are being adapted to create the
  concept of virtual reality.

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• CD ROM technology has provided the basis for the
  development of full motion video. The primary
  application for this technology is in CD ROM
  games, courseware, training manuals, multimedia
  online manuals and reference material, video
  conferencing, multimedia email, video karaoke
  systems and so on.

• Video Karaoke systems are video clips that
  contain both Graphic words on the screen with a
  moving video in the background.

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• Holographic Images
• All of the technologies so far essentially
  present a flat view of information. Holographic
  images extend the concept of virtual reality by
  allowing the user to get inside a part, such as,
  an engine and view its operation from the inside.
  For example, a three dimensional hologram
  projected by a special display monitor would
  allow the designer to get inside a jet engine and
  view the engine in motion from the inside.
• Fractals
• Fractals started as a technology in the early
  1980s but has received serious attention only
  recently. This technology is based on
  synthesizing and storing algorithms that describe
  the information. Fractals are regular objects
  with a high degree of irregular shape.

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Fractals
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• Fractals are the decompressed images that results
  from a compression format that uses arithmetic
  algorithms to define repeated patterns in the
  image. It considered as a method of compression.