INT RO DU CTI ON TO MU LTI ME DI A

DIM 5018 TRIM ESTE R3 2012/ 2013

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO MULTIMEDIA Definition of multimedia Multimedia is the presentation of a computer application using 5 media elements such as text, graphics, animations, audio, and video.

Classification of media types

Captured media captured from the real world e.g. Still pictures, moving pictures, and sound Synthesized media synthesized by the computers e.g. Text, graphics and computer animation Discrete media(static media/non-time-based media /space-based media) refers to media involving space dimension only e.g. Still images, text and graphics Continuous(dynamic media /time-based media /temporal media) media refers to time-based media e.g. Sound, moving images, and animation Characteristics of multimedia system 1. They must be computer-controlled. User is able to view, hear, and see using a Multimedia PC System. 2. They are integrated. At least one discrete and one continuous media combined for information presentation and sharing. media/non-temporal

3. The information they handle must be represented digitally. Consists of various form of media i.e. text, graphics, audio, video, and animations; created, stored, processed, and transmitted DIGITALLY. 4. The interface to the final user may permit interactivity. User is able to navigate, interact, create, and communicate.

Benefits of using multimedia Ease of use User friendly, increase users effectiveness

Intuitive Interface Allows user to determine functions of an application by their own intuition

Immersive Experience Allows user to focus on application

Cost effectiveness Less training, less technical support

Problems with multimedia Technical barriers (accessibility issues) - upgrade IT & PC infrastructure Sociopsychological barriers - Learning rates - Importance of teacher

Legal problems - Copyright

Sectors that use multimedia Business Interactive Multimedia Merchandising Desktop Videoconferencing Multimedia Travel Systems Real Estate

Government Public Service Kiosks Consumer Information Politics

Education Computer Aided Learning Virtual Campus

Broadcasting and Entertainment Electronic catalogue Interactive Movie On-demand News or movies 3D or animated movies Video Games Virtual Reality Cyber Sports

Medicine Virtual Surgery Video Conferencing and Image Retrieval

Evaluation of multimedia products Users Perspective Subject and Content Platform Usability Cost

Developers Perspective

Content Performance Delivery Interface

CHAPTER 2 MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE 2 categories of multimedia systems - Multimedia presentation systems PC with high resolution screen CD-ROM drive speakers and microphone

- Multimedia development systems software toolkit for development work software library for support functions libraries of clip art, music and video Related hardware

5 categories of multimedia devices Analog devices These devices deal with analog media, but may be under computer control Divided into 3 sub categories : Sources 1. Microphone 2. Video Camera 3. Photographic Camera Filters 1. Analog Video Effects Device 2. Analog Audio Effects Device 3. Audio Mixer Sinks 1. Speaker 2. Video Display 3. Video Tape Recorder 4. Audio Tape Recorder

Digital devices These devices deal with digital signal. Can be divided into 3 sub categories : Capturing devices 1. Keyboard 2. Image Scanner 3. OCR device Processing devices 1. 2. 3. 4. Video Encoder/Decoder Audio Encoder/Decoder Digital Video Effects Device Digital Audio Effect Device

Presentation devices 1. Printer 2. Monitor 3. Projector

Examples: CD-ROM, floppy drive, hard drive, network interface, and general purpose processors

- Synchronization devices Simultaneous presentation using multiple media (text,audio,video etc). Requires hardware assistance to maintain proper timing. Example: sync generator in audio and video studios, Macromedia Flash, computer games etc.

- Interaction devices Multimedia application means ability to interact within the application itself Examples: keyboard, mouse, joystick, electronic pen

Multimedia development process - Planning and Costing Plan to fulfill the expectation of the audience.

Steps to start a project: 1. Define the objectives and scope 2. Target audience 3. Set the content 4. Estimating cost 5. Hardware 6. Software 7. Build a multimedia team Hardware and software requirement Developer side. Developing multimedia project based on personal preference of computer: Budget constraints Project delivery requirements Type of material and content in the project Several types of hardware components that need to be considered: Memory and storage devices Input devices Output devices Communication Devices (optional)

- Designing and Producing - Testing - Delivering

4. Authoring tool is a software package which allow developers to write hypertext and multimedia applications by linking together objects such as a paragraph of text, an illustration, graphics or a song.

Classification of authoring tools three main characteristics: metaphors: Time-based Card/page-based Icon-based Theatrical-based the way the program organizes the different elements the way the program sequences events that happen the way the application is delivered

by capabilities and complexity: Multimedia-Capable Presentation Tools Slide presentation software: PowerPoint Semi to non-professional applications Examples Microsoft PowerPoint Adobe Persuasion

Dedicated Media Integration Tools Sequence multimedia events and elements. Semi to full professional use Examples: IBM's Storyboard Live! Asymmetric's Media Blitz! Passport Producer Professional Multimedia Development Tools

Highly interactive applications such as : games

Full professional use Programming/scripting capabilities Examples: Macromedia Director, Authorware, Flash Apple's HyperCard

Build a multimedia team Project Manager The leader of a project. Responsible for overall development, implementation of the project and day to day operations. Multimedia Designer Deals with visual aspects of the project, graphic design, illustration, animation, interface design and image processing. Maintain the flow of the information, clear and consistent navigation Video specialist Focus on the audio and video production - shooting, capturing and editing video, digitizing and audio recording. Multimedia programmer Responsible for integrating all the multimedia elements using authoring system or programming language to create a functioning and useful multimedia product.

Testing

Two phases of testing Alpha testing The product is evaluated relatively in the early stage of the development phase. The application may be missing part of the content or functionality. The main interest is to review the concept, format, user interface and the layout. Beta testing The product is evaluated just before the final release. It is a fully functioning product and should be relative bug free. Main interest is to find bugs or content errors

CHAPTER 3 TEXT

1. Text is the simplest of data types and requires the least amount of storage. 2. 3 categories of text elements: Alphabet characters A Z and a z Numbers 09 Special characters Punctuation (. , ; ! : - /) Signs ($ + - = @ # % ^ & *) 3. 3 types of text: Unformatted text comprise strings of fixed-sized characters from a limited character set. Formatted text Comprise strings of characters of different styles, size and shape together with tables, graphics and image inserted at appropriate point. Example: Rich Text Format (RTF), HTML, .doc Hypertext It enables the integrated set of documents (each comprising formatted text) to be created which have defined linkages between them. 4. Font is the collection of characters of different sizes and styles of a typeface. 5. Typeface is the graphic representation or the shape of characters. 6. Font Terminology: Baseline the line on which the bases of characters are arranged Leading the distance between successive baselines x-height the distance between the baseline and the top of a lower-case letter x Ascenders/descenders strokes that rise above the x-height/drop below the baseline

Kerning adjustment of space between certain pairs of letters (e.g. AV) to make them look more uniform Tracking - Spacing between characters. Serif - Flag or decoration at the end of a character stroke.

7. Classification of fonts: Spacing: monospaced (fixed width)/proportional Serifs: serifed/sans serif (Serifs are the small strokes added to the ends of character shapes in conventional book fonts) Shape: upright/italic/slanted (Slant is a vertical shear effect, italic uses different glyph shapes with a slant) Weight: bold/normal/light

Bitmaps require one bitmap for each size. File size increases as more sizes are added. Require a lot of memory.

9. Vector fonts can draw any size by scaling the vector drawing primitives mathematically. File size is much smaller than bitmaps.

10.Rasterization refers that font is drawn on the screen one pixel at a time. 11.Anti-aliasing blends the font into the background color to minimize the jagged edges making for smoother overall appearance. 12.Font mapping specifies which font to be substitution if the 13.fonts that you used is not available in other peoples computer. 14.Positive ways to communicate message by less text: 15.Hypertext Linking a hypertext or hot word / hotspot to another part of the title that displays more text

Very effectively used to retrieve info from databases Helps user in decision making User can process information faster and strategically

Pop-up Messages Another type of Hot word used to save space Click on a hot word or a text, a small message pops up explaining in brief about the hot word Remains for some time and vanishes after programmed duration or by a mouse click

Drop-down Boxes Gives the user a set of choices and reduces his strain of decision making That is making choice in a easier way and limited according to the systems capabilities Choosing may lead to another page with text or may retrieve info from database

10.Scroll Bars Usually not a good practice to use scroll bars Mostly irritates the user Important messages should not be posted using scrollbars, since the user may not notice it

Buttons The concept of hyper linking remains the same Change in appearance by using a button with text to glow on it rather than using a hyper text

Symbols & Icon Using symbols or icons in-order to express a meaning

Eg: A floppy icon in MS Word represents Save, expressing to save the document

CHAPTER 4 MULTIMEDIA DESIGN Types of graphics -bitmap graphic

Advantage Can have different textures on the drawings; detailed and comprehensive.

Disadvantage Large file size Not easy to make modification to objects/drawings Graphics become "blocky" when the size is increased

- vector graphic

Advantage

Small file size Maintain quality as the size of the graphics is increased Easy to edit the drawings as each object is independent of the other.

Disadvantage Objects/drawings cannot have texture; it can only have plain colors or gradients ; limited level of detail that can be presented in an image

Resolution Image Resolution: The term resolution often associated with an images degree of detail or quality. Display Resolution: Resolution also can refer to quality capability of graphic output (monitor). Color Resolution / Color Depth: Color depth describe the number of bits used to represent the color of a single pixel. Graphic file size = Height X Width X (Colour depth / 8) Types of images - Binary/Bitonal image These images have two possible values of pixel intensities: black and white. Also called 1-bit monochrome image, since it contains only black and white. - Grayscale image They contain several shades of grey. Typical applications of grayscale images include newspaper photographs (non-color), magnetic resonance images and cat-scans

- Colour image They are characterized by the intensity of three primary colors (RGB). - RGBA/32-bit image Allows RGBA color scheme; Red, Green, Blue, Alpha. Pixel used to store an alpha value representing the degree of transparency.

Image colour schemes RGB colour scheme Colors are represented by a numeric triplet specifying R, G and B intensities. This model is convenient for CRTs since the numeric values can be easily mapped to voltages for the R, G, and B guns.

CMY/CMYK colour scheme CMYK (Cyan,Magenta,Yellow,Black) scheme is widely used for color printing. To print a particular color on a white page, one must apply inks that subtract (absorb) all colors other than the one desired. HSB/HSI colour scheme Computer monitors display colors by emitting color dots (red, green, blue). Creation of color is based on function of three characteristics: 1. hue, saturation & brightness / lightness. (HSB / HSL) YUV colour scheme Y represents the luminance/brightness and can be thought of as containing black and white or gray-scale information. U and V carry the chrominance or color information. There are a variety of YUV-like color models.

Colour dithering is the process through which colours are changed to meet the closest available colour based on the available palette. Image processing techniques:

Editing Image editors also support cutting, copying, and pasting selected groups of pixel. A selection might be a simple rectangular sub-image or an arbitrarily shaped region. Filter operation like point operation, involve applying a function to every pixel in an image or selection. Compositing Image compositing is the combination of two or more images to produce a new image. Geometric Transformations Basic geometric transformations include displacing, rotating, mirroring, and scaling an image. Conversions convert from one format to another.

Graphic File format GIF Bitmap JPEG PNG, and etc.

1. Navigational structures: Linear

Hierarchical

Non-Linear

Composite

Storyboarding is literally building a story or sample page on paper that describes roughly the layout. Multimedia interface components: Background and texture Buttons, icons and picons Rollovers and sliders Hotspots and menus Feedback