COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTING
UNIT 11: MULTIMEDIA

INTRODUCTION
Newspaper, radio, television and films are some of the earliest and traditional means of mass
communication that use mass media. Newspapers use text, image and graphics, and, television
uses text, image, graphics, and sound. In these traditional means of communication, the
communication is one-way—from the media to the mass users. The user simply reads the
newspaper, listens to the radio, and watches the television and films, and, cannot in any way
manipulate the media. Mass media is used by the user in a sequence, linearly. For example, a text
book consists of a sequence of combination of text, graphics, and images. The text book is meant
to be read linearly from the start to the end. With mass media, the user is in a passive state
(receiving whatever is communicated).

The word multimedia consists of two words—multi and media. The word multi means many and
the word media (plural of medium) are the means through which information is shared. There are
different mediums of sharing information like sound, text, image, graphics, animation or video.
Multimedia represents information through a variety of media. Multimedia is a combination of
more than one media—text, graphics, images, audio, or video, which is used for presenting,
sharing, and disseminating the information. Multimedia is delivered through the computer and
microprocessor-based devices, thereby introducing the elements of interactivity, which
differentiates it from the traditional forms of media (also called mass media). Multimedia or
Interactive multimedia allows the user and the multimedia application to respond to each other.
The user is able to control the elements of the multimedia application in terms of what elements
will be delivered and when. Since multimedia systems are integrated with computers, they are
also referred to as the digital multimedia system.

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Characteristics of Multimedia System
A multimedia system has four basic characteristics:

 Computer is an intrinsic part of the multimedia system. As a result, multimedia has

become interactive. In multimedia, computer allows the user to interact with the media
and thus manipulate it by controlling what is to be communicated and when. Multimedia
has resulted in the creation of many new possibilities—(1) the computational power of
computer is utilized for multimedia applications, (2) the telecommunication network
(Internet, WWW) along with the computer enables transmission and distribution of
information, and, (3) the use of computer facilitates design and creation of a variety of
new applications.

 The different elements of multimedia are combined and integrated into a single
multimedia system. Special software is required for the integration of different media
element files.

 The use of computer in multimedia requires all elements of multimedia to be in digital

format. In a digital multimedia system, the media streams are digital and are produced,
processed, stored, represented and transmitted using computers. The digital nature of
multimedia requires special treatment of the multimedia elements. The hardware and
software are needed to convert multimedia elements from analog to digital format and
vice versa. There is a need to decide about the resolution versus quality of output
required, during storing of data in the computer. Storing multimedia files on computer
hard disk takes large amount of disk space, so compression technologies and file formats
for storing the different media elements is required. Moreover, special programs are
required to play the compressed files. Similarly, special software is required to edit the
different media element files, and to combine and integrate the different elements of the
multimedia into a single multimedia system.

 Multimedia system is interactive. The user is active and can manipulate whatever is being
communicated. Multimedia allows two-way communication. The user can use devices
like keyboard, trackball or joystick to interact with the multimedia system. Interactive
multimedia is non-linear. The user is able to follow the links and jump from one part of
the document to the other. Hypermedia enables a user to gain or provide access to text,
audio and video, and computer graphics using links in a non-linear way, using computers.
World Wide Web (WWW) is an example of hypermedia application. The user is able to
respond and control what to see or hear and when to do it.

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ELEMENTS OF MULTIMEDIA
A multimedia system consists of several elements like—text, graphics, sound, video, and
animation. The data streams of these different elements of the multimedia system are of two
kinds—time-dependent, and time-independent. Media like text, graphics, and image are time-
independent. The information is not dependent on the timing of the data stream when using these
media. However, media like audio, video, and animation are time-dependent. In time-dependent
media, the data streams must appear at regular time intervals for the purposes of continuity.

The different media elements are described briefly in the following subsections.

Text
Text is an important element of multimedia. The purpose of using text is to write titles, to define
menus, to navigate, and to write the content.

The text in multimedia is different from the traditional text written using paper and pen.
Multimedia text is combined with other elements like graphics and pictures to deliver a powerful
effect. Multimedia text can be written in a way that the user needs to jump back and forth,
written in multiple channels like pictures, sound, animation, and colored text.

The text must be short and relevant wherever used. Text is often mixed with art resulting in a
much greater impact on the user. Text can also be animated. Text has evolved from being
displayed in one size and one color under MS-DOS, to being specified using fonts and color on a
color monitor having Windows, to the vector-based text by Adobe which uses graphics-based
fonts and creates images.

Text Font — The text can be written in different fonts: A font is composed of three things—
typeface, style and size. Arial, Courier, Times are typefaces. Bold and italics are styles. Size is
the length of the character (from top to bottom). Arial 11-point italic is a font.

Text effects allow special effects to be added to text fonts by adding depth and visual impact
(2D and 3D effects). Text effects can be created using MS-Word’s WordArt. In WordArt, text is
treated as a drawing object, i.e. text can be manipulated like an object. WordArt provides special
effects to the text like, depth, direction, shape, color, and texture.

Text animation can be used to make the text move, change or flash. MS- WORD and MS-
PowerPoint can be used for text animation.

Text on the Internet can be represented as hypertext. A hypertext uses documents to be

connected via hyperlink. Using hypertext, different documents can be linked and different parts
of the same document can be linked. Hyperlinks allow the user to navigate the document in a
non- linear way. Using of hyperlink results in the breakdown of the information into small parts.

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Graphics
Communication via pictures is easier to understand. Graphics is the most important element of
multimedia. Multimedia presentations are predominantly graphics-based. Graphics elements in a
multimedia system are images that could be still pictures (like photographs) converted to digital
format with the help of scanners, or pictures generated on the computer. They may be 2-
dimensional such as photographs, or, 3-dimensional such as objects around us. They may be
either static graphic elements or animated. In computer graphics, an image is always a digital
image.

Image Resolution: The resolution of an image is the number of pixels in the digital image
relative to the physical size of the original material. Resolution is measured in dpi (dots per inch)
and is applied to the image and also to the input and output devices used to scan or print the
image. Resolution of monitor is generally, 72 pixels/inch. Higher the resolution, better is the
picture.

Image Color: There are two image color models—Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) model, and,
Hue, Saturation, and Brightness (HSB) model. The three colors—red, green, and blue—give us
quite a large spectrum by just adding colors. In HSB, the classification of the color circle rests
upon three attributes of colors, called Hue, Brightness, and Saturation.

Image File Size: The image that has been created has to be stored on the computer. The size of a
digital graphic is the size of the graphics file on the computer. The size of graphic files is
dependent on three things— (i) Dimension of the graphics is the physical size (maximum height
and width in pixels), (ii) Bit-depth is the amount of color information stored in each pixel, and
(iii) the compression used to store the image. The quality and size of the graphics file is
dependent on the amount of compression used.

Image Compression: Usage of compression technologies is important, especially, for graphics

used on the Internet, since download time goes up drastically with increasing file size. While the
image is compressed, the quality of the image must not suffer. Two image compression
algorithms are widely used on the Internet—Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) and
Graphical Interchange Format (GIF).

JPEG compression works well with 24-bit color images (true color). It is suited for images that
contain many colors (such as photographs).

GIF supports 8 bits of color information (Grayscale, Color map). GIF compression is suited to
images such as line drawings, for images containing text, and cartoons containing at most 256
colors. It is preferred for vector graphics over the Internet.

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jpg (for JPEG) and .gif (for GIF) are the most common file formats in use on the web. A
relatively new file format—portable network graphic (.png), improves upon some of .gif
features. Web browsers require plug-ins for .png.

Image Capture: The graphic images on the computer can either be created using editors or can
be loaded from the devices that capture the graphics images. Scanner, digital camera, digital
video camera, and clip art are devices used for loading images on to the computer. Scanner looks
like a photocopy machine and is used to copy an image to the computer. It converts an analog
picture into digital format. Digital camera stores digitized images and digital video camera stores
digitized images with motion, on the computer. Clip art are built-in collection of pictures on
many word processors.

There are two types of digital graphics—bitmap graphics and vector graphics.

Bitmap Graphics
In bitmap graphics, computer programs store pictures as pixel maps (bit-maps or raster images).
The monitor is divided into a grid of pixels (short form of picture elements). Screen area of 800
× 600 pixels is common on Windows platform. Each pixel contains value representing a
particular color. When a picture is sent to the screen, a graphics driver converts the picture data
to pixel values on the display.

Bitmap editors allow creating and editing graphics as bitmaps. For example, to retouch a
photograph, just scan it and use bitmap editor to edit it. The paint programs and photo-editing
programs are bitmap-based programs. Some of the commonly used bitmap editors are Lview
Pro, GIF 89a, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Fractal Design Painter, Flash, Corel Draw,
Corel Photo Paint, and 3D Studio.

A bitmap image is stored in the bit-mapped (or raster image) file format. Scanners, digital
camera and digital video camera store images as bitmap images.

Some formats for storing bitmap graphics files are GIF, JPEG, BitMaP (BMP), PostScript (PS),
IRIS, and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF).

Vector Graphics
Vector graphics uses various mathematical tracks to create graphics. It uses mathematical
equations for the representation of the location, size, color fill, pattern fill etc. Vector graphics is
suited for graphic images that require frequent re-sizing (small or enlarge), and repositioning.

Vector editors allow creation and editing of vector graphics. Vector editor is used to draw
cartoons, and to create or modify more complicated graphics such as photographs. For example,
a geometric figure (straight line or circle) can be drawn on the monitor by using a mathematical

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equation. Adobe® Illustrator is an example of vector editor. The Computer Aided Design (CAD)
programs, 3-dimensional modeling and animation programs are vector-based programs.

A picture stored as a vector graphic, when enlarged, appears sharp on the screen in comparison
to an enlarged picture using bitmap. This is because in vector graphics the re-sizing requires
using different values in the mathematical equation representing the graphics. Clip art image can
be stored both as bitmap and vector graphics.

Audio
Sound consists of all possible sounds which may or may not be audible to humans. Audio
consists of the sounds humans can hear. For example, the sound emitted by the dog-whistle is
heard by dogs but not by humans. The presence of sound enhances the effect of a graphic
presentation, video or animation. In a multimedia project, sound can be used in two ways. It can
be used to provide audio content in a multimedia system such as, narration for a clip playing on
the screen; audio sound tracks in movies; short instructions; or, music to communicate as in a
song. Sound can also be used in the background and for sound effects.

Sound is produced through vibrations and pressure variations in the air. The vibrations generate a
waveform repeated at regular intervals (periods).

Properties of Sound

 Amplitude measures the relative loudness or volume of the sound. It is measured in

decibels.
 Frequency or pitch is the vibrations per second. If an object vibrates rapidly, it creates a
high-pitched sound. A low-pitch sound is produced by an object that vibrates slowly. The
unit of frequency is hertz (Hz). The human ear can hear frequencies in the range of 20Hz
to 20 kHz.
 Bandwidth is the difference between the highest and the lowest frequency contained in a
sound signal. A signal with frequency range of 200 Hz to 3,200 Hz, has a bandwidth of
3,000 Hz.

Digital Audio— Audio is analog in nature and is a continuous waveform. Also, acoustic
instruments produce analog sounds. A computer needs to transfer the analog sound waves into its
digital representation consisting of discrete numbers. Representation of a waveform in a digital
way is made by an Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). The reverse process is called Digital-to-
Analog Conversion (DAC).

Sound Hardware— Microphone and Speakers are the devices connected to the ADC and DAC,
respectively. A microphone converts the sound waves into electrical signals. This signal is
amplified, filtered, and sent to ADC. This information is then retrieved and edited using a
computer. To convert this data into sound waves, the audio data is sent to the speakers via a

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DAC and a reconstruction filter. This produces the analog sound waves that human beings can
hear.

Sound Sampling—is a process that converts the analog signal into a digital format. Sound
sampling transfers a continuous sound wave into discrete numbers. The rate at which the
continuous waveform is sampled is called the sampling rate. The rate varies from 5,000–90,000
samples/second. Sampling rate is an important factor in determining how accurately the digitized
sound represents the original analog sound. E.g. CD (Compact Disk) sampling rate is 44.1 kHz
(44,100 samples/sec) and telephone quality audio is sampled at 8 kHz.

Sound Digitization—is the process of assigning a discrete value to each of the sampled values.
It is performed by an ADC. Recording at high sampling rates produces a more accurate capture
of the high-frequency content of the sound. Along with the sampling rate, the resolution
determines the accuracy with which the sound is digitized. The increase in the number of bits in
a recording makes the sound playback increasingly realistic. Sound formats are standard in most
audio editing software. Sampling rates of 8, 11, 22, and 44 kHz are normally used. There is no
loss of quality when reproducing digital audio.

Music and Speech— Digital audio (music and speech) can be created or synthesized using the
computer. Synthesized sounds are a set of instructions to the hardware audio device on how and
when to produce sound.

Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format is the most widely used digital format for
generating synthesized sound. In MIDI, the actual data is not recorded. MIDI works by recording
the keys depressed, time when the key was depressed, duration for which the key was depressed,
and how hard the key was struck. Almost all software that support audio can play MIDI files.

Speech is the natural form of human communication. Speech is time-bound, dynamic, and
transient. Distortion and noise are some of the speech effects.

Audio File Formats— The audio is stored on the computer as an audio file. Some commonly
used audio file formats are—Resource Interleave File Format (RIFF) saved with extension
(.wav), Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as (mpg, mp2, mp3), or MIDI as (.mid, midi).

Audio Editors— Audio editors are used to record or manipulate audio files. The editors require a
sound card to be installed on the computer. The editors allow the user to perform functions like
copy and paste, and, concatenate, append, or mix two or more audio files. Sound effects can be
incorporated in audio files using audio editors. Some common audio editing software for
Windows are—Cool Edit, Sound Forge XP, Audacity, and Wave Flow.

Audio Compression— Compression is used to reduce the physical size of data so that it occupies
less storage space and memory. Compressed audio files are easier and faster to transfer (small
size), and also reduces bandwidth utilization thus providing good sound quality. Since

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applications exchange audio data using networks, standards like International Consultative
Committee for Telephone and Telegraph (CCITT), International Standard Organization (ISO),
and MPEG are used to achieve the compatibility. The most commonly used compression scheme
for audio is MPEG. MPEG audio coding can compress the original audio on a CD by a factor of
12 without losing the sound quality. Audio files are often encoded in Mp3 (compression ratio is
1:10-1:12) as it is the most preferred format for PC and Internet applications.

Video
Video is another element of multimedia. Video and audio are closely related, and together they
are the most effective means of communication that can be a part of the multimedia system.
Digital video is used in making of movies, gaming, and IT industry. The Digital Video Disk
(DVD) makes it possible to distribute large videos in a compact form.

Analog and Digital Video— Digital video allows random access within a movie; cut, paste, or
edit video; and addition of special effects. It is easy to duplicate digital video without loss of
quality. Digital video also allows for interactivity. The video seen on TV, cable TV, or VCR is
broadcast in analog format.

Video Editing— Digital video is easy to edit. Editing involves removing frames, inserting
frames, mixing audio with video, creating special effects on video, superimposing clips,
adjusting transparency, and adjusting volume of audio. Some of the software packages that
support editing are Adobe Premiere, Adobe AfterEffects CS4 and Strata Avid Video.

Digitizing Analog Video— The process of digitizing analog video is called video capture. Video
is captured using plug-in cards called video capture cards. A video capture card accepts a video
input from an input device such as a VCR or a video camera. The audio is sampled through a
separate cable which attaches to the sound card. The software with the video card synchronizes
the two channels of audio and video. With the software that comes with the video card, the video
capture process is started. Digital cameras can directly store full-motion video in digital formats
that can be copied onto a computer’s hard disk.

Video Compression— Digital video files are extremely large files that take a large amount of
disk space, and require high data transfer rates from hard disk to screen. Compression
restructures the data to reduce the size of the file. A compressed video file is decompressed when
it is played. Several compression/decompression (codec) algorithms are available for
compressing digital videos. Codecs may be asymmetric or symmetric; software-based, hardware-
based, or both. A symmetric codec takes almost the same time to compress and decompress data.
An asymmetric codec takes longer to encode video than it does to decode. Microsoft Video 1,
Cinepak and Intel Indeo Video Raw are some of the Window-based codecs. Motion JPEG
(MJPEG), MPEG-1, MPEG-2 are examples of the hardware-based codecs.

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Video File Formats— The digital video is saved on the disk in a video file format. The AVI
format is used for the PC, and Quicktime format is used for Macintosh. The AVI format is used
to play video in the Windows environment. It supports 256 colors to millions of colors, sound
from 5 kHz Mono to CD quality stereo sound, and, can deliver video at rates ranging from 0.03
MB/sec to 0.3 MB/sec. Quicktime is similar to the AVI format, and can be viewed on almost
every platform available.

Animation
Animation is creating of an illusion of movement from a series of still drawings. To create a
feeling of motion of an image (still drawing), the image is projected on the screen as frames.
Generally, 30 frames per second are used to make the object appear to be in smooth motion on
the screen.

Process of Animation—requires four steps—(1) Story board layout defines the outline of the
action and the motion sequence as a set of basic events, (2) Definition of objects defines the
movement for each object, (3) Key frame specifications gives the detailed drawing of the scene
of animation at a particular time, and (4) Generation of in-between frames defines the number of
intermediate frames between key frames.

Creation of Animation— Creation and usage of animation using the computer includes
processes like looping, morphing, and rendering, which are briefly discussed below:

Looping is the process of playing the animation continuously. It is used if the animation requires
a basic few frames to be created. For example, a hop by a rabbit in 2–3 frames when put in a
loop appears as if the rabbit is walking a long distance.

Morphing means changing of shape. Morphing is the transformation of one image to another.
Morphing requires two elements—the shape to be changed and the shape after change. Morphing
is used to make the object appear as if it is physically changing its shape. Morphing is used to
make an object appear to move, run, dance, expand, contract etc, giving a smooth transformation
of the image from one state to another. Morphing with lines, and Point morphing are some
processes of morphing.

Rendering is the process to create an image from a data file. An animation requires about 30
renderings per second. Generally, a whole scene cannot be drawn by the 3-D graphics program
inclusive of colors, shading etc. So, what is done is—a rough representation of the position of the
object at each point in motion is provided to the rendering package. The rendering package
generates the 30 frames required for the rendering which will result in the real motion of the
object and thus animation. The rendering time is an important consideration in all 3-D animation.

Hardware and Software for Animation— The hardware platforms used for animation are—
SGI, PC, Macintosh, and Amiga. The SGI platform is used to broadcast quality computer

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animation productions. PCs use 3D Studio and Animator Studio applications for making
animations. Some of the most popular software packages used for animation are—3D Studio
Max, Light Wave 3D, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, and Animator Studio.

MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM

The multimedia system includes the hardware and software components that are required to be
used for multimedia. The hardware and software components required for a multimedia system
are as follows:

Input Devices— Keyboard and OCR for text; Digital cameras, Scanners and CD-ROM for
graphics, MIDI keyboards, CD-ROM and microphones for sound; Video cameras, CD-ROM and
frame grabbers for video; Mice, trackballs, joy sticks, virtual reality gloves and wands for spatial
data; and mouse, touch screen, trackball, tablet, voice recognition system, infrared remotes,
magnetic card encoder and reader, 3D input devices, and virtual reality devices.

Output Devices— CD-quality speakers, Hi-resolution monitors, color printers, specialised

helmets, and immersive devices displays for virtual reality, and video devices.

 Storage Devices— Hard disks, CD-ROM drive, Zip drive, DVD drive.
 Communication Network— Ethernet, Token Ring, FDDI, ATM, Intranets, and Internets.
 Communication Devices— Modem, Network Interface Card.
 Computer System— Multimedia Desktop machine, Workstation, MPEG/VIDEO
hardware

Software— Some of the familiar tools for multimedia software are— Word Processor (MS-
WORD, WordPerfect), Spreadsheet (MS-Excel), Database (Q+E Database/VB), and,
Presentation Tools (MS-PowerPoint). Some of the software tools used for different elements of
multimedia are as follows—

 Music Sequencing and Notation—Cakewalk, Cubase, Macromedia

 Sound Edit
 Digital Audio—Cool Edit, Sound Forge, Pro Tools, Audacity
 Image Editing—Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Fireworks
 Video Editing—Adobe Premiere, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie
 Animation—3D Studio Max, Maya, Blender

Multimedia Authoring Tools are programs that help the user in writing multimedia applications.
A multimedia authoring tool enables the user to create a multimedia application by linking
together objects, such as text, illustration, or music, to present a mixture of textual, graphical,
and audio data. These tools are used to make videos, user interfaces, animations, screen savers,
games, presentations, and for interactive training and simulations. Macromedia Flash and
Macromedia Director are examples of multimedia authoring tools.

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Desirable Features of Multimedia System
The hardware and software components used for a multimedia system have a minimum
configuration to be used for multimedia. A multimedia system should have the following
desirable features:

 Very high processing power—more than 1GHz of processing speed.

 Large storage units (50 GB or more) and large memory (1GB or more).
 Multimedia Capable File System to deliver real-time media e.g. video/audio streaming.
 File Formats that allow for compression/decompression in real-time.
 Efficient and fast I/O to allow for real-time recording and playback of data.
 Special operating system that supports direct transfer to disk, real-time scheduling, fast
interrupt processing, and I/O streaming.
 Network Support for Internet.
 Software Tools to handle and deliver media, and, design and develop applications.

MULTIMEDIA APPLICATIONS

Multimedia applications have found their way into different arenas of our life. We are interacting
with multimedia applications in the area of education and entertainment that includes sports,
laser shows, video games, or animation movies. Multimedia applications have found their way in
business—may it be for advertising, marketing, video meetings, result presentations or customer
feedbacks. Nowadays, training is also imparted using multimedia applications like simulations
and 3D designs. Entertainment parks like Disneyland use virtual reality and multimedia,
innovatively design, create, and improve; their games and rides. The following subsections
discuss the impact of multimedia applications in different areas of our life.

In Education
Using multimedia for education encompasses the use of video clips, speech and sound, music,
animations, and graphics. The use of these multimedia elements impacts the whole learning
process and pedagogy. It is always better to visually observe and hear about a topic than only
reading it from a book.

For Students and Teachers— The students are able to actually view the things being taught
using graphics, animation or video clips. This brings them more nearer to the topic being taught
and has much more impact on the student than only reading from the book. It also helps bridge
the gap between theory and lab work. The teachers use multimedia as a tool for delivering more
effective lectures. They supplement their lectures with PowerPoint presentations, drawings,
graphics and 3D graphics. They also use virtual laboratories and simulations to support their
lectures, share same physical resource across multiple locations, and reduce capital and
operational expenditure.

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Imparting Education— Multimedia has resulted in spreading education to far-off places where
students cannot physically go and attend classes. Moreover, a lecture by a teacher cannot be
repeated or replayed unless recorded. Multimedia has enabled such recordings on the computer
so that the student can view them again and again whenever required. The large diversity of
students, who are slow learners, is helped by it. The use of multimedia for imparting education is
available in the following forms:

Self-learning CD-ROMs— One can commonly find in the market, self-learning modules on
CD-ROMs for various subjects and for different classes. These modules use graphics, video, and
speech, and include training for the subject inclusive of tests and question paper along with
evaluation.

E-learning Programs— The universities imparting distance education like IGNOU, have
started using e-learning software to impart lectures to the students. E-learning programs are now
also being offered by the IITs for the students not physically present at IIT. It is popularly
referred to as ―You can still be in IIT, even if you are not physically at IIT‖. E-learning programs
require the students to get registered for the program online. The registered student is provided
with a username and password, which he uses to log on to the e-learning module to access the
lectures, notes and tests based on them. These also enable Just-in-Time training on a specific
topic for a person.

Synchronous Learning Technology— This is an initiative for imparting education using

satellite communication. In this learning technology, the students are required to attend classes at
various computer based learning centers at a fixed time. It is online video lectures, where the
instructor delivers the lecture physically at that time at one of the centers, which is being
broadcasted and delivered to the students at the computer based learning centers. It incorporates
Full-motion video, duplex audio, and two-way Video/Audio/Data interaction creating classroom-
like engagement. The students can listen to the instructor, see him/her on their computer screens
and respond and interact with the instructor. NIIT Imperia uses this technology for delivering
executive management programs.

The use of multimedia in education has made education to be more widely available, effective
and entertaining.

In Entertainment
Video games and animation movies are some of the common uses of multimedia for
entertainment. Gaming is one of the oldest uses of multimedia. It uses the different elements of
multimedia to make it more realistic and interactive. The users (especially children) are
captivated by the beauty of the game and heavily engaged in using them. The playing of games
has its own advantages as it results in the sharpening of mental faculties (requires quick response
from the user), allows mixing pleasure with work, and results in enjoyment and relaxation.
Nowadays, the games can also be played across the Internet (like chess requiring two players),
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where the users are located at different physical locations and can interact with each other over a
game.

Animation movies are another use of multimedia for entertainment. The movies are generated
using animation, and usually sound is provided by a well-known personality. Since the movies
are generated using animation, different kinds of movements and effects can be incorporated into
it. They are also cheaper than the actual movies. Some of the recent animated movies are—
Hanuman (you can see hanuman engulfing the sun, walk in the sky, make a dive etc, which are
easy to show using animation than with real characters), Road Side Romeo (sound by Saif Ali
Khan, Kareena Kapoor and others), Toy Story 2 (Disney/Pixar), My Friend Ganesha, Bal
Ganesha etc.

In Training
Training is an important ingredient in any organization. Imparting training to employees requires
significant amount of effort and resources. There are only a few people in an organization who
have training skills and knowledge, to train others. Earlier, training the employees in an
organization would require the training team to travel to the location of training, incur expenses
(lodging, boarding, traveling etc.), and train the people and move on to next location.

With the advent of multimedia in training, software is developed which can be stored on the CD,
delivered over web and used by the employees for training. On-line training and simulation are
some other methods which use multimedia for training. In many safety-critical organizations,
first the training is provided using simulated software without touching the actual unit. NASA
uses simulation to train the astronauts, Maruti in India have car driving centers which trains the
aspirant drivers using both simulation-based training and actual car driving. Simulation is also
used for the training of pilots of airplane, fighter planes and ships. Second Life software is being
used to make a candidate familiar with the inside look and feel of an organization before he/she
appears for the interview.

In Business
Multimedia is crucial for the success of business organizations. In government and non-
government organizations, no meeting is complete without PowerPoint presentations and reports
generated along with graphs and images. Moreover, businesses use multimedia to further their
products and to enlighten people about their products. A CD giving details of the product is used.
Car manufacturers, white-good manufacturers like television, microwave, refrigerators and
washing machines, cell phone manufacturers etc., rely heavily on multimedia to display their
product, market them, and to enhance sales of their product. Multimedia is also used by business
organizations to train their people, for marketing and advertising, for creating visual and sound
effects that are appealing to people, and thus making their product more saleable. Since the

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information inclusive of all sound and visual effects can be stored on a CD and distributed, it is
considered as an inexpensive means of advertising and business promotion.

VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual Reality is created using multimedia. Virtual reality is a special environment that is
created using multimedia, where the users feel as if they are in a three-dimensional world. It
gives the feeling to the users as if they are participating in the scenario. Virtual reality uses a
head- mounted display which consists of two display screens, and, data gloves that are used to
record the hand movements. The head-mounted display and the gloves are connected to a
computer which has the software for virtual reality installed into it. When the user enters into
virtual reality, the position of the head of the user, eyes, and hand movement is used to decide
the response; the next view is presented accordingly by the virtual reality software.

Virtual reality system enables one or more users to move and react in a computer-simulated
environment. Virtual reality systems can reshape the interface between people and information
technology by offering new ways to communicate information, visualize processes, and express
ideas creatively. When a user becomes fully immersed in an artificial, three- dimensional world
that is completely generated by a computer, it is called immersive virtual reality.

The interface devices for a virtual reality system are—(1) Head-mounted display (HMD)—
Screens directed at each eye; position tracker, (2) CAVE—Provides illusion of immersion
through projection of stereo images on floors and walls, and (3) Haptic interface - Relays sense
of touch and other physical sensations.

There are different forms of Virtual Reality—Immersive virtual reality, Mouse-controlled

navigation through a three-dimensional environment on a graphics monitor, stereo viewing from
the monitor via stereo glasses, stereo projection systems, and tele-presence systems.

Some examples of Virtual Reality applications are:

 Experimental ―gesture technology‖: may have military applications

 Medicine: anxiety disorders, pain reduction
 Education and training: anatomy, history, military training
 Real estate marketing and tourism: virtual walkthroughs
 Entertainment: CGI movies and games

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