UNIT 1 MULTIMEDIA BASICS

Introduction
Elements of Multimedia system
Categories of Multimedia system
Applications
Architecture
Evolving technologies
Introduction:
Multimedia is a combination of text, graphic,sound, animation and video
elements.
The IBM dictionary of computing describes multimedia as "comprehensive
material, presented in a combination of text, graphics, video, animation and
sound. Any system that is capable of presenting multimedia is called a
multimedia system".
A multimedia application accepts input from the user by means of a keyboard,
voice or pointing device.
Multimedia applications involve using multimedia technology for business,
education and entertainment. Multimedia is now available on standard
computer platforms.
Data Elements of Multimedia Systems:
Multimedia means that computer information can be represented by different
form like
Document images:
Document images are used to storing business documents that must be
retained for long periods of time or access by large number of people.
Scanning of document images requires very efficient compression and
decompression technologies.
Fascimile:
Fascimile technology is used to transmits the document images over a
telephone line.
Photographic images:
These are image of a photo used in identification badgets,photo identification
systems.
Voice commands:
These are primary input to the voice recognisation system. This allow free
hand usage of computer by allowing command entry via short voice
commands.
Voice synthesis:
it is used for presenting the results of an action to the user in a synthesized
voice.

Audio Messages:
These are substitute for text messages.
Computers equipped with microphones can record an audio message and it
can be attached to email.
Video messages:
It can be also embedded to email messages.It can be range from to single
snapshot to full motion video clips.
It is stored in a shared video data server.it displayed t the receiver
workstation later.
Full motion video is useful for online training manuals,games,video
conferencing etc.
Holographic images:
These are extended concept of virtual reality by allowing the user to get inside
a part such as engine and view its operation from the inside.
Holography is defined as creating a unique photographic images without the
use of lens.

Categories of Multimedia:
Multimedia may be broadly divided into two categories.
Linear
Non-linear
Linear Multimedia:
Content progress without any navigation control
Recorded multimedia. Ex: cinema presentation
Non-linear Multimedia:
Content offers user interactivity to control the progress
It is also known as hypermedia content
Live multimedia
o Ex: computer games
Application of Multimedia:
Multimedia finds its application in various areas including,
advertisements, art, education, entertainment, engineering, medicine,
mathematics, business, and scientific research applications. A few application areas
of multimedia are listed below:
Entertainment and Fine Arts:
In addition, multimedia is heavily used in the entertainment industry,
especially to develop special effects in movies and animations.
Multimedia games are a popular pastime and are software programs
available either as CD-ROMs or online.
Some video games also use multimedia features. Multimedia applications that
allow users to actively participate instead of just sitting by as passive recipients of
information are called Interactive Multimedia.
Education:
In Education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based training courses
(popularly called CBTs) and reference books like encyclopedia.
A CBT lets the user go through a series of presentations, text about a particular topic,
and associated illustrations in various information formats.
Edutainment is an informal term used to describe combining education with
entertainment, especially multimedia entertainment.
Engineering:
Software engineers may use multimedia in Computer Simulations for
anything from entertainment to training such as military or industrial training.
Multimedia for software interfaces are often done as collaboration between
creative professionals and software engineers.
Industry:
In the Industrial sector, multimedia is used as a way to help present
information to shareholders, superiors and coworkers.
Multimedia is also helpful for providing employee training, advertising and
selling products all over the world via virtually unlimited web-based technologies.
Mathematical and Scientific Research:
In Mathematical and Scientific Research, multimedia is mainly used for
modeling and simulation.
For example, a scientist can look at a molecular model of a particular
substance and manipulate it to arrive at a new substance. Representative
research can be found in journals such as the Journal of Multimedia.
Medicine:
In Medicine, doctors can get trained by looking at a virtual surgery or they
can simulate how the human body is affected by diseases spread by viruses and
bacteria and then develop techniques to prevent it.
Multimedia System Architecture:
Multimedia encompasses a large variety of technologies and integration of
multiple architectures interacting in real time.
All of these multimedia capabilities must integrate with the standard user
interfaces such as Microsoft Windows.
The design should be such that the systems can operate with or without
special hardware needed for multimedia with no change in the application software
and there should be no change to operate with variety of hardware interfaces.
The following figure describes the architecture of a multimedia workstation
environment.

From the above figure: the left side is very similar to non-multimedia systems.
Right side shows the architecture of multimedia supporting system.
Multimedia Extensions is used to enhance the speed of process.
The add-on multimedia devices and peripherals include scanner, video
camera, VCR, and sound equipment along with their associated device controllers.
For each of these special devices, a special software device driver is needed to
provide the interface from the application to the device.
The graphical user interface designed primarily for windows managed by
applications at fixed resolution; require control to extensions to support applications
such as full-motion video or remote desktop.
System hardware are required for both computing performance and storage
of the multimedia enabled applications.
Evolving Technologies for Multimedia Systems:
Multimedia applications use a number of technologies generated for both
commercial business application as well as the video game industry. Let us review
some of these technologies in this section.
Hypermedia Document:
Hypermedia documents are documents which have text, embedded or linked
multimedia objects such as image, audio, hologram, or full-motion video.
Hypertext:
Hypertext allow authors to link information together; create information
paths through a largevolume of related text in documents.
It also allows annotating existing text, and appending notes. It allows fast and easy
searching and reading of selected excerpts through scanning up to thousands of
pages.
Hypermedia:
It is an extension of hypertext,in that the electronic documents will also include
virtually along with audio, animated video,graphics or full motion video
Hyperspeech:
Multimedia stimulated the development of general-purpose speech interfaces.
Speech synthesis and speech recognition are fundamental requirement for
hyperspeech systems.
Speech recognition is nothing but converting the analog speech into a
computer action and into ASCII text.
Speech-recognition systems cannot segment a stream of sounds without
breaks into meaningful units.
The user must speak in a stilted fashion. He should make sure to interpose
silence between each word.
3D and Holography:
Three-dimensional technologies are concerned with two areas: pointing
devices and displays.
3-D pointing devices are essential to manipulate object in a 3-D display
system. 3-D displays are achieved using holography techniques.
Digital Signal Processing:
Digital Signal Processing is used in applications such as digital servers in hard
disk drives, and fax/modems.
DSP technology is used in Digital wireless communications, such as personal
communication networks (pens), wireless local area networks and digital cordless
phones.
DSP Architectures and Applications:
A typical DSP operating system architecture would contain the following
subsystems:
Memory Management: DSP architectures provide dynamic allocation of arrays
from multiple segments, including RAM, SRAM and DRAM.
Hardware-Interrupt handling: A DSP operating system must be designed to
minimize hardware interrupt latency to ensure fast response to real time events for
applications, such as servo systems.
Multitasking: DSPs need real-time kernels that provide pre-emptive multitasking
and user-defined and dynamic task prioritization.
Application specific DSPs designed for high volume consumer products are leading
the way for application specific DSPs designed for high volume business
applications.
Eg.DSP in digital cellular phone.
DSP supports audio processing, speech processing, graphics and video imaging.