Multimedia authoring systems

 Multimedia systems are different from other systems

in two main respects:
 the variety of information objects used in applications
COMP3600
Multimedia Systems  the level of integration achieved in using these objects in
complex interconnected applications

 Authoring systems for multimedia applications are

Multimedia Authoring designed for two primary target user groups:
and User Interface  professionals who prepare documents, images, audio and
full-motion video clips for wide distribution

 average users who prepare documents and other multimedia

objects for stored messages or presentations
Wai Wong

 These two groups of users pose different

requirements on the authoring systems
 Average users require an authoring system to be simple and
easy to use, performance may not be a very important issue

 Professional users require a high performance authoring

system and more effective interface which may be more
cryptic

COMP3600 Multimedia Systems COMP3600 Multimedia Systems

7. Multimedia Authoring 7. Multimedia Authoring
and User Interface and User Interface
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 Standardise on one or two compression method for each type

Design issues for multimedia authoring of data objects

Make sure that the hardware and software required to support

 Setting up and maintaining enterprise-wide
guidelines and standards
 This ensures that proper user expectations are set on both
quality and transferability of objects from one system to
another
 Display resolution
 Service degradation policies
Because a large organisation will have many kinds of monitor
supporting a large variety of resolution, it is necessary to select a
small number (two or three) of display resolutions and protocols as
the norm of the organisation.
 level of standardisation on display resolutions
 Display protocol standardisation
 Corporate norms for service degradations
these compression methods are available
 Consider what is the more convenient and efficient means of
accessing large object, such as video clips
It is very useful to have some information about the object itself
outside the object so that a user can decide if it needs to access
the object without having to decompress it.
This issue concerns with what will happen if resources is
insufficient either temporarily or locally. For example, in a
distributed video application, video is sent to a remote client to be
played back. If the network is overloaded, a number of policies may
be possible:
 Decline further requests with a message to try later and give
proper reasons

 Corporate norms for network traffic degradations as they  Provide the playback service but at a lower resolution
relate to resolution issues  Provide the playback service at full resolution but drop
intermediate frames
 File format and data compression
 Provide service at full resolution and frame rate in blocks
There are many file formats and data compression methods
available for multimedia objects.

 Select a small set of file formats for which reliable conversion

tools are available
COMP3600 Multimedia Systems COMP3600 Multimedia Systems
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and User Interface and User Interface
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  Structured authoring
Types of Multimedia authoring systems
 This allows explicit manipulations of the structure of a
multimedia presentation
 Dedicated authoring systems — is the simplest  Explicit representation of the structure allows modular
authoring systems authoring of component objects

 It is usually designed for a single user  Good authoring systems should allow the user
 to define an object hierarchy
 It needs a very intuitive interface
 to specify the relative location of each object within that hierarchy
 to make temporal adjustment to objects
 Timeline-based authoring

 Objects are placed along a timeline

 The composition of objects is based on time

 This makes the adjustment of objects’ lengths difficult

 Information about the relationship between objects is lost

 Newer systems allow authoring on the object composition

level

 Programmable authoring systems

 This allows the dynamic manipulation of the objects
 The actual elements to be displayed or the action to be
performed by an object is determined at runtime
 The program is interpreted by an interpreter embedded in
the runtime system

COMP3600 Multimedia Systems COMP3600 Multimedia Systems

7. Multimedia Authoring 7. Multimedia Authoring
and User Interface and User Interface
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Application design considerations User interface design

 Integration of applications: the appearance of the  Navigation — refers to the sequence in which the
applications and the ability of the applications to application progresses
exchange data  Direct navigation — completely predefined

 Common user interface  Free-form navigation — the user determines the sequence of
actions

 Structuring the information — is to identify the  Browse navigation — the user is provided a large number of
information objects and to develop an information choices
model to define the relationships among these objects  An important aspect of any multimedia system is to
maintain a clear perspective and the relationship between
 Object types and object hierarchies — how the various
those objects
attributes and representations of real-world objects are
related
 Designing user interface
 Object representation — consists of display/playback
requirements and timing information for each object and its  A good user interface is defined as one that is perceived to be
sub-objects efficient and intuitive by most users

 Object connections — describes the relationship between  A good user interface can be designed by following some
objects and helps to navigate among the objects structured guidelines:
 Planning the overall structure of the application

 Planning the content of the application

 Planning the interactive behaviour

 Planning the look and feel of the application

COMP3600 Multimedia Systems COMP3600 Multimedia Systems

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and User Interface and User Interface
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 Special metaphors
Information access
 User interface metaphors are designs based on real world
objects

For user interface metaphors that were not known to users, a new  Direct — this requires that the user has knowledge of
design took sometime to take hold. the specific object that need to be accessed, e.g.,
object ID, object name
 The organiser metaphor — Lotus Organiser

This is a clear example of a close adaptation of an existing user  Indexed — an attribute of an object, e.g., ID, may be
interface to a GUI.
used as an index. Indexed access may result in
 The telephone metaphor — combines a well-known user multiple copies of the same object.
interface with other GUI element to provide a more
convenient means of access information and perform  Random selection (browsing) — the user can pick
communication
one of several possible items that are not arranged in
 Aural user interface — the real challenge in designing AUI any logical sequence
systems is to create an aural desktop that substitutes voice
and ear for the keyboard and display, and be able to mix and
 Path selection of guided tour — the application
match them
guides the user through a predefined path across a
 The VCR metaphor — this is one of the most common user number of objects
interfaces

 Audio/video indexing functions — are very

important for stored clips
 Exact indexing down to the frame level is desirable for video
synchronisation to work correctly

 The indexing information must be stored on a permanent

basis

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Object display/playback issues Summary

 Image display issues — Images are usually stored in  Design issues for multimedia authoring
compressed form. The original images are usually
scanned in high resolution, e.g., 300/400dpi  Types of Multimedia authoring systems
 Scaling — is performed on the fly after decompression
 Application design considerations
 Zooming — allows the user to see more detail for a specific
area of the image
 User interface design
 Panning — allows the user to see different areas of an image

Extra storage and processing power are required to support these  Information access
features.
 Object display/playback issues
 Audio quality — the server and network bandwidth
will affect the smooth play back of audio

 Special features for video playback

 Video frame interleaving defines the structure of the video

file in terms of the layout of sound and video

 Programmed degradation goes into effect when the client

workstation is unable to keep up with the incoming data

 Scene change frame detection can be automated. This helps

in browsing through very large video clip

 Video scaling, panning and zooming

COMP3600 Multimedia Systems COMP3600 Multimedia Systems

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and User Interface and User Interface
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