Multimedia Technologies

BCS 308
B.Tech CSE 6th Sem CSE 1 and CSE 2

Divanshi P. Wangoo
IGDTUW, New Delhi
Multimedia Technologies
BCS 308

UNIT 1
Multimedia
• According to webster - using or composed of more than one
form of communication or expression

• Wikipedia - “is a form of communication that combines

different content forms such as text, audio, images,
animations, or video”, examples of multimedia include video
podcasts, audio slideshows and Animated videos.

• The synergistic union of digital video, audio, computer,

information, and telecommunication technologies
Introduction
• The advances in computer technology paved the way to the infrastructure for
multimedia applications. With these developments the multimedia concepts
have emerged.
• The word multimedia is made up of the two Latin words "multi" which means
many and "media" which is the substance through which something is
transmitted.
• In this case, multi is the multiple data types such as
 • Text
• Graphics
• Animation
• Sound
• Video
and media is the computer environment used
to transmit the information made up of the
above multiple data types.
What is Multimedia?

• Multimedia involves the combination of two or more media types

to effectively create a sequence of events that will communicate
an idea usually with both sound and visual support.
• Typically, multimedia productions are developed and controlled by
computer.
• Multimedia means that there are more than
one media type involved in the
communication, e.g. text and graphics, voice,
animations, video and audio.
• Multimedia denotes the property of handling
a variety of representation media in an
integrated manner. This means that the
various sources of media types are
integrated into a single system framework.
• Multimedia is defined as an interactive
computer-mediated presentation that
includes at least two of the following
elements: text, sound, still graphic
images, motion graphics, and
animation. (Tannenbaum)
• Hypermedia is another term used related to
multimedia.
• Hypermedia requires that the user is able to
interact with the presentation. The simplest
form of hypermedia is hypertext where the
user is able to follow textual links.
• The most common provider of hypermedia
content is the World Wide Web.
• A multimedia product is a presentation,
a tool or an interactive program which
is distributed in some kind of a storage
medium to be viewed in a suitable
computer environment. To prepare
such a product special tools are also
needed. These are referred to as
authoring tools.
Evolution of Multimedia

• Multimedia is not new; the term pre-dates the PC. The

term has been used for decades to describe slide
presentation accompanied by audio tape. The
combination of slide and narration has been both a
popular and successful form of business presentation.
• In the 1970s the slide show format was introduced to the
computer, this technology allowed the computer to control
numerous projectors, coordinating them in a manner that
produced fast-paced dissolves and effects. Taped soundtracks
would contain cues that triggered the slide projectors to do what it
was programmed to do.
• In the 1980s PCs were designed to "cut" a graphic
element and "paste" it into another document. Since then
software and hardware developers have been scrambling
to integrate various forms of media into the personal
computer.
• Multi-sensory communication between humans is not a
new concept, but is as old as mankind. What is new is
the “electronic incarnation” of multi-sensory
communication that we call multimedia.
• The seeds of image projection were sewn as early as
1654 with the “magic lantern”, but further progress in
imaging did not occur until 177 years later with the
advent of a more ‘advanced” projector called the
Phenakistoscope in 1831.
• The next significant development was the
cinematograph (movie camera) developed 64 years
later in 1895.
• In the 55 years between 1895 and 1950, radio, stereo
sound and LP records were developed.
• During the 29 years between 1950 and 1979 computer
graphics, animations and digital sound were introduced
as was ARPANET which was the predecessor of today’s
internet.
• During the 10 years between 1979 and 1989 with the advent of
the personal computer and the world wide web, enhancements
in multimedia hardware and software were dramatic and the
stage was set for even more rapid changes in computer
hardware, software and connectivity.
• Between 1989 and 1998 the pace of change has
accelerated to the point that hardware and software
need to be upgraded every two years just to stay current.
• Looking at the preceding observations there are
177 years between the first two evolutionary
periods, 64 years between the second and third,
55 years between the third and fourth, 29 years
between the fourth and fifth, 10 years between the
fifth and sixth, and two years beyond the sixth. As
you can see the pace of advancement in
technologies that support multimedia is has
accelerated to a “breakneck speed” that is likely to
continue for the foreseeable future. This means
that what we learn today will soon be history, and
that the key to effective long-term multimedia
authoring is continuous learning.
Digital convergence
• The most important trend in PCs before
multimedia was multi-tasking, the ability to
run more than one program at a time and you
can see why PCs and multimedia are made
for each other. The enabling force behind
multimedia is digital technology.
• Multimedia today represents the
convergence of digital control and digital
media - the PC as the digital control system
and the digital media being today's most
advanced forms of audio and video storage
and transmission.
• We are in fact experiencing a mass migration
from an analog world to a digital world.
• In an analog world communications are
accomplished via continuous signals such as
those used by telephones for sound and
those recorded by VCRs for video.
• In a digital world text, images, sound, and
video communications are accomplished by
sending a stream of digital bits represented
by various combinations of zeroes and ones,
which (not coincidentally) is the very same
technique used to store and manipulate data
inside computers.
• The illustration below shows a
schematic representation of the
difference between analog and digital
signals and identifies an everyday
device that uses these signals.

Analog Device
• Multimedia involves the application of various
communication channels to a communication
exercise. When the various communication
channels are used in association with a
computer: we call the result computer
multimedia.
• The essence of the process of creating
multimedia is that a number of types of
information (including text, graphics,
animation, sound and video) are able to be
combined through the use of a computer.
• Desktop multimedia occupies a role between
traditional alternatives of cheap but ineffective
single-medium technologies, and the expensive but
impressive technologies relying on mainframes,
digital editing, and customized software.
• The written word is still the medium used for most of
our information requirements, but it offers a limited
information bandwidth.
• Decorated with graphics, a document's information
content and flow can be markedly improved.
• Animation is an even more powerful
device.
• Video images and synchronized
sound allow the depiction of reality
and the expression of complex
ideas.
• Considerable synergy is obtained by
combining these technologies.
• The advantage of multimedia communications is that
– they have the capacity when properly executed,
– to convey more information more quickly, and
more effectively than traditional communications.
– the effectiveness of communication is an
important issue that is at the heart of most
human endeavors and is particularly important in
the information age where there is frequently an
overabundance of information and little time
available to sort it all out.
– If a picture is worth a thousand words, a
moving picture is worth two thousand words,
and moving pictures combined with text,
sound, and direct user involvement via
hypertext is worth ten thousand words.
– Multimedia can by definition carry more
information, can deliver it more quickly and
can deliver it in a form that builds on what the
user already knows and therefore requires
less user interpretation and less user time to
understand more of the message being sent.
• In its simplest terms every communication
requires a sender, a message to be sent,
and a receiver.
• The addition of a digital component such
as sound, clipart, photographs, animated
characters, video clips or interactive
navigational mechanisms results in a
multimedia communication. In this day
and age senders and receivers use
machines to communicate.
• Machines used in electronic communications
include telephones, modems, computers, data
collection devices such as electronic cash
registers, electronic time clocks, grocery store
optical scanners, televisions, VCRs, camcorders,
digital cameras, stereo receivers and video-
teleconferencing equipment.
• Regardless of the nature of the communicators,
the effectiveness of the communication remains
a function of the quantity of information
communicated, speed of the communication,
and the degree of comprehension of the
communication’s meaning.
• Multimedia communications include television
advertisements, computer based business and
classroom presentations using programs such
as
– Microsoft PowerPoint,
– World Wide Web (WWW)
– home pages, and
– a wide range of products including electronic games,
edutainment (programs that are both entertaining and
educational such as learn to read and learn to count),
– corporate training programs,
– flight simulators and
– sales presentations that are distributed via media
such as
• diskettes and
• CD ROMs.
Multimedia Assets

• Effective multimedia applications depend on the most

effective use of various materials – referred to as assets
or resources.
Hypertext and Hypermedia

• HYPERTEXT is usually defined as NON-LINEAR ACCESS TO

TEXT using links embedded in the text This way going through
material which is not of interest is avoided.
• HYPERMEDIA is the extension of this non-linearity to other media
types.
Text

• Text constitutes the main part of a multimedia package. It

is used to provide most of the information intended to be
conveyed and it is even stated that other multimedia data
types are used to enhance text
• There are 3 major advantages generally associated
with screen-based text compared with paper-based
text:
– the ability to spontaneously update the screen,
– the reactive capability, and
– the ability to incorporate special effects.
• However, there are also disadvantages:
– text is much harder to read from a screen than it is from
paper.
– people tend to print copies of information they are accessing
from the computer. This may be due to habits or the effect
the current displays have on the eyes.
• Using media other than text may require extra
resources compared to text but definitely makes it
much easier to follow the material covered.
Audio
• Sound is another data type used in multimedia applications. It can add a
particular dimension of reality to multimedia systems. Sound requires more
space than text but is better when compared to video clips.
• People use it to express an idea in words over the computer or it can also be
used to introduce effects into a presentation. Either way it ENHANCES THE
QUALITY of presentation and INCREASES THE EFFICIENCY of information
transfer.
Images

• Images improve the overall look of a presentation, and they are

useful to express information text alone cannot convey. Using
IMAGES and GRAPHICS can be very useful but it has to be noted
that they also introduce extra load to the system both as storage
and also as network traffic.
• There are six different image formats:
– GIF files
– JPEG files
– Animated GIF files
– MPEG files
– Shockwave files
– NxView files
• Images come in different forms and resolutions i.e. the
number of picture elements used to represent them
(pixels) and they are usually compressed using different
techniques such as JPEG.
• JPEG is a standardized image compression mechanism.
• It stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the
original name of the committee that wrote the standard.
• When you are sending digital photographs as email attachments or trying to pack as many
images on a floppy disk as possible, the size of each image is important. What you want to
do is reduce the file size to as few bytes as possible without hurting the image quality.
• Most web sites use the JPEG format for shrinking images. JPEG is a popular format for two
reasons:
– It can make image files smaller. (It lets you adjust the amount of compression.)
– It stores 24-bit-per-pixel color data instead of 8-bit-per-pixel data. (It has good compression
characteristics on photographic data.)
• There are various image formats. However, the most
widely used formats are gif, and jpg. Both of these
formats has static (as opposed to animated) bitmap
images.
• In a bitmap image, the image file has to define the exact color of
every pixel in the image. For example, imagine a typical bitmap on
the web that is 400 by 400 pixels. To define this image, you would
need 24 bits per pixel for 160,000 pixels, or 480,000 bytes. That
would be a huge image file, so both the GIF and JPG formats
compress the image in different ways.
• In a GIF image, the number of colors is reduced to 256 and then
"runs" of same-color pixels are encoded in a color+number of
Pixels format.
• For example, if there are 100 pixels on a line with the color 41, the
image file stores the color (41) and the length of the run (100).
This makes a GIF file great for storing drawings that have lots of
same-color pixels.
Video images

• A video clip or an animation sequence can express an

idea in a much better way than text or images. Video clips
used in multimedia systems are more flexible in the sense
that they are EASIER TO EDIT and also EASIER TO
ACCESS.
• DIGITAL VIDEO can be created from VCRs, using
cameras or directly recorded from broadcasts. Either
way they are captured, stored and edited before they are
used in multimedia presentations.
• Portable video recorders have made it relatively easy to
capture real-time video images.
• Video can be incorporated into multimedia applications
using two different processes.
– The first involves using a video source connected to the
computer via a controller card. This technology has been
referred to as interactive video.
– A more integrated process converts video from analogue into
digital format that can be manipulated by the desktop computer.
This approach (called digital video) allows all video operations —
including editing and special effects — to be carried out on the
computer.
• Video is usually played at 25 or 30 frames per second
and will have to be COMPRESSED in order to reduce it to
acceptable sizes. Different compression techniques are
used and MPEG is one of these methods.
• ANIMATION is similar to video, in that it uses the display of
moving pictures to convey information. The pictures are
constructed artificially, however, and they can be very useful to
explain abstract concepts.
• They also require huge storage space and packages used to
produce them are usually difficult to learn.
• Video files are perhaps the most exciting and
attractive features of multimedia systems. The
potential to include complex graphics and video
images in multimedia programs is a great
strength of multimedia technology.
• Words are almost useless for conveying
information from those who understand to those
who don't, although words are an excellent
means of exchange between people who
understand equally well.
• A word has a unique meaning; pictures, however,
transcend language codes and people extract
their own meanings from pictures.
• Multimedia software allows developers to
organize and direct the combination of text,
graphics, animation, audio and video images to
produce multimedia programs.
• The ability to apply the best communication tools
for each component of a communications
problem, and to do so in a cohesive way, is
really the essential strength of any multimedia
presentation.
• Here are some examples of various types of
video files. In order to view these you may need
some PLUG-IN's.
• avi file example
mpg file example
Multimedia Applications

• Multimedia can be used

– to inform,
– to sell,
– to teach,
– to persuade and/or
– to entertain.
• Beyond these general purposes, digital
multimedia enables the application of technology
to a wide range of specific things for business
and pleasure. These include
– electronic brochures,
– marketable games,
– orientation and training programs,
– distance learning,
– information kiosks,
– electronic resumes,
– membership recruiting,
– electronic business presentations,
– web site creation, and
– “small-screen” productions including advertisements
and movies.
Electronic brochures
• can be used for advertising and selling products, ideas and events;
for presenting policies, procedures and techniques; for teaching
everything from automotive repair to computer software and music.
These brochures can be distributed over the web and/or can be
burned (copied) onto a compact disk and distributed personally
as in an automobile showroom or in the mail.
Marketable games
• created with multimedia can provide everything from entertainment to edutainment and can
be created for the young, the not so young, and everyone in between. Games can be
created to pit a single or multiple players against each other, a computer, or some
combination of these.
• Games can be classified into six primary categories which include
– 3D simulations,
– card games,
– board games,
– survival games,
– mind games, and
– educational games.
Distance learning
• is another frontier that lends itself to the application of digital multimedia. The idea of a
classroom without walls where course content is broadcast over the Web along with home
works and readings opens opportunities both for learners and for educational institutions and
businesses.
• Distance learning can support continuity of learning even when the learner and teacher are
physically removed from each other.
• Multimedia can be used to create, package and distribute course content. In this
environment the design and execution of multimedia elements has direct impact on the
quality of programs delivered.
• The goal of the educator is to facilitate learning - to help the student gain a
body of knowledge, acquire specific skills and function successfully in society.
• But one of the greatest challenges to educators is the diversity of students,
especially in the different ways they learn. Some students learn better
through association, others by experimentation, some are more visually
oriented, others are more auditory.
• Multimedia has the ability to accommodate different
learning styles and can present material in a non linear
manner. It is motivating, it can be highly interactive, it can
provide feedback and evaluate skills. And it can make
learning fun.
Investigating Lake Iluka
• is based around a simulated lake environment designed to support secondary studies in
ecology, biology and geography by developing the students’ investigation and problem
solving skills.
• Students investigate the various ecosystems of the lake, make physical, chemical and
biological measurements, collect information about individual animal and plant species and
receive media reports.
• Investigating Lake Iluka and Exploring the Nardoo are excellent Australian examples of
interactive multimedia learning products.
Orientation & Training
• titles can be used for everything from introducing workers to their new employer’s facilities
and people, to training highly experienced jet engine mechanics on how to fix a newly
designed engine component.
• The combination of video, sound, animation, and hypertext can expedite the learning
process and leverage the time of instructors.
• “Virtual” or cyberspace learning can also have significant cost and safety advantages. Jet
pilots, for example, can “practice” flying in a multimedia training simulation without risking the
loss of a multimillion dollar aircraft and many human lives.
Information Kiosks
• are becoming a mainstream vehicle for providing directions and general information services
that have traditionally been provided by signs or by people.
• Multimedia Kiosks can be found
– in the entryways of shopping malls,
– in interstate highway rest areas,
– in museums,
– in airports,
– in hotels,
– in amusement parks,
– in casinos and
– virtually everywhere that large numbers of people seek directions or information.
• Interactive multimedia kiosks can be used to give highway
directions, to explain how something is done such as how wine is
made, to show the location of particular geographical points of
interest, or to provide status updates on dynamic things such as
stock market activities, late breaking news, road conditions, and
the weather.
• For better or for worse, multimedia kiosks are becoming effective
substitutes for human guides. They don’t take breaks and they
can work 24 hours per day. In many cases where the information
being provided is particularly well suited to communication via
multimedia, the communication is faster and more effective, not to
mention considerably less expensive.
Electronic resumes
• are a relatively new phenomena that enable both employers and prospective workers using
the Web to quickly search wider geographical areas for the perfect match.
• For the student or individual seeking a position, an electronic resume uses multimedia to
showcase speaking, writing, technical and specialized skills and interests.
• It can provide extensive distribution to potential employers that far exceeds the number of
resumes that would normally be photocopied and mailed by an individual or by a placement
agency.
Membership recruiting
• using digital multimedia and distributed via CD ROM or the Web is used by
governmental, religious, political, environmental, business and private
organizations to garner members, votes and ideas. Multimedia can be used
to describe their specific programs and objectives and to provide
membership documents. A classic example is that of public broadcasting
stations’ solicitation of donations.
Electronic business presentations
• are used for communicating, selling, analyzing, and educating. They have evolved from
traditional speech delivery to speeches supported by overhead projectors and are now
speeches supported by notebook computers and portable color projectors.
• The advent of powerful multimedia-capable notebook computers loaded with presentation
graphics software enables presenters to become self-contained production studios.
• Their presentations are custom tailored to the particular needs of their audiences and are
presented quickly, efficiently and effectively.
• The following software programs progress from basic presentation
to complete authoring capabilities:
– Microsoft PowerPoint
– Aldus Persuasion
– Adobe Premiere
– Macromedia Director
– Macromedia Authorware
– Asymmetrix ToolBook II Assistant
Web site creation
• has become a prime activity for the application of multimedia. This is due in large part to the
nature of Web broadcasting or Webcasting which relies on hypertext to enable users to
navigate.
• Home pages can be customized to reflect the message and personality of an individual or
organization.
• Software to create Web-pages has evolved from hard to use plain text editors based on
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) codes to graphical based editors that can use objects
and formatted text. HoTMetal Pro, Microsoft Front Page and Netscape Composer are
examples of Web-Page Editors.
“Desktop” productions
• are emerging applications for multimedia distributed via the Web and CD ROM. These are
advertisements, movies and electronic short stories that directly combine computer,
entertainment and communications resources to replicate entertainment and edutainment
facilities that were historically the exclusive domain of movie and television studios.
• This application of multimedia is in its infancy, yet it has the potential to “democratize” an
industry that is very capital intensive and therefore to open creative and financial
opportunities to anyone with a creative bent who has access to a computer, multimedia
software and the Web.
• Drawing the line between education and entertainment in
multimedia can be almost impossible, hence the term
'edutainment'. Multimedia can make learning entertaining.
• But multimedia also has a purely entertainment side. Anything
that's possible in sound and images is possible on a multimedia
CD.
• AIATSIS is an encyclopedia of the Australian Aborigine containing
over 2,000 entries - 1,000 photos, 230 sound clips and 50 videos.
It covers subjects ranging from art to health, from technology to
law.
• World Architecture is a collection of 5 CD disks containing
thousands of images of architecture throughout the world.
• Encyclopedias, census data, yellow pages, atlases and street
directories are examples of CD reference titles. In many cases
they are electronic versions of reference books.
• The challenge for the developer is to make it easy for the user to
find the desired information and to effectively use other multimedia
elements such as sound, video and animation.
Virtual Reality simulations
• and the application of this technology to e d u ca t i o n , t r a i n i n g a n d
entertainment are an evolving specialty area within multimedia.
• Virtual Reality has been defined as consensual hallucination and can be
viewed as three dimensional multimedia that can be delivered via special
devices such as electronically equipped chairs, helmets, glasses, and gloves.
• Virtual reality stimulates human perceptions of touch, motion and depth.
 Ten Reasons to Use Multimedia
PC World magazine (October 1993) outlined "Ten Reasons to Use Multimedia in Education." While in
many cases unproven and overstated, they also underscore the potential of multimedia in education.
• fast -- learning speed accelerates.
• cheap -- the program never asks for a raise; the more you
use it, the less it costs per use.
• consistent -- no mood swings, yawns, or lapses.
• private -- ask what you want; no one will laugh, no one will
scold.
• safe -- experience nuclear meltdowns without fallout;
experience drunk driving accidents or electrocution without
blackouts or death.
• personal -- it never tires of praising and motivating through
positive feedback, any time, day or night.
• a strong foundation -- on which to build mastery.
• a tool to make remembering longer, easier -- many parts of
the brain are stimulated.
• more information faster -- on things a school couldn't afford
to teach: like space-shuttle repair, brain surgery, black hole
sailing.
• fun -- like a game: yes, like Nintendo, which, with a joystick
and a screen, has already captured the brains and fingers of
an entire generation.
Advantages of multimedia:
Multimedia Technology offers great benefits, but can be
unreliable

• You need to take on board a mindset of uncertainty and

fear. You need to accept a degree of chaos in still-
evolving technology. You need to make the most of what
does work and get past what doesn’t.
• A multimedia application,
– can be used for many purposes: training, marketing,
games, information transmission
– is self paced. A user can go through it his/her own
pace.
– is available when required. Not like a TV program or a
lecture for example which is set at a specific time(on
demand).
– is portable. Can be transferred to another location.
– is interruptible. Can be stopped or resumed at the
user's will.
– is flexible. You may learn what you want to learn.
– requires less time to learn the same material. A
research showed that learning the same material
using multimedia required 40% less time than
traditional methods.
Delivering Multimedia
CD ROM
• The growth of multimedia, as mentioned, is often expressed in terms of the
growth of compact disk titles. CDs are a popular medium because they can
hold substantial amounts of data, including sound and video. They are
relatively inexpensive; easy to mass produce, distribute, and transport; and
they take up little retail shelf space. In addition, it is now common for
computers to be sold with CD ROM drives, sound cards and speakers.
KIOSK
• A kiosk is a stand-alone or networked computer system that allows the user
to access information, perform transactions, and even play games. Examples
include
– University information kiosks that students use to learn about academic programs, print
out schedules and transcripts and access campus maps;
– Retail store kiosks that allow customers to locate merchandise, print out coupons and
purchase products;
– Gallery kiosks that allow the user to locate specific works of art, view parts of a collection
not on display and obtain detailed information about artists.
• Kiosks are useful in disseminating information especially
in high traffic areas, providing value added services to
customers (convenience), and reducing personal costs.
Kiosks can be expensive because of the investment in
hardware and the need to continually update their
contents.
ONLINE
• Obviously the fastest growing area for multimedia delivery is online - which includes
telecommunications and the Internet.
• Telecommunications involving phone lines, satellite and cable transmission is used by
educational institutions to deliver multimedia courseware and by companies for
teleconferencing and training.
• The use of the Internet is expanding in all areas. Companies are now commonly using the
WWW to allow customers to purchase products, access product information and subscribe to
real time multimedia events such as rock concerts.
Multimedia Constraints
• Multimedia constraints are situations that
bound what can physically be done with the
creation and distribution of multimedia. These
include the following:
1. Effective multimedia is not as easy to create as
some would have us believe. Effective multimedia
accomplishes its stated purpose and is delivered
succinctly. Creating such multimedia takes
considerable time and skills and is seldom the result
of a “shot in the dark” approach;
2. Multimedia requires high powered software and
hardware engines and at the same time have kept
costs down to very reasonable levels.
3. The very large physical size of digital multimedia
elements and titles causes significant data capture,
storage, and playback problems. The capture and
storage in digital form of a single 10 second video
clip may require up to 100 Megabytes of storage
space on your computer. By extension one minute
may require 600 Megabytes. Such requirements
become massive when considering a multimedia title
such as a full length movie.
4. Multimedia distribution channels and standards are
in a state of instability. Traditionally movies were
delivered in theaters. More recently they have been
released in VHS tape format for home use on VCRs.
Now, Digital Video Disks that can store a whole
movie with superior visual and sound quality.
 References -
• Reading List

ü https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia
ü Read about Adobe Multimedia Tools
ü https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_computer

• Video List-
ü https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCkOS4F51MI
ü https://www.adobe.com/in/

• Homework -
ü Research for the history of multimedia and its various types