Towards a formatting vocabulary for time-based hypermedia

Multimedia Tools and Applications, 2000

Existing multimedia document models like HTML, MHEG, SMIL, and HyTime lack appropriate modeling primitives to fit the needs of next generation multimedia applications which bring up requirements like reusability of multimedia content in different presentations and contexts, and adaptation to user preferences. In this paper, we motivate and present new requirements stemming from advanced multimedia applications and the resulting consequences for multimedia document models. Along these requirements, we discuss HTML, HyTime, MHEG, SMIL, and Z Y X, a new model that has been developed with special focus on reusability and adaptation. The analysis and comparison of the models show the limitations of existing models, point the way to the need for new flexible multimedia document models, and throw light on the many implications on authoring systems, multimedia content management, and presentation.

1998

The nonlinear nature of hypermedia documents makes them notoriously difficult to describe. Consequently design prior to implementation is a challenging task. This paper examines design issues specific to hypermedia, and describes the development of HANDlE, a notation for the description of the structural organisation of hypermedia documents. HANDlE is based on a directed graph approach, but it incorporates a range of abstractions which provide significant simplification, and which allow the underlying structure of a document to remain clearly visible. The evaluation of a prototype design environment based on HANDlE is described, and range of refmements for the future are proposed.

International Journal of Software Engineering and …, 2003

1997

Being able to author a hypermedia document once for presentation under a wide variety of potential circumstances requires that it be stored in a manner that is adaptable to these circumstances. Since the nature of these circumstances is not always known at authoring time, specifying how a document adapts to them must be a process that can be performed separately from its original authoring. These distinctions include the porting of the document to different platforms and formats and the adapting of the document's presentation to suit the needs of the user and of the current state of the presentation environment. In this paper we discuss extensions to our CMIF hypermedia authoring and presentation environment that provide adaptability through this distinction between authoring and presentation specification. This extension includes the use of HyTime for document representation and of DSSSL for presentation specification. We also discuss the Berlage architecture, our extension to HyTime that specifies the encoding of certain hypermedia concepts useful for presentation specification.

1998

In order for multimedia presentations to be stored, accessed and played from a large library they should not be encoded as final form presentations, since these consume storage space and cannot easily be adapted to variations in presentation-time circumstances such as user characteristics and changes in end-user technology. Instead, a more presentation independent approach needs to be taken that allows the generation of multiple versions of a presentation based on a presentation-independent description.

This paper proposes a new way for authoring multimedia documents. It uses the concept of structured media that allows to deeper access into media objects. An experiment of structuring video in our authoring and presentation environment for multimedia documents is described. It allows the author to interactively specify various audiovisual structures. A video description and structuration model is used for the composition of video elements (character, shot, scene, etc.) with other media objects (text, sound, image, etc). Such a composition allows to easily realize attractive multimedia presentations where media stuffs can be synchronized in rich and various ways (spatio-temporal synchronization, temporal links, etc.).

1999

Existing multimedia document models like HTML, MHEG, SMIL, and HyTime lack appropriate modeling primitives that meet speci c requirements given by advanced multimedia information system applications. In traditional multimedia applications, multimedia document models just had to cope with the modeling of the temporal, spatial, and interactive course of a multimedia presentation. However, we seriously question whether existing models t the needs of next generation multimedia applications that bring up requirements like reusability of multimedia content in di erent presentations and contexts, and adaptation to user preferences. In this paper, we motivate and present new requirements stemming from advanced multimedia applications and the resulting consequences for multimedia document models. Along these requirements, we discuss HTML, HyTime, MHEG, SMIL, and Z Y X, a new model that has been developed with special focus on reusability and adaptation. The analysis and comparison of the models show the limitations of existing models, point the way to the need for new exible multimedia document models, and throw light on the many implications on authoring systems, multimedia content management, and presentation.

2001

The integration of the text, graphic, audio, video and animation on the desktop promises to fundamentally challenge the old models of the printed document as the basis for information exchange. A multimedia document is a specification activity that can be used to coordinate the presentation runtime of the media objects. Several language that support the multimedia document exist today, for example HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Interaction Language). HTML is an SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) based standard document model that defines syntax to enrich text pages with structural and layout information. The dynamic modification to structure, layout and content of an HTML document are allowed using a scripting language which is known as DHTML (Dynamic HyperText Markup Language). SMIL is the web format for multimedia document, which is based on XML (extensible Markup Language). Driven by the use of the text markup tags in the multimedia do...

rawsthorne.org

2006

Abstract With the incresing presence on the Web of hypermedia contents with temporal constraints (time-based hypermedia), such as multimedia presentations, there must be a precise form to create and manage this type of contents, due to its inherent complexity. Simple mistakes in the design process can result in unusable user interfaces, by posing unnecessary cognitive pressure on the user. This paper presents a set of design patterns towards the time-based hypermedia domain.