MUMD-290: Multimedia

DevelopmentDr. Eric Breimer

Chapter 1 ofDigital Multimedia, 2nd edition

Nigel Chapman & Jenny Chapman

Introduction

1

• The same story, information, etc can be represented in different media

• Text, images, sound, moving pictures

• Can you think of any other form of media besides the ones above?

Digital Multimedia

2

1

Taste, Smell, Touch

• How do you store and transmit these digitally?

• Taste & Smell are still open problems

• Touch is already developed

• 3D printers and faxes

• http://www.zcorp.com/home.asp

1

• Almost all media can be represented digitally as a structured collection of bits

• Manipulated by programs, stored, transmitted over networks

• Digital media can be combined into multimedia

• Besides the Internet (computer networks) what are some other ways to transmit digital media?

Digital Multimedia

2

1

• Combination of media is actually commonplace (e.g. TV news) and natural – we perceive the world through all our senses at once

• Novelty of digital multimedia is that all media can be treated as data

• Programs can manipulate data in response to user input, so digital multimedia can be interactive

Interactive Multimedia

3–4

1

• Some dates:

• CD-ROM drives on desktop machines from ~1989

• WWW publicly available at start of 1992

• Handful of servers; line-based browser

• HTML allows audio and video to be embedded 1997

Historical Context

4

1

• Takes time for conventions about content and consumption to become established:

• 1895 footage of train arriving at station

• People had no idea how “film technology” would be used?

• Analogy, in the early days of the Internet people had no idea that it would be used to share music (Napster, Kazaa, iTunes).

Cultural Development

5–6

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Cultural Development

• Early film: animations and magic tricks shown as part of vaudeville acts (Novelty only).

• Meanwhile narrative films started to show up (Content with substance).

• Film technology turned Playhouses become cinemas

• Can you think of a similar analogy with respect to Internet technology?

• i.e., Internet technology turned computers into…

1

Cultural Development

• In the beginning, Established forms of media are translated into the new technology.

• Film allows newspapers to be “shown” as newsreels.

• Can you think of a modern analogy with respect to the web?

1

Novelty vs. Innovation

• Newsreels were a novelty: Instead of reading a paper you’d get all your news in a 5 minute film.

• Newsreels are still passive.

• Internet news feeds (innovation?): Instead of reading a paper, you get all you news on the web.

• The web is interactive.

• Content can be customized to your interests (RSS).

• You can choose to watch the video, read the article, or see the pictures.

1

• Multimedia production – display and presentation is the sole purpose

• Multimedia application – display is driven by computation

• e.g. Web application presenting data stored in a database

• Multiple media – user must switch between modalities (read, watch, listen,…) instead of combining them

Terminology

6–7

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• Digital multimedia: any combination of two or more media, represented in a digital form, sufficiently well integrated to be presented via a single interface, or manipulated by a single computer program

Definition

7

1

• Online

• Uses a network (usually the Internet) to send information from one computer to another

• Offline

• Removable storage medium is used to carry the data (CD-ROM, DVD)

• Other delivery forms? Are we forgetting the obvious?

Delivery

8–9

1

• Text, images laid out in 2-D arrangement as in book or magazine

• Pages combined using links (hypermedia)

• Content itself is static

Page-Based Multimedia

10

1

• Elements arranged in time

• Presented in sequence on a timeline

• Elements may be frames or discrete pages (slideshow)

• Often incorporates parallelism

• Parallel elements may be synchronized

• e.g., Sound clips start when objects appear

Time-Based Multimedia

11

1

• Film: fixed order of frames defines a single playback sequence

• Book: physical arrangement of text and pages implies a linear reading order

Linearity

10

1

• Flash: jumps between frames, controlled by interactivity, permit branching and loops

• Hypermedia: links between pages permit multiple arbitrary reading orders

Non-Linearity

11

1

• User input may control a multimedia production

• But, only choices that are coded into the program are possible

• Alternatively, user can control events at many points, leading to combinatorial growth in number of possibilities (common in games).

• e.g. 4 choices at each of 5 points implies 1024 possible sequences, not 20.

• Where does 1024 come from?

Interactivity

13–14

1

• Means of presenting choices and accepting user input can vary enormously

• Often you’ll see interface elements used by mainstream OSs

• But, you’ll also see Free-form, dynamically changing interfaces (again, common in games)

• Consider interactive multimedia on the web…what “format” is the media? How does this effect the user interface?

User Interfaces

15–16

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• If access to multimedia is the norm, those denied access become marginalized ('digital divide')

• Access may be limited by lack of:

• Access to equipment and skills

• Network infrastructure

• Literacy and education

• Physical and cognitive abilities

• These factors may depend on wealth, geographical location,…

Access

17–20

1

• Access to production of media highly restricted

• Books: distributed through publishers, subject to editorial scrutiny; barriers to newcomers

• Film: very high cost; studios prefer safe bets

• Music: mostly distributed by few labels controlled by small number of multinationals; hard to break in to the business

• TV: video production relatively low cost, but access to broadcast rigidly controlled

• What is the new, non-traditional production outlet?

Traditional Media Production

21–23

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• Potentially anyone with Internet access can have their own Web site

• ISPs provide free Web space

• Free and inexpensive tools are adequate

• WWW has potential for revolution in access to the means of production and distribution of digital material

Web Site Production

21

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• All sufficiently complex societies seek to control what people may see or hear, either by explicit policing, economic or other means

• Rapid growth of the Internet and its potential for disseminating unacceptable content has given new impetus to debates about censorship

• Complicated ethical issues with no enduring conclusion or consensus despite thousands of years of debate

Control of Content

24–25

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• WWW is global network,

• hence material reaches many different societies and cultural and religious groups

• Many different models of censorship – none, rigid centralized control, self-regulation, …

• Why is it so difficult (impossible) to censor the WWW?

Diversity & Censorship

25–26

1

Diversity & Censorship

• Unrealistic to expect a single model of censorship to be acceptable everywhere in the world.

• Difficult to assign responsibility for dissemination of content on Internet

• Growing too fast…its impossible to police every page, every site, every part of the world.

1

• Platform for Internet Content Selection

• http://www.w3.org/PICS/iacwcv2.htm

• Attempt to provide a mechanism that supports a diversity of attitudes towards content and censorship

• Labels attached to each page, providing a rating of its contents

• PICS only defines standard label format

• Screening software rejects material deemed unsuitable according to user's criteria

• Defers the difficult decisions to the user.

PICS

27–29

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Summary• Be sure to review key terminology in Chapter 1

• Remember we are only studing media that can be stored and transmitted digitally. This is the crux of this course

• Digital media is

• Easier to combine, hence multimedia

• Easier to process (in theory)

• Easier to make interactive

• The web is becoming the #1 production outlet for digital multimedia

• Unlike, radio, TV, publishing, etc, the web is unique:

• Difficult to censor/regulate

• Right now, access depends on wealth, location, but that could all change.