Professor Jonathan Wallace
B.A.(Hons.), M.Sc. PGCUT, MIEEE
Professor of Innovation, Distinguished Business Fellow, Distinguished Teaching Fellow,
Director of Knowledge & Technology Transfer
e-mail: jg.wallace@ulster.ac.uk
http://scm.ulster.ac.uk/~e99074/
Multimedia -
What it is ...
“ Multimedia is, (in theory), the seamless integration
under computer control of any text, sound, still and
animated images, and motion video. The computer
enables this mix of media to be interactive, as opposed to
current broadcasting and publishing practices which for
the most part are aimed at a passive audience. In other
words, while broadcasting and publishing are essentially
one-way, interactive multimedia by its very nature
demands active participation.”
Its Components ...
•
•
•
•
•
GUI
Images
Audio Sequences
Animation
Video Sequences
Common File Types
in Multimedia
• JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG - Still Image
– (JPEG - Joint Picture Expert Group - Compression)
• MPEG, AVI, M2TS, MOV, MKV Quicktime - Moving image
– (MPEG - Moving Picture Expert Group - Compression)
•
•
•
•
WAV, AIFF, AU, MP3, MP4, RA - Sound
MIDI – Synthesizer
FLASH, Shockwave, Canvas - Animation
HTML, SGML, XML, VXML, XHTML, XSL, CSS - Scripting
languages
N.B. an appropriate file player / browser / interpreter must be available for each file type.
Why Use It What Are Its Benefits ???
• Multimedia communication is similar to face-to-face
communication.
• Multimedia is less restricted than written text. Many people
come to understand text better with broader media support for
its interpretation.
• Multimedia can place abstract concepts in a specific context
(for example, refraction in physics might be depicted in a film of
lens and light behaviour).
• Multimedia allows for individual differences in preferred
sensory channels for learning.
• Multimedia lets you coordinate diverse external
representations (with distinctive strengths) for different
perspectives.
Effect of Media Type on
Memory Recall
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
% Recall
Percentage of Facts
Remembered
Reading
Treichler (1967)
Hearing
Seeing
Hearing
and
Seeing
Saying
and
Doing
Why Use It What Are Its Benefits ???
There are currently four main areas for which multimedia is
providing real benefits:
•
•
•
•
Presentations
Reference
Education / Training /
Learning
Entertainment
What Do You Need To Produce Multimedia ???
What Do You Need
To Produce Multimedia ???
• Additional Hardware
–
–
–
–
Colour scanner - reflective / transparency
CD-ROM / DVD or Blu-Ray recorder
Video grabber
Video Overlay Board / Capture Card – IEEE1394 (Firewire) /
USB / Analogue
• Software Tools
– Still image processing, e.g. Adobe Photoshop & Plug-Ins
– Multimedia authoring tools, e.g. Flash / Adobe Premiere /
Adobe After Effects / Adobe Encore
– CD-ROM authoring software - e.g. Nero
– Animation Tools - 3D Studio MAX, Maya, Cool 3D, Digital
Morph.
Costs versus Capability
Hardware Prices Have Decreased
Quad Core
Sandy Bridge
i7 PCs /
Laptops /
Anaemic
PCs
ARM Phablets
Whilst Processing Power Has Increased
Ease of Use
No Need To Be
An
Einstein
Or A
Technical Wizard
Problems & Pitfalls
• Storage
• Multimedia Standards
– MPEG, JPEG, HTML, JAVA, Active-X,
Javascript
• Copyright
Copyright
Copyright requirements
• Originality – product of authors efforts, not copied
• Tangibility – protects expression of idea, not the idea itself
• Qualification – reference to author/country where first published
• Ownership – protects author (for 70 years after death)
Copyright – restricted acts
• They can copy the work in whole
• They can issue copies of the work to the public
• They can perform, show or play the work in public
• They can broadcast the work or include it in a cable programme
• They can make an adaptation of the work
Copyright
Copyright Breach
A primary breach is where someone deliberately breaks the terms of
the licence under which they obtained the work, or uses the work
without the permission or licence of the work's owner. This therefore
includes:
•
Copying of the work - the owner of the work has exclusive
rights to copying and any copying outside of that permitted by
them is a breach of copyright,
•
Making adaptations - this is where a person takes the work and
makes modifications to it for their own purposes,
•
The issuing of copies to the public - this includes lending,
rental, leasing, etc., and importing works from elsewhere in the
world for sale in the UK (the so called grey market); the latter is
very complex - controls and exemptions vary depending on the
class of work involved.
Copyright
A secondary breach is where someone infringes the rights of the works
owner, following a primary breach by another person. This means:
•
Dealing in infringing copies - this is when a person knowingly
distributes copies of the work which are in breach of copyright,
•
Providing articles for the making of copies of the work - this
does not means that a person provides a device or tool to
circumvent the proprietary copy protection features of a
particular work (this applies especially to copy protected or
encrypted software),
•
Related to the above, the circumvention of copy protection which essentially means the creation of tools to circumvent the
copy protection measures used to protect a work,
•
Facilitating infringement by transmission - which means the
transmission through any form of telecommunication of a
copyright work without the permission of the work's owner;
transmission of material across the Internet is a good example
of this.
Intelligent
Agents
Human Computer Interaction
Metaphor Change
Direct Manipulation

Indirect Management
(Alan Kay)
Intelligent Agents - Agent Types
(Intelligent Agents Strategy, IBM)
Administrative Agents
– automating routine tasks such as
email handling
Librarian Agents
– conducting intelligent searches of
both public and private data
Conversational Agents
– allowing users to converse in natural
language with the system and its
applications
Intermediary Agents
– providing common services needed
by other agents
Consulting Agents
– learn and use the system and its
applications
– execute complex tasks step by step
Surf’s Up . . .
The
Internet




Inter/Intra/Extranet
Information Resources
Electronic Commerce
e-inclusion
 e-learning
 e-Care
e-Learning


Cornerstone of future provision of educational / training
services.
Benefits of computer based learning and distance
education / training are that they:








ensure the efficient use of scarce and expensive educational
resource material;
enhance the quality of the learning process;
allow students flexible access to learning materials;
extend the traditional teaching timetable schedules;
help to alleviate the problem of burgeoning staff / student
ratios;
enhanced support for part-time students;
addresses problem of absence during semesterised courses;
increases time for more tutorial / seminar / group work - ‘deep
learning’;
Technologies Employed
• Video-Conferencing
– Mediums: IP, Broadband, ISDN, LAN/WAN
• CSCW
– Application Sharing & WhiteBoarding, Chatrooms, Discussion
Boards
• Web-Based Delivery Mechanisms – VLE / MLE
• Multimedia CAL / CBT Applications
INTREPID & WEST
Course delivery:
•
•
•
Broadcast of both live and pre-recorded
lectures using leading-edge video
conferencing equipment
Lectures & lecture notes stored on digital
CD on a multimedia cd-jukebox server
WEST (Web Educational Support Tools)
architecture
– delivered the bulk of the written course
material
– main channel for communication
between tutors and learners
– runs on top of a standard webserver
•
WEST won first prize in the Client/Server
category of the 1995 Apple Enterprise
Awards.
ACTION
(Assisting Carers using
Telematics Interventions to
meet Older persons Needs)
Pervasive Computing
• Ulster working with Apple, Google Android, MS,
IBM, Xybernaut, I+
• One exemplar radically improves upon current
paramedic on-site diagnostic information provision
• Others related to helping people with Dementia
‘navigate their day’
• Wireless telecoms - total unconstrained freedom of
movement
• Other application areas include decision support in:
– Hospital wards
– G.P. house calls
The Problem
• Patient assessments at bedside still mostly
paper-based.
• 20+ paper-based assessments per patient
and growing due to new mandatory
requirements.
• ~15% of staff time spent on unnecessary
paperwork.
• Additional time and cost for Audit
/Compliance.
• Poor accountability, non-completion,
inconsistency, duplication issues.
• NHS currently failing to meet mandatory
patient safety assessments.
• Existing ECR and EDM systems NOT
solving this problem.
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
Exemplar
2010 - 2011
• 119,364 Admissions
• 600,000 patient records across 3 sites
• 100,000 records in circulation at any given
time
• 2 Health Records Libraries
• 3 Clinic Preparation Departments
• 1 Disclosure Office
• Typical month:
• 47 staff send & file ~92,000 sets of
notes
• 110 tonnes paper moved in & out of
departments
The Solution
• SaSSi - Innovative web-based
integrated service solution.
• Allows clinicians to use tablets,
smartphones, laptops or desktops
to access clinical information at
the Client/Professional Interface
(CPI) both at the patient bedside
and on the move within the
hospital.
• Designed to enable information
capture at the point of care, place
key decision-making data in the
hands of clinical staff, and allow
real-time monitoring and auditing
of clinical activities.
The Here & Now Or
Very Near-Future
 Full convergence of Digital Technologies
 Broadband and WiFi everywhere
 Interactive Digital T.V. – we are Post Digital
2012 Switchover
 Virtual Campus
 Digital Global Economy
 Smart Clothing
Either Lead,
Follow,
Or Get Out Of The Way !!!
Lee Iacocca