Using a cooperative hypermedia editing tool to enhance group communication and productivity

Cooperative hypermedia means producting and manipulating hyperorganized multimedia data by a group of (co-)users. We have been realizing a prototype that enables coauthors to cooperatively produce hypermedia documents. It allows coauthors to communicate their ideas, drafts, guidelines, and constraints within a group in order to exchange information (remotely or face-to-face) and improve the final document.When analyzing the transition from individual work to group work within different human activities, two pitfalls are often detected if computer support is considered. On the one hand are the social and technological communication problems, particularly if members of the group are geographically distant from one another. On the other hand are the productivity falls, which are usually due to communication difficulties and frequent social inadequacies of the group's computer support. We would like to propose the use of this prototype — CoMEdiA — as a way to enhance, or prevent the fall of, intra-group communication and the outcomes of group edit tasks (constrained to the kind of taks for which it has been designed). Most of the techniques used to achieve this can be used in other tools to support other specific type of group activities.     

A Cooperative Architecture for Hypermedia Editing – CoMEdiA

CoMEdiA is a cooperative hypermedia editing prototype, which enables co-authors to cooperatively produce hypermedia documents. It allows co-authors to communicate their ideas, drafts, guidelines, constraints, and annotations with other co-authors in order to exchange information (remotely or face-to-face), improvepassages and modify notes until a final document is achieved. We did not concentrate on the depth but on the breadth of the features. Our efforts were on integrating and coordinating concepts from collaboration, multimedia, and hyper organization rather than on making a specialized system in any of them. Our first step was to investigate issues in group editing and cooperation. Then we started by having text in our documents, later static images, and 2D-Graphics. This procedure was adopted because we felt these were the most simple media to integrate and process.     

基于统一排队CTI中间件的CRM系统

现代多媒体交互中心(即协作型CRM系统)的主要设备是CTI中间件，需要实现对电话渠道、E-mail渠道、Web互动渠道的统一管理，并能够根据用户信息和座席技能、工作状态等多种因素，将呼叫进行统一分配和路由，由最适合的座席进行应答和处理。该文论述了一个支持多媒体统一排队的CTI中间件的设计，对软件总体结构进行了设计，并对该软件中实现多媒体统一接入的媒体服务器模块进行了探讨。     

Cooperative hypermedia an enabling paradigm for cooperative work

This paper describes the integration of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), multimedia, and hyperstructures into a single framework calledCooperative Hyper Media (CHM). The concept of CHM supports groups of users acting on a single hypermedia document. Cooperative HyperMedia is a layered concept that integrates several notions related to the production of hypermedia documents, namely, document contents, access, and organization. To test the applicability of the concepts of this approach to CSCW we have realized a generic CHM editing architecture (Co MEdiA), telecommunication mechanism for multimedia objects (Tele Media), and service for cooperative work over long distances for time-dependent media (MISTER COOL).     

From dialogue to monologue and back: Middle spaces in computer-mediated learning

The authors develop a framework for the design of tools to mediate collaboration intended to lead to learning. We identify two categories of media that are common in computer-supported collaborative learning and software in general: communication media and information media. These two types of media are then mapped onto two types of social activities in which learning is grounded: dialogue and monologue. Drawing on literature in learning theory, we suggest the need for interfaces that help students to transition from dialogue to monologue and back again. We examine in detail two cases of students participating in a computer-mediated science learning activity that involved technologies designed to support this transition, and suggest ways that the “middle space” can be supported with software and activities that transcend some of the traditional tradeoffs associated with information and communication interfaces.     

Media scaling in a multimedia communication system

HeiTS, the Heidelberg Transport System, is a multimedia communication system for real-time delivery of digital audio and video. HeiTS operates on top of guaranteedperformance networks that apply resource reservation techniques. To make HeiTS also work with networks for which no reservation scheme can be realized (for example, Ethernet or existing internetworks), we implement an extension to HeiTS which performs media scaling at the transport level: The media encoding is modified according to the bandwidth available in the underlying networks. Both transparent and nontransparent scaling methods are examined. HeiTS lends itself to implement transparent temporal and spatial scaling of media streams. At the HeiTS interface, functions are provided which report information on the available resource bandwidth to the application so that nontransparent scaling methods may be used, too. Both a continuous and discrete scaling solution for HeiTS are presented. The continuous solution uses feedback messages to adjust the data flow. The discrete solution also exploits the multipoint network connection mechanism of HeiTS. Whereas the first method is more flexible, the second technique is better suited for multicast scenarios. The combination of resource reservation and media scaling seems to be particularly well suited to meet the varying demands of distributed multimedia applications.     

多媒体通信：需求与对策

本文首先对网络环境下的多媒体应用程序进行了分类，介绍了多媒体通信所涉及的一些比较重要的基本概念，包括静态媒体和连续媒体概念、等时通信和异步通信概念等，讨论了连续媒体数据的基本特征。在此基础上，我们讨论了多媒体通信、特别是连续媒体通信对网络技术提出的要求和基本对策，最后得出结论     

Integrating Computer Animation and Multimedia

Multimedia provides an immensely powerful tool for the dissemination of both information and entertainment. Current multimedia presentations consist of synchronised excepts of media (such as sound, video & text) which are coordinated by an author to ensure a clear narrative is presented to the audience. However, each of the segments of the presentation consist of previously recorded footage, only the timing and synchronisation are dynamically constructed. The next logical advance for such systems is therefore to include the capability of generating material ‘on-the-fly’ in response to the actions of the audience. This paper describes a mechanism for using computer animation to generate this interactive material. Unlike previous animation techniques the approach presented here is suitable for use in constructing a storyline which the author can control, but the user can influence. In order to allow such techniques to be used we also present a multimedia authoring & playback system which incorporates interactive animation with existing media.     

多媒体数据库系统中的同步表示管理

支持多媒体应用的扩展数据库系统必须具有新的机制以确保多种媒体数据流的同步表示。为了使用户同时具有多媒体数据流表示的灵活性和高效率,必须将媒体数据流分割成媒体对象,并且定义和保持其间的时间限制。为此要在现有数据库系统上采用能高效管理多媒体数据时间传性的新管理工具。文中讨论了多媒体数据库系统中同步表示管理。当考虑延迟的影响时,提出了多种媒体数据流同步表示的原则。基于这些原则,可以设计出各种同步机制。     

集成多媒体文件系统模型研究

目前的文件系统大多是单一类型的文件系统,或者采用尽力服务策略优化文本文件的服务,或者采用资源预留策略优化连续媒体的实时服务,而不能同时满足不同服务类型访问不同类型数据的需要。随着计算机计算能力、存储部件性价比的提高,以及计算机网络的不断发展,应用系统越来越大、越来越复杂,需要同时包含不同的应用类型和同时访问不同类型的数据。文中通过分析典型的应用类型和数据类型的特点,归纳出集成多媒体文件系统应具备的功能,并提出了实现集成多媒体文件系统的层次模型。     

动车组转向架虚拟仿真检修支持系统关键技术

为了支持CRH380BL高速动车组转向架的检修与维护,作者采用虚拟现实、多媒体和仿真等技术,设计开发了动车组转向架检修支持系统.通过可视化的多媒体信息平台,可以高效率地培训检修人员,并提供辅助检修功能,还可以作为相关人员在其它场合的直观交流沟通手段.在介绍转向架结构特点以及系统需求、结构与功能的基础上,详细介绍了转向架的动态三维模型浏览、虚拟装配仿真、多媒体信息集成、交互方式和数据压缩等关键技术的实现.     

The multimedia multicasting problem

This paper explores the problems associated with the multicasting of continuous media to support multimedia group applications. The interaction between multicasting and the delivery of multiple time-correlated continuous-media streams with real-time delay requirements poses various new and interesting problems in research on communication protocols and architectures. We describe these problems, and identify where the opportunities are for effective solutions, all in the context of providing an overview of the current state of research in multimedia multicasting. The issues we discuss include quality of service, resource reservations, routing, error and traffic control, heterogeneity, and the use of hierarchical coding and open-loop control techniques.     

Multimedia training in the pig industry

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a multimedia training program designed specifically for stockpeople in the pig industry. The information was presented in either multimedia or printed manual format with and without the presence of a trainer. Care was taken to ensure that layout and content was the same for both formats. The study comprised two pilot studies to assess the validity of the instruments, followed by a main study in which 92 stockpeople participated in one of four training conditions. Immediately following training, stockpeople completed a Knowledge and a Satisfaction Questionnaire and 6 weeks post-training repeated the Knowledge Questionnaire. Results did not support the hypothesis that participants in the multimedia group would perform and retain content better than participants in the manual group. The trainer had an overall deleterious effect on recall of the information in both groups. There was support for the hypothesis that participants in the multimedia group would be more satisfied with their media than the manual group. Novelty effects did not appear to account for the observed differences between media groups.     

超越HCI--多媒体信息的多模式处理

1　IntroductionWe work,live,and play in the so- called infor-mation society where we communicate with peopleand information systems through diverse media inincreasingly varied environments.Human- humancommunication takes advantage of the many com-munication channels.People use verbal and non-verbal ways,such as speaking,pointing,gestur-ing,writing,fixating,and using facial expressionsand eye contact,to express ideas,intentions andfeelings.To build computer systems that operatemore flexibly and…     

Canonical processes for creating personalized semantically rich multimedia presentations

Authoring of multimedia content can be considered as composing media assets such as images, videos, text, and audio in time, space, and interaction into a coherent multimedia presentation. Personalization of such content means that it reflects the users’ or user groups’ profile information and context information. Enriching the multimedia content with semantically rich metadata allows for a better search and retrieval of the content. To actually create personalized semantically-rich multimedia content, a manual authoring of the many different documents for all the different users’ and user groups’ needs is not feasible. Rather a (semi-)automatic authoring of the content seems reasonable. We have analyzed in detail today’s approaches and systems for authoring, personalizing, and semantically enriching multimedia presentations. Based on this analysis, we derived a general creation chain for the (semi-)automatic generation of such content. In this paper, we introduce this creation chain. We present our software engineering support for the chain, the component framework SemanticMM4U. The canonical processes supported by the creation chain and SemanticMM4U framework are described in detail. We also provide an explicit mapping of SemanticMM4U framework components to the processes and argue for the benefits of defining canonical processes for creating personalized semantically rich multimedia presentations.     

Toward work-centered digital information services

Work-centered digital information services are a set of library-like services meant to address work group needs. Workplace users especially need to access legacy documents and external collections. They also frequently want to retrieve information (rather than documents per se), and they require that digital information systems be integrated into established work practices. Realizing work-centered digital information systems requires a broad technical agenda. Three types of analysis-document image, natural language, and computer vision, are necessary to facilitate information extraction. Users also need new user interface paradigms and authoring tools to better access multimedia information, as well as improved protocols for client-program interaction with repositories (collections). Moreover, entirely new types of documents must be developed to exploit these capabilities. The system developed by the authors follows a client-server architecture, in which the servers are repositories implemented as databases supporting user-defined functions and user-defined access methods. The repositories also serve as indexing servers. The authors are creating a prototype set of information services called the California Environmental Digital Information System, which includes a diverse collection of environmental data     

A data model and a query languagefor multimedia documents databases

A multimedia application involves information that may be in a form of video, images, audio, text and graphics, need to be stored, retrieved and manipulated in large databases. In this paper, we propose an object-oriented database schema that supports multimedia documents and their temporal, spatial and logical structures. We present a document example and show how the schema can adress all the structures described. We also present a multimedia query specification language that can be used to describe a multimedia content portion to be retrieved from the database. The language provides means by which the user can specify the information on the media as well as the temoral and spatial relationships among these media.     

中国多媒体技术研究：2002

为了使人们对中国多媒体技术现状有个概略了解 ,特编写了中国多媒体技术研究与应用的年度文献综述之五 .通过查阅国内 2 0 0 2年 9种核心刊物的 2 76 1篇文章 ,从中选取了 4 6 4篇与多媒体技术相关的文章 ,进行分类、统计 ,同时 ,结合前 4年的统计结果 ,又将近 5年的多媒体技术文献统计结果做了比较 ,由此可清楚地看到多媒体技术 ,尤其是热点技术的发展过程和发展趋势 .该文不仅给从事多媒体技术研究与应用人员提供了一个很好的文献资料的索引 ,也给论文作者和刊物编辑人员提供了一个好的参考 .     

Relating the primitive hierarchy of the PREMO standard to the standard reference model for intelligent multimedia presentation systems

The need for a suitable classification of media types arises for several reasons when building or comparing multimedia systems. Within an Intelligent Multimedia Presentation Systems (IMMPS), it is necessary to formulate and encode design knowledge for decision making on the appropriate medium in which to present information and for the generation of the presentation. It is also required in order to specify interfaces to and between system components which will be employed to run a generated presentation before the user's eyes. This task is reflected in the Standard Reference Model (SRM, see this volume) for IMMPS by the Presentation Display Layer. However, the SRM does not instantiate this layer in detail, but instead refers to the Presentation Environment for Multimedia Objects (PREMO) ISO/IEC standard which provides a reference model for a presentation runtime environment for multimedia. PREMO already contains a set of basic structures, the so-called PREMO Primitive Hierarchy, to describe different media types. Thus the question arises, as to how far the PREMO Primitive Hierarchy could serve as a media classification for the SRM in general. In particular, this would support consistency between the design and presentation layers of the SRM if PREMO were used to instantiate the presentation layer. In the current paper, we first point to a number of typical problems with generating classifications of media types. We then provide a brief introduction to PREMO and its Primitive Hierarchy. Finally, the benefits and costs of using the PREMO Primitive Hierarchy for the SRM are discussed.