Chapter 10: Emerging Issues in Multimedia

1
Chapter 10 Emerging Issues in Multimedia

• Hardware
• Fast CD burners
• DVD burners
• Holographic memory
• http//www.techreview.com/magazine/may01/visualize
  .asp
• 200x more storage than DVD
• Not yet commercial (but see Lucent InPhase)
• More than 1 bit per transistor
• Processor (e.g., CPU) support for multimedia
• E.g., MMX (multimedia extensions)

2
Programming Tools

• Evolution advances in software
• Programming languages
• Tools to support to programming
• Tools that enable the generation of Applets and
  other program code
• User level programming
• E.g., Dreamweaver supporting generation of HTML
  code
• mask the more mundane, repetitive details (p.
  564)
• Also a great deal of detailed knowledge required
  to program the functionality directly in a
  programming language
• Concerns
• What happens when something breaks?
• Problem diagnosis
• How do you go beyond the capabilities of a tool?
• many developers devote their skills, time, and
  effort to designing effective presentations, not
  to endeavoring to use the latest software (p.
  565)

3
Artificial Intelligence HCI

• Spoken language interfaces
• E.g., translation between spoken languages in
  specific domains, such as computer hardware
  repair or making business appointments
• http//verbmobil.dfki.de/
• Visual inputs
• facial expression, eye direction, head direction,
  gesture recognition
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Disappearing computer
• E.g., wearable computing http//www.xybernaut.com
  
• Humanoid robotics
• CHI 2002 in Minnespolis, April 20-25
• http//www.acm.org/sigchi/chi2002/

4
Networking Advances

• New protocols
• ATM (asynchronous transfer mode)
• http//www.atmforum.com
• Worlds most widely deployed backbone technology
• Short, fixed length packets (cells)
• Flexibility in supporting an array of
  technologies
• Guaranteed level of quality of service
• Speeds average 2.5 Gb/s in operation
• Switched ethernet
• Internet2
• New national research network
• A few gigaPops
• point of presence
• Very high-speed entry point to network