Table of contents:
Introduction | Multimedia Requirements
| Where to use Multimedia | Virtual Reality
| Assignments | Unit II
The terms defined previously---developers, project, title, authoring tools, GUI---will be used throughout this course. The language of this course and the textbook rely on the student's understanding of these terms and the concepts behind them.
Having defined the basic element of multimedia, it's now time to take it on the road and find out what you can do with it.
There is a growing community of developers of multimedia, both for personal use and for big bucks in the business arena. It is generally accepted that to create viable multimedia, one needs:
One also needs users who are interested in what you have to offer, of course!
How can you use your completed project? That depends on what the intended use for the project is. If you are posting it on your website, you will need transmission capacity and storage, otherwise known as bandwidth. If you are selling or otherwise distributing the title, you will need storage media, duplication capabilities and a distribution system.
1. Bandwidth
- Multimedia requires a great deal of storage and transmission capacity, also called bandwidth.
If you intend to promote your project nationally and you are using a local ISP with limited bandwidth, chances are that you will have to switch providers or contract with a second national provider to obtain the bandwidth that you will need to allow your users reasonable access to your project. Multimedia projects are often quite large, because of the size of even compressed audio and video files. (Remember the five-minute project that was Assignment 3 in Lesson 1.1? That was largely still images, but it was nevertheless a fairly large file.)
2. About CD-ROMs
- Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM)
- The discs are "read only" because the user cannot delete data or record new data on them.
- CD-ROMs usually hold 650MB (75 minutes) or 700MB (80 minutes), depending on the media.
- Many CD-ROMs can hold up to 84 minutes of audio and video. A slight overrun in the size of the file is often allow, depending on individual burning software.
CD storage technology has not advanced much in the past few years, but the speed of burners, which might be used for title duplication, gets faster almost every month! At the time of this writing, (December 2001-January 2002) we have gone from 24x being the fastest speed to 40x CD burners. Who knows where it will be by the time you take this class? CD media prices have also dropped dramatically in the past year, making widespread distribution more feasible for personal developers.
Additionally, CD-ROM discs can hold assorted images, sounds, text, and videos to permit the distribution of an interactive system controlled by an authoring system, to provide the user with almost unlimited interaction. Many education titles are distrbuted in this way.
A third set of titles, and perhaps the largest use of multimedia on CD-ROMs, is by the computer gaming industry.
Insider Information...
"Disc" (as opposed to "disk") is indeed the proper spelling when referring to CDs or DVDs. CD technology was jointly developed by Philips and Sony and was released to the public in 1982.3. About DVD-ROMs
- Digital Versatile Disc-Read Only Memory (DVD-ROM)
- Depending on the format, DVDs can hold between 4.7GB to 17GB of information.
Downsides to DVD distribution: at the time of this writing, both DVD burners and media are costly, making this an unreasonable choice for the personal developer. However, it is the medium of choice for the largest selling multimedia titles today--movies!
Ultimately, Internet Service Providers and multimedia content providers will join to give the user a fast pay-as-you-go experience for multimedia content. At the time of this writing this is not yet the case, as we still have a bandwidth shortage that is expected to continue for some years. Example of future use of the Multimedia Highway: rather than renting DVDs over the Internet and sending them by snail mail, content providers will allow viewing via streaming media over the Web.
So, how does information get from Point A to Point B?
1. The telecommunications network
- The global telecommunications network provides a highway for transmitting multimedia content.
- In the USA, many cables are owned by railways and pipeline companies.
- It is easy for railroads and pipeline companies to lay cable along their existing right-of-ways, since no additional permits or environmental studies are needed. Therefore, major sections of the Information SuperHighway in the US are owned by such companies--they got there first. Those companies derive enormous revenues from leasing lines to the telecommunications giants such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint and others. Those telecommunications companies form the backbone providers of the Internet.
- AT&T, Sprint, MCI and other giants in turn lease portions of their bandwidth to second-tier providers such as AOL and Earthlink, both national ISPs. They may also lease bandwidth to regional providers, who in turn lease to local providers. By the time the bandwidth gets to local providers, it is like a pie intended for six, and ten more guests have shown up. Nobody gets much!
2. Uses for the Multimedia Highway include:
- Online book and magazine content
- Feature-length movies played at home
- Live news and weather reports
- Distance education
- Maps, restaurant listings, and other regional guides
At the time of this writing, most homes in the US have Internet access. However, personal patterns have not yet shifted among the older generation to doing work directly on the computer. Let's face it---reading on your computer while sitting straight up in a chair for hours is not very comfortable! Plus, older users did not learn to compose directly onto the screen. What that means is that users have not yet created the demand for online services that providers expect to see in the future.
Although online book and magazine content is readily available, it is an accepted principle of web page design that one does not expect the user to read much content online. Rather, descriptive sentences and short paragraphs are used, with links to additional content. Many people use services such as local newspaper websites or the Wall Street Journal Online to get live news and weather reports, but I would venture to guess that the greatest percentage of people still rely on printed material or television broadcasts for the bulk of their information.
Feature-length movies played at home may be common in the future, but at present the bandwidth is simply not there. Distance education via the Internet is becoming so common that you see commercials for it on national television networks, not just local or regional stations. University of Phoenix is just one example.
By far the largest use of interactive multimedia over the Internet at this time includes free and pay-for-play interactive multiplayer gaming (for the younger crowd), and obtaining maps, restaurant listings, and other regional guides (for the rest of us).
Wherever humans and computers (or similar devices) interact, you have an opportunity to use multimedia. You can also use multimedia to enhance potentially dry delivery media, like, oh, textbooks, for example! When properly constructed, multimedia can immensely enhance education and information.
Multimedia is also a very effective presentation and sales tool. In an interactive presentation not only can you convey more information, but prospective consumers retain the information you are presenting better, and they also are more likely to buy because they are involved with the product.
Why is that? All humans learn in three ways: auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (touch), or visually. Some people learn better in combinations of the three, but nonetheless, those are how we learn. So, if you have a text, you would be learning visually, would you not? Add a tape to augment the text, and you have addressed two of the three styles. Add an interactive element, where the person has to press keys, enter data, or tap buttons to get information, and you add the kinesthetic element. When all three elements are present, retention rises to almost 60%. Teachers are often told that it takes seven repetitions for a student to retain information. Imagine how far and fast we could go if students retained 60% of the information at the first exposure. (Alas, adding all elements is often not practical or even possible.)
That said, there are many uses for multimedia today:
In business...
- Training
- Online conferencing
- Sales and product demonstrations
In schools...
- Visual aids
- Self-guided tutorials
- Laserdiscs were once the primary medium for multimedia in schools, but today they have been totally supplanted by CDs.
In the home...
- Home design and remodeling software
- Games
- Genealogy software
Mini Assignment: List multimedia devices or programs that you might already have at home.
In public places...
- Information kiosks in grocery stores, hotels, airports, and more.
Figure 1-6 on page 16 of the textbook provides a sample of a multimedia presentation designed for a grocery store kiosk. Note that it provides shopping list tools, information on specials, recipe guides, and an in-store reference.
In 1992, Autodesk was creating a virtual reality software program. And although it has since closed down, in 1995 a virtual reality "park", Virtual World, opened in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the park you could participate in many multiplayer VR games. As the attendant told me, "It's so cathartic to shoot a loved one!" There were also single player experiences. However, VR was just not interesting enough to make a go of the park for that audience. Why? Because of the computing horsepower needed to make virtual reality anywhere near real. Even today, most VR applications have the look and feel of a video game from the 1980s. The cost, the look, and the advent of really excellent 3-D multimedia gaming applications, have delayed VR's becoming a true reality. Don't be fooled by what Hollywood shows as virtual reality. Most of the true stuff is just not that good.
VR is at the convergence of technology and creative invention in multimedia. VR hardware---gloves, goggles, and other human interfaces---let the user get "inside" the experience. Walking, turning, and moving in any direction are faithfully reproduced by the software to make you feel as if you are taking the same actions in the real world.
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is used to create VR experiences online. Most new computer include support for 3-D technologies. But are personal processors really fast enough? Consumers will tell us.
A very interesting use of VR at this time includes commercial applications. Pilots can make their maiden flights in new aircraft using multi-million dollar VR flight simulators. Maritime applications include simulators to train loading and unloading oil tankers and cargo ships.
And the virtual arcades do still exist (although not in Las Vegas). So who knows, you too may be able to realistically shoot a loved one in the near future!
When you have completed these assignments, please take quiz for Lesson 1. Then, take a break, or go on to Unit II, Audio Basics.