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1． The Emergence of Multimedia
1.1 Trends in information technology (a user perspective)
To understand the motivation behind multimedia computing, it is important
to consider information technology from the point of view of the end user
(as opposed to the technologist). To an end user, information technology
is concerned with access to various forms of information and the ability
to cooperate through these forms of information. Any actual technology
which helps in this task is merely a means to an end.
From this perspective, it is possible to identify two separate aspects
of information technology, namely the forms of media available to an end
user and the ability to efficiently communicate using these media forms.
In both these areas, the modern user of information is coming under increased
pressure. These pressures are discussed in more details below.
1.1.1 forms of media
In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the range of media
used to convey information. Initially, communication was limited to simple
forms of media such as voice and paper. This century, however, has witnessed
the introduction of a greater variety of media types such as the telephone
and visual forms of media. In the latter part of the century, this trend
has accelerated and there is now a wide range of media types available
to convey information.
These advances provide a great opportunity for new developments in a range
of areas such as education and commerce. However, there are also a number
of problems associated with the growth of information in society. In particular,
there is a great danger of creating information overload. This problem
can be seen, for example, in business where executives are required to
make decisions based on an ever increasing variety and volume of information.
Similar problems are also occurring in areas such as government, health
care and education.
1.1.2 Problems of communication
A further trend in information technology from a user perspective is the
decentralization of information. Most modern organizations are very large
and tend to consist of a number of separate institutions typically cooperate
through the sharing and exchange of information. Thus, communication is
a vital concern for most organizations and efficient communications can
make the difference between successful operation and failure. Without the
appropriate forms of communication. There is a danger of information starvation,
i. e. decision makers do not have the right information to make the correct
decisions.
1.1.3 Requirements for information technology
The end user is therefore faced with the two problems of information overload
and information starvation. They may either have too much information of
may not have the right information. There is therefore a need to help the
end user to manage information to ease the burden created by the increasing
importance of information. essentially, the end user needs support to get
the right information to the right people at the right time. This clearly
cannot be achieved by manual systems. Thus, there is a requirement for
automation in the process of information management.
1.2 Trends in information technology (a systems perspective)
From a systems perspective, information technology is concerned with the
processing of information and the ability to communicate information between
different sites. More specifically, information technology is seen as a
combination of computing technology and communications infrastructures.
The aim of this technology is essentially to manage information for the
end user.
The most noticeable trend in information technology from a system perspective
has been the increasing integration of media. Traditionally, computer systems
dealt exclusively with numerical calculations. However, text processing
soon became an important concern for computer designers. Communications
technologies were also developed to support the transmission of textual
and numerical data. More recently, there has been a dramatic increase in
the range of media types supported by computers and communications technologies.
Significant steps have been taken in integrating graphics into computer
workstations and communications technology. Researchers are now tackling
the harder problems presented by audio and video.
2．What is Multimedia?
The previous section has highlighted important trends in information technology
from both the end user and technology perspective. Two themes have emerged
from this discussion. Firstly, the variety of media types is an important
feature of modern information systems. Secondly, in order to deal with
the variety, integration is a critical concern. These observations provide
a good working definition of multimedia:
MULTIMEDIA=VARIETY+INTEGRATION
It is necessary for a multimedia system to support a variety of media types.
This could be as modest as text and graphics or as rich as animation, audio
and video. However, this alone is not sufficient for a multimedia environment.
It is also important that the various sources of media types are integrated
into a single system framework. A multimedia system is then one which allows
end users to share, communicate and process a variety of forms of information
in an integrated manner.
In essence, multimedia systems are attempting to solve the problems of
information management by integrating the various forms of media into the
compute/communications infrastructure. There are two benefits of achieving
this level of integration:
· the computer can help in the task of managing and processing the information.
· information user only have to deal with one integrated environment rather
than a number of separate information subsystems.
This is the great benefit of multimedia information systems and is the
main motivation behind the current research on the subject.
3．Multimedia Technology
When we just had text on screen, the basic user interface was a DOS prompt
or maybe a simple list of choices. Now that we have graphics and text at
the same time, we can have a much more intuitive mouse-driven graphics
based user interface with pulldown menus, as in the Macintosh, Microsoft
Windows, and Presentation Manager. When we can add photograph-quality images,
animation, good-quality sound, and interactivity, then we ought to be able
to make computers much more powerful-and much easier to use.
That's the concept behind Multimedia, the newest buzzword. Multimedia,
which typically refers to a synthesis of graphics, animation, optical storage,
image processing, and sound, is not a single technology, product, or market.
Instead, it is a collection of technologies that proponents believe will
one day be joined together. So far, most of the activity in Multimedia
has taken place on the Macintosh and on the Amiga because of their built-in
graphics and sound features but you can expect this technology to spread
to other platforms.
Today, the various technologies referred to as Multimedia define a number
of individual niches.
One of the most important of these is animation, the capability to have
moving images on your screen.
Animation is tightly tied in with another concept called desktop video
— actually creating and manipulating video images, to produce in-house
presentations, rough drafts of commercial videos, or training products.
Sound will also play a key role in multimedia presentations.
Video images also take up a lot of disk space. To handle this, some groups
are looking at optical discs for storage, particularly as erasable optical
media become more mainstream.
Desktop video and animation is all well and good, but what many proponents
see is a way of combining all these elements into an interactive system
— interactive multimedia or hypermedia.
The concept is to let a user select the direction of a multimedia presentation,
easily moving from one element to another. Imagine a movie in which you
can control what happens next.
Traditional computer languages are far too difficult for this task; perhaps
an object-oriented programming system that includes a hypertext system
would work.
Apple, of coures, sees Hypercard as the core element in such a system.
This makes a certain amount of sense. Hypercard fits many of the basic
criteria: It was designed to be customizable, capable of linking information
and incorporating all kinds of information, including text, graphics, and
animation.
That's not to say there aren't already markets for this technology. Multimedia
applications have specific uses all over the spectrum, from professional-quality
video production to corporate presentations to engineering visualization
to better and easier training and computer-aided instruction products.
But you can expect these markets to be more targeted (vertical) than mass
marketed, somewhere between CAD and desktop publishing.
Let's look at it this way: Using a computer is still more difficult than
driving a car of reading a newspaper. In some ideal future, it should be
still more powerful — but, with multimedia techniques, much easier to use.
4．What is MPC?
What is MPC? MPC stands for "multimedia personal computer". What it means
that your computing universe has just changed, forever and for the better.
You know you have good reason to own a business-strengh PC at home. It
helps you complete the work chores that otherwise would keep you burning
the midnight oil back at the office.
But what can you do with your home PC powerhouse when you're not working?
That's where multimedia comes in. It's relatively cheap and easy to add
stereo sound, a CD-ROM drive, and Windows to today's work-at-home PC. What
you end up with, though, is something far more revolutionary than just
a computer that talks, plays compact discs, and displays pretty pictures.
Your multimedia PC — MPC, for short — is the key to discovering books and
encyclopedias that bring ideas to life through images and speech, games
that match the quality and fun of the best arcade entertainment, and software
that unleashes your personal creativity in music, animation, and video.
The requirements for an MPC are described in detail in Microsoft's Multimedia
PC Specification Version 1.0. Here are the key elements of the spec:
BASE SYSTEM: A Windows-capable system with a 10-MHz 286 or faster CPU;
at least 2MB of RAM; a 30-MB or larger hard disk; a 3.5-inch 1.44-MB floppy
drive; a 101-key keyboard; a two-button mouse; and parallel, serial, and
joystick ports.
VIDEO: Standard VGA is all that's required; VGA+(8bit color at standard
VGA resolution) is strongly recommended.
CD-ROM: A CO-ROM drive that transfers at least 150K of data per second
without taking up more than 40 percent of the CPU's attention, plays CD
audio, and has an average access time of 1 second or less.
AUDIO: A sound board with 8-bit, 11.025-KHz sampling and 22.05-KHz playback;
a synthesizer capable of playing eight notes simultaneously using five
different sounds; a mixer to combine CD audio, sampling, and synth; a microphone
input; and MIDI in, out, and thruports.
Every new technology has its own buzzwords, and sorting them out can be
real detective work. The following is two jargons of MPC.
FULL-MOTION VIDEO
Full-motion video is digitally recorded video played back at the broadcast
standard of 30 frames per second, or close enough to that speed so the
video appears smooth rather than jerky.
MIDI
MIDI is short for Musical Instrument Digital Interface, a standard specification
developed by music synthesizer manufacturers. The concept of being able
to control several instruments from one keyboard has grown into a method
for putting musical instruments, tape recorders, VCRs, mixers, and even
stage-lighting under the control of a single computer.
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