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Multimedia is the field concerned with the computer controlled integration of text, graphics, drawings, still and moving

images (Video), animation, audio, and any other media where every type of information can be represented, stored, transmitted and processed digitally. A Multimedia Application is an application which uses a collection of multiple media sources e.g. text, graphics, images,sound/audio, animation and/or video. Examples. 1. World Wide Web 2. Multimedia Authoring, e.g. Adobe/Macromedia Director 3. Hypermedia courseware 4. Video-on-demand 5. Interactive TV 6. Computer Games 7. Virtual reality 8. Digital video editing and production systems 9. Multimedia Database systems
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Multimedia Systems
A Multimedia System is a system capable of processing multimedia data and applications. A Multimedia System is characterised by the rocessing,

storage, generation, manipulation and rendition of Multimedia information.

Characteristics of a Multimedia System


A Multimedia system has four basic characteristics: _ Multimedia systems must be computer controlled. _ Multimedia systems are integrated. _ The information they handle must be represented digitally. _ The interface to the final presentation of media is usually interactive.

Challenges for Multimedia Systems


1. Distributed Networks 2. Temporal relationship between data 3. Render different data at same time continuously. 4. 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.

Key Issues for Multimedia Systems


The key issues multimedia systems need to deal with here are: 1. How to represent and store temporal information. 2. How to strictly maintain the temporal relationships on play 3. back/retrieval 4. What process are involved in the above. Data has to represented digitally Analog Digital 5. Conversion, Sampling etc. 6. Large Data Requirements bandwidth, storage,

Desirable Features for a Multimedia System


Given the above challenges the following feature a desirable (if not a prerequisite) for a Multimedia System: 1. Very High Processing Power needed to deal with large data processing and real time delivery of media.Special hardware commonplace. 2. Multimedia Capable File System needed to deliver real-time media e.g. Video/Audio Streaming. 3. Special Hardware/Software needed e.g. RAID technology.

4. Data Representations File Formats that support multimedia should be easy to handle yet allow for compression/decompression in real-time. 5. 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. 6. 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. 7. Storage and Memory large storage units (of the order of hundreds of Tb if not more) and large memory (several Gb or more). Large Caches also required and high speed buses for efficient management. 8. Network Support Client-server systems common as distributed systems common. 9. Software Tools user friendly tools needed to handle media,design and develop applications, deliver media.

Components of a Multimedia System (Hardware and Software)


1. Capture devices Video Camera, Video Recorder, Audio Microphone, Keyboards, mice, graphics tablets, 3D input devices,

tactile sensors, VR devices. Digitising Hardware 2. Storage Devices Hard disks, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROM, etc 3. Communication Networks Local Networks, Intranets,Internet, Multimedia or other special high speed networks. 4. Computer Systems Multimedia Desktop machines, 5. Workstations, MPEG/VIDEO/DSP Hardware 6. Display Devices CD-quality speakers, HDTV,SVGA, Hi-Res monitors, Colour printers etc.

Applications
Examples of Multimedia Applications include: 1. World Wide Web 2. Hypermedia courseware 3. Video conferencing 4. Video-on-demand 5. Interactive TV 6. Groupware 7. Home shopping 8. Games 9. Virtual reality 10. Digital video editing and production systems

A Brief Look at Multimedia Data:

Input and Format


Text and Static Data _ Source: keyboard, speech input, optical character
recognition, data stored on disk. _ Stored and input character by character: Storage of text is 1 byte per character (text or format character). For other forms of data (e.g. Spreadsheet files). May store format as text (with formatting) others may use binary encoding. _ Format: Raw text or formatted text e.g HTML, Rich Text Format (RTF), Word or a program language source (C, Pascal, etc.. _ Not temporal BUT may have natural implied sequence e.g. HTML format sequence, Sequence of C program statements. _ Size Not significant w.r.t. other Multimedia data. The Nature of Sound Sound is a physical phenomenon produced by the vibration of matter and transmitted as waves. However, the perception of sound by human beings is a very complex process. It involves three systems: the source which emits sound; the medium through which the sound propagates; The detector, which receives and interprets the sound.

Sounds we hear everyday are very complex. Every sound is comprised of waves of many different frequencies and shapes. But the simplest sound we can hear is a sine wave. Sound waves can be characterized by the following attributes: Pitch and Frequency Period is the interval at which a periodic signal repeats regularly. Pitch is a perception of sound by human beings It measures how high is the sound as it is perceived by a listener. Frequency measures a physical property of a wave. It is the reciprocal value of periodf = The unit is Herts (Hz) or kiloHertz (kHz). Infra-sound 0 20 Hz Human hearing range 20 20 kHz Ultrasound 20 kHz 1 GHz Hypersound 1 GHz 10 THz

Loudness and Amplitude The other important perceptual quality is loudness or volume. Amplitude is the measure of sound levels. For a digital sound, amplitude is the sample value. The reason that sounds have different loudness is that they carry different amount of power. The unit of power is watt. The intensity of sound is the amount of power transmitted through an area of one square meter oriented perpendicular to the propagation direction of the sound.
Dynamic and Bandwidth

Dynamic range means the change in sound levels. For example, a large orchestra can reach 130dB at its climax and drop to as low as 30dB at its softest, giving a range of 100dB.
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Bandwidth is the range of frequencies a device can produce or a human can hear. FM radio 50Hz 15kHz AM radio 80Hz 5kHz CD player 20Hz 20kHz Sound Blaster 16 sound card 30Hz 20kHz Inexpensive microphone 80Hz 12kHz Telephone 300Hz 3kHz Childrens ears 20Hz 20kHz Older ears 50Hz 10kHz Male voice 120Hz 7kHz Female voice 200Hz 9kHz
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Computer representation of Sound 1. Sound waves are continuous while computers are good at handling discrete numbers. 2. In order to store a sound wave in a computer, samples of the wave are taken. 3. Each sample is represented by a number, the code. 4. This process is known as digitisation. 5. This method of digitising sound is know as pulse code modulation (PCM). 6. According to Nyquist sampling theorem, in order to capture all audible frequency components of a sound, i.e., up to i.e., up to 20 kHz, we need to set the sampling to at least twice of this. 7. This is why one of the most popular sampling rate for high quality sound is 4410Hz . 8. Another aspect we need to consider is the resolution, i.e., the number of bits used to represent a sample. Often, 16
Computer Representation of Sound _ _ _ _ _ _ Hz Hz _

bits are used for each sample in high quality sound. This gives the SNR of 96db Quality Versus File size.
Quality versus File Size

The size of a digital recording depends on the sampling rate, resolution and number of channels. S=R*(b/8)*c*d Higher sampling rate, higher resolution gives higher quality but bigger file size. S= File size (bytes) R= Sapling Rate ( sample per second) B= Resolution C= Channel (1-momo, 2- stereo) D= recording duration (seconds) High quality sound files are very big, however, the file size can be reduced by compression
S = R _ (b=8) _ C _ D 9 6

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