Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4

Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Organization
Lecture
April 21st 2005
• Lecture takes place on Thursday, 10:00 – 11:30 and
Multimedia Systems 13:15 - 14:45 April 28th 2005
May 12th 2005
• The lecture is planned with 3 hours / week
June 2nd 2005
• Not each date is needed, some are skipped
June 9th 2005
• First lecture dates are planned, the further dates are
announced in time June 16th 2005

Exercises
Lehrstuhl für Informatik IV • In principle, every 14 days
RWTH Aachen • Exercise is given on Tuesday
• Frontal exercise
Prof. Dr. Otto Spaniol • Exact dates depend upon the lecture May 10th 2005
dates June 7th 2005
Dr. rer. nat. Dirk Thißen • Exercise sheets are provided on the June 21st 2005
web page two weeks before an
exercise date
Chapter 1: Introduction Page 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Page 2

Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4

Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Organization Literature

Slide Copies
• Copies to the lecture slides as well as exercise sheets are placed on the web page to
the lecture:
Books
http://www-i4.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/content/teaching/lectures/sub/mms/mmsSS05/index.html
• Steinmetz, R,; Nahrstedt, K.: Media Coding and Content Processing. Prentice Hall,
2002
Written Exam • Steinmetz, R.; Nahrstedt, K.: Multimedia Systems. Springer Verlag, 2004
At the end of summer term • Steinmetz, R.; Nahrstedt, K.: Multimedia Applications. Springer Verlag, 2004
• Froitzheim: Multimedia Kommunikation. dpunkt, 1997
Contact Information for questions regarding lecture/exercises
Prof. Dr. Otto Spaniol, Dr. Dirk Thißen Magazines
Lehrstuhl für Informatik IV, RWTH Aachen • Multimedia Systems, ACM/Springer
Ahornstraße 55, 52074 Aachen • Multimedia Magazine, IEEE
Phone: 0241 / 80 – 21400/21450
eMail: {spaniol, thissen}@informatik.rwth-aachen.de

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 3 Chapter 1: Introduction Page 4

 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

What is ‘Multimedia’? Facets of “Medium”

1. Perception Medium - How do humans perceive information in a computer

Simple definition of Multimedia: Multi - Media environment? (by seeing, by hearing, ...)
2. Representation Medium - How is the information encoded in the computer?
→ Any kind of system that supports more than one kind of medium (ASCII, PCM, MPEG, ...)
Is Television Multimedia? 3. Presentation Medium - Which medium is used to output information from the
computer or to bring it into the computer?

Output: paper, loudspeaker, monitor,...
Definition:
Input: keyboard, microphone, camera, ...
Multimedia means the integration of continuous media (e.g., audio, video) and 4. Storage Medium - Where is the information stored?
discrete media (e.g., text, graphics, images) through which the digital information 5. Transmission Medium - Which kind of medium is used to transmit the information?
can be conveyed to the user in an appropriate way. (copper cable, radio, ...)
→ Multi: many, much, multiple 6. Information Exchange Medium (combination of storage and transmission media) -
Which information carrier will be used for information exchange between different
→ Medium: A means to distribute and represent information locations?

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Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4

Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Classification of Media Data Streams

When transmitted or played out, continuous media need a changing set of data in terms of
Each medium defines
time, i.e. data streams. How to deal with such streams?
• Representation values
• Representation space Asynchronous Transmission
• Suitable for communication with no time restrictions (discrete media)
Representation values determine the information representation of different media:
• E.g. electronic mail
• continuous representation values (e.g. electro-magnetic waves)
• discrete representation values (e.g. characters of a text in digital form) Synchronous Transmission
• Beginning of transmission may only take place at well-defined times
Representation space determines the technique to output the media information, usually • A clock signal runs the synchronization between a sender and a receiver
visually (e.g., paper, slideshow) or acoustically (e.g., speakers)
Isochronous Transmission
• Spatial dimensions:
• Periodic transmissions, time separation between subsequent transmissions is a multiple

Two dimensional (2D graphics)
of a certain unit interval

Three dimensional (holography)
• A maximum and a minimum end-to-end delay for each packet of a data stream (limited
• Temporal dimensions: jitter) is required

Time independent (document) - discrete media (e.g. text of a book) • An end-to-end network connection is isochronous if it has a guaranteed bit rate and if the

Time dependent (movie) - continuous media (e.g. sound, video) jitter also is guaranteed and small
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 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4
Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Data Stream Characteristics Data Stream Characteristics

Strongly periodic data streams Strongly regular data streams T

• Identical intervals T t • Quantity remains constant during the entire lifetime
• No jitter (optimally) T of the stream D1 D1 D1 D1 D1
t
• Example: uncompressed audio • Typical for uncompressed video/audio

Weakly periodic data streams Weakly regular data streams T

t
• Periodic intervals T • Quantity varies periodically
T1 T2 T3 T1 T2 T3
• Timing variations in the intervals T T
• Can result from some compression techniques
D1 D2 D3 D1 D2 D3
• Example: segmented transmission • E.g. videos coded with MPEG t

Aperiodic data streams Irregular data streams

• Arbitrary intervals • Quantity is neither constant nor periodically changing
t
...
• Example: transmission of mouse T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 • Typical for compressed audio/video D1 D2 D3 Dn

control signals • Harder to transmit/process t

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Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4

Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme Kommunikation und verteilte Systeme

Data Stream Characteristics Fields of the Lecture

Continuous media consist of a time-dependent sequence of individual information units:
Applications
Logical Data Units (LDUs) Usage
Learning Design User Interfaces
Example: Symphony
• A symphony consists of independent movements, movements consists of scores
• Using e.g. PCM, 44.100 samples are made per second. On a CD, samples are grouped Group
Services
Content
Documents Security … Synchro-
Communi-
into units with a duration of 1/75 second Analysis nization
cation
• Possible LDUs with different granularity: movements, scores, groups, samples. Used in
digital signal processing: sampling values as LDUs
Example: Movie Databases Programming
• Consists of scenes represented by clips, clips Movie Systems Media Server Operating Systems Communication
consist of single frames, frames consist of blocks
Clips Optical Storage Quality of Service Networks
of e.g. 16x16 pixels. Pixels can consist of
chrominance and luminance values Frames
• Using e.g. MPEG, inter-frame coding is used, Compression
Blocks Computer
thus image sequences are the smallest Basics Graphics &
Architecture Animation Video Audio
sufficient LDUs Images
Pixels
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Content

Chapter 2: Basics
• Audio Technology
• Images and Graphics
• Video and Animation
Chapter 3: Multimedia Systems - Communication Aspects and Services
• Voice over IP, Video conferencing
• Group Communication, Synchronization
• Quality of Service and Resource Management
Chapter 4: Multimedia Systems – Storage Aspects
• Optical storage media
• Multimedia file systems, Multimedia databases
Chapter 5: Multimedia Usage
• Design and User Interfaces, Abstractions for Programming

Chapter 1: Introduction Page 13