MEKELL UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF COMPUTING
Multimedia
Introduction to Multimedia
1.1 Overview of Multimedia:
Multimedia can have a many definitions these include:
Based on the word ―Multimedia‖. It is composed of two words:
Multi- multiple/many
Media- source
Source refers to different kind of information that we use in multimedia.
This includes: (Text, Graphics/ Images, Audio, Video, animation)
Multimedia means from computer science point of view that computer information can be
represented through multiple modalities like audio, video, and animation in addition to
traditional media (i.e., text, graphics drawings, images).
A good general definition is:
Multimedia is the field concerned with the computer-controlled integration of text, graphics,
drawings, still and moving images (Video), animation, audio, and any other media where every
type of information can be represented, stored, transmitted and processed digitally.
A Multimedia Application is an Application which uses a collection of multiple media sources
e.g. text, graphics, images, sound/audio, animation and/or video.
Hypermedia can be considered as one of the multimedia applications.
Examples of Multimedia Applications
Digital video editing and production systems
Electronic Newspapers/Magazines
Games
Groupware
Home shopping
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Interactive TV
Education
o Computer Aided Learning (CAL)
o E-Learning (World Wide Web)
Video conferencing
Video-on-demand
Virtual reality
What is Multimedia system?
A Multimedia System is a system capable of processing multimedia data. A Multimedia System
is characterized by the processing, storage, generation, manipulation and rendition of multimedia
information.
Characteristics of a Multimedia System
A Multimedia system has four basic characteristics:
Multimedia systems must be computer controlled
Multimedia systems are integrated
The information they handle must be represented digitally
The interface to the final presentation of media is usually interactive(When the user is given
the option of controlling the elements)
Components of multimedia systems
1.2 History of Multimedia:
Newspaper was perhaps the first mass communication medium, which used mostly text, graphics,
and images.
In 1895, Gugliemo Marconi sent his first wireless radio transmission at Pontecchio, Italy. A
few years later (in 1901), he detected radio waves beamed across the Atlantic. Initially
invented for telegraph, radio is now a major medium for audio broadcasting. Television was
the new media for the 20th century. It brings the video and has since changed the world of
mass communications.
On computers, the following are some of the important events:
1945 -Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) wrote about Memex.
MEMEX stands for MEMory EXtension. A memex is a device in which an individual stores
all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be
consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his
memory.
1960s-Ted Nelson started Xanadu project (Xanadu – a kind of deep Hypertext).
Project Xanadu was the explicit inspiration for the World Wide Web, for Lotus
Notes and for HyperCard, as well as less-well-known systems.
1967 - Nicholas Negroponte formed the Architecture Machine Group at MIT. A
combination lab and think tank responsible for many radically new approaches to
the human-computer interface. Nicholas Negroponte is the Wiesner Professor of
Media Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
1968 - Douglas Engelbart demonstrated NLS (Online Systems) system at SRI.
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Shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a
network with audio and video interface is one of the many innovations presented at the
demonstration.
1969 - Nelson & Van Dam hypertext editor at Brown
1976 - Architecture Machine Group proposal to DARPA: Multiple Media
1985 - Negroponte, Wiesner: opened MIT Media Lab
Research at the Media Lab comprises interconnected developments in an unusual range of
disciplines, such as software agents; machine understanding; how children learn; human
and machine vision; audition; speech interfaces; wearable computers; affective computing;
advanced interface design; tangible media; object-oriented video; interactive cinema;
digital expression—from text, to graphics, to sound
1989 - Tim Berners-Lee proposed the World Wide Web to CERN (European Council for
Nuclear Research)
1990 - K. Hooper Woolsey, Apple Multimedia Lab gave education to 100 people
1992 - The first M-Bone audio multicast on the net (MBONE- Multicast Backbone) 1993
– U. Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications introduced NCSA Mosaic
(a web browser)
1994 - Jim Clark and Marc Andersen introduced Netscape Navigator (web browser).
1995 - Java for platform-independent application development.
1.3 Hypertext and Hypermedia
What is Hypertext and Hypermedia?
Hypertext is a text, which contains links to other texts. The term was invented by Ted Nelson
around 1965. Hypertext is usually non-linear.
Hypertext
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Hypermedia is not constrained to be text-based. It can include other media, e.g., graphics, images,
and especially the continuous media -- sound and video. Apparently, Ted Nelson was also the
first to use this term.
The World Wide Web (www) is the best example of hypermedia applications.
Hypertext
Hypermedia
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Hypermedia is the application of hypertext principles to a wider variety of media, including audio,
animations, video, and images. It is a combination of hypertext, graphics, audio, video, (linked
elements) and interactivity culminating in a complete, non-linear computer-based experience.
Examples of Hypermedia Applications:
The World Wide Web (WWW) is the best example of hypermedia applications.
PowerPoint
Adobe Acrobat
Macromedia Director
Application of hypertext concept to multimedia documents
Linking or embedding of multimedia objects
System components (e.g. Word-Wide Web)
Makeup language e.g. HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
Directory service e.g. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) communication protocols
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A Multimedia Project is identified as Non-Linear when:
It is interactive
Users have control over the content that is being showed to them.
Users are given navigational control
1.1 Challenges and Feautures Of Multimedia
Desirable Features for a Multimedia System
Given the above challenges, the following features are desirable for a Multimedia System:
1. Very high processing speed processing power. Why? Because there are large data to be
processed. Multimedia systems deals with large data and to process data in real time, the
hardware should have high processing capacity.
2. It should support different file formats. Why? Because we deal with different data types
(media types).
3. Efficient and High Input-output: input and output to the file subsystem needs to be efficient
and fast. It has to allow for real-time recording as well as playback of data. e.g. Direct to Disk
recording systems.
4. Special Operating System: to allow access to file system and process data efficiently and
quickly. It has to support direct transfers to disk, real-time scheduling, fast interrupt
processing, I/O streaming, etc.
5. Storage and Memory: large storage units and large memory are required. Large Caches are
also required.
6. Network Support: Client-server systems common as distributed systems common.
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7. Software Tools: User-friendly tools needed to handle media, design and develop
applications, deliver media.
Challenges of Multimedia Systems
1) Sequencing with in media
2) Synchronization issue: in MM application, variety of media are used at the same instance. In
addition, there should be some relationship between the media. E.g between Movie (video) and
sound. There arises the issue of synchronization.
3) Data conversion: in MM application, data is represented digitally. Because of
this, we have to convert analog data into digital data.
4) Compression and decompression: Why? Because multimedia deals with large amount of
data (e.g. Movie, sound, etc) which takes a lot of storage space.
5) Render different data at same time — continuous data.
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