1. Multimedia – An Introduction
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2. Text Books: 
1. Ze-Nian Li and Mark S. Drew, “Fundamentals of Multimedia”, Pearson Prentice Hall, October 2003.
2. Fred Halsall, “Multimedia Communications: Applications, Networks, Protocols and Standards”, Addison-Wesley, 2001.
3.Khalid Sayood, “Introduction to data compression “,3rd edition, Morgan Kaufman
4.David Solomon, "The Data compression; The Complete Reference”, 3rd edition, Springer, 2006
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3. Multimedia- Definitions
Multi - many; much; multiple
Medium - means of transmission of information/data.
Multimedia thus indicates that information /data being transmitted over network may be composed of the following:
Text
Image
Audio
Video
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4. Scope Of Multimedia
The technology of MM design utilizes various features like animation ,video, graphics, audio..;
MM technology is used for 3D cinema
Animation is also used in creating special effects/ web programs. Thus scope of animation is huge in market
In the field of education , MM is being used
extensively , especially for online course and training
MM is also used for advertising purpose.
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5. Range of Multimedia In telephone networks Data networks
Broadcast television network
Integrated services digital network
Broadband multi service network
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6. Multimedia Authoring Tools
Multimedia elements are composed into a project using authoring tools.
Multimedia Authoring tools are those programs that provide the capability for creating a complete multimedia presentations by linking together objects such as a paragraph of text (song), an illustration, an audio, with appropriate interactive user control
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7. Multimedia Authoring Tools (Contd.)
By defining the objects' relationships to each other, and by sequencing them in an appropriate order, authors (who use authoring tools) can produce attractive and useful graphical applications.
To name a few authoring tools
Macromedia Flash
Macromedia Director
Authorware
The hardware and the software that govern the limits of what can happen are multimedia platform or environment
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8. Multimedia and Interactivity
Interactive Multimedia is Hypermedia, when the end- user is provided with the structure of linked elements through which he/she can navigate.
Multimedia is linear, when it is not interactive and the users just sit and watch as if it is a movie, e.g., cinema presentation
Multimedia is nonlinear, when the users are given the navigational control and can browse the contents at will, e.g., computer game, computer-based training.
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9. Challenges for Multimedia System
There is a temporal relationship between many forms of media (e.g. Video and Audio). In this case problems are:
Sequencing within the media - playing frames in correct order/time frame in video
Synchronisation - inter-media scheduling (e.g. Video and Audio). Lip synchronisation is clearly important for humans to watch playback of video and audio and even animation and audio.
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10. Challenges for Multimedia Systems
The key issues that multimedia systems need to deal with are:
How to represent and store temporal information.
How to strictly maintain the temporal relationships on play back/retrieval
Data has to be represented digitally so many initial source of data needs to be digitised - translated from analog source to digital representation. This will involve scanning (graphics, still images), sampling (audio/video) although digital cameras now exist for direct scene to digital capture of images and video.
The data is large (several Mb) for audio and video - therefore storage, transfer (bandwidth) and processing overheads are high. Data compression techniques very common.
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11. Desirable Features
Given the (mentioned) challenges the following features are desirable (if not a prerequisite) for a Multimedia System:
Very High Processing Power
needed to deal with large data processing and real time delivery of media. Special hardware commonplace.
Multimedia Capable File System
needed to deliver real-time media e.g. Video/Audio Streaming. Special Hardware/Software needed e.g RAID technology.
Data Representations/File Formats that support multimedia
Data representations/file formats should be easy to handle yet allow for compression/decompression in real-time.
Efficient and High I/O
input and output to the file subsystem needs to be efficient and fast. Needs to allow for real-time recording as well as playback of data. e.g. Direct to Disk recording systems.
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12. Desirable Features Special Operating System
to allow access to file system and process data efficiently and quickly. Needs to support direct transfers to disk, real-time scheduling, fast interrupt processing, I/O streaming etc.
Storage and Memory
large storage units (of the order of Gb or more) and large memory ( Mb or more). Large Caches also required and frequently of Level 2 and 3 hierarchy for efficient management.
Network Support
Client-server systems common as distributed systems common.
Software Tools
user friendly tools needed to handle media, design and develop applications, deliver media.
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13. Multimedia Applications
Multimedia finds its application in various areas, a few are:
Education
Computer-based trainings, reference e-books, documents imaging, distant learning.
Entertainment
Interactive games
Medicine
Training to doctors through virtual surgery
Business
Employee training, advertisements, customer support, selling products.
Arts
Art exhibitions, literature presentations
Scientific Research
Modeling and simulations
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14. Multimedia Applications (Contd.)
In Medicine Source: Cardiac Imaging, YALE centre for advanced cardiac imaging
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15. Multimedia Applications (Contd.)
In training
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16. Multimedia Applications (Contd.)
Other Applications include:
World Wide Web
Video conferencing
Video-on-demand
Interactive TV
Home shopping
Games
Virtual reality
Digital video editing and production systems
Multimedia Database systems
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