Multimedia & Virtual Reality

Essay

Introduction

1. What is the meaning of Multimedia?

* means that computer information can be represented through audio, graphics, images,
video, and animation in addition to traditional media (text and graphics).

* 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.

2. What do you know about the Multimedia System ?

Meaning :
- is a system capable of processing multimedia data and applications.
- is characterized by the processing complexity , storage size , generation methods , and
manipulation of multimedia information.

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

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Components :
❖ Capture devices: Camera, Microphone, Keyboards, graphics tablets, 3D input
devices.
❖ Storage Devices: Hard disks, flash memory, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROM, etc.
❖ Communication Networks: Local Networks, Internet, special high speed
networks.
❖ Computer Systems: Multimedia Desktop machines, Workstations,
❖ Display Devices: CD-quality speakers, HDTV, SVGA, Hi-Res monitors, Color
printers, etc

Classification :
❖ Depending on the application
- multimedia systems can be classified in a variety of ways, such as interaction style, the
number of users, when the content is live, and so on.
▪ Static versus dynamic (interactive or not ?)
▪ Real time versus orchestrated. (Live or not ?)
▪ Linear versus nonlinear.
▪ Person- to-machine versus person-to-person
▪ Single user, peer-to-peer , peer-multi-peer, and broadcast

3. What is the difference between Hybertext VS Hybermedia ?

• hypertext : read nonlinearly, by following links that point to other parts of
the document, or to other documents.

• HyperMedia: not constrained to be text-based, can include other media, e.g. graphics,
images and especially the continuous media - sound and video.

– The World Wide Web (WWW) - the best example of a hypermedia application.

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4. What is the difference between Linearity vs. Non-Linearity ?
Linear :

• A Multimedia Project is identified as Linear when:

– It is not interactive.
– Users have no control over the content that is being showed to them.
• Examples:
– Film: fixed order of frames defines a single playback sequence.
– Book: physical arrangement of text and pages implies a linear reading order.
– A non-interactive lecture / demo show.

Non-Linear :

• A Multimedia Project is identified as Non-Linear when:

– It is interactive.
– Users have control over the content that is being showed to them.
– Users are given navigational control.
• Examples:
– Hypermedia: links between pages permit multiple arbitrary reading orders.
– Flash: jumps between frames, controlled by interactivity, permits branching and loops.
– Games.
– Courseware

5. What is the main reasons of Multimedia revolution?

❖Digitization of virtually any and every device.
❖Digitization of libraries of information.
❖Evolution of communication and data networks.
❖New algorithms for compression.
❖Better hardware performance.
❖Smarter user interface paradigms to view/interact with multimedia information.
❖Standardizations

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6.What is the Classification of a Multimedia Data ?
1) Based on time-dimension
in the representation space, media can be classified as:
– Time-independent (Discrete)
• Text, Graphics, images, etc.
– Time-dependent (Continuous)
• Audio, Video, animation, etc.
– Video is a sequence of frames (images) presented to the user periodically.

2) Based on Online vs Offline Delivery:

• Online Delivery:
– Uses a network (usually the Internet) to send information from one computer to another.
– Web is commonest form of online delivery of multimedia.
– Cable network is online delivery of multimedia.
• Offline Delivery:
– Removable storage medium is used to carry the data: CD ,ROM, DVD, etc

3) Based on Analog vs Digital

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 Audio

1. What is the Analog signal ?

• An analog signal : continuous measurement of pressure wave.
Sound waves can be characterized by the following attributes :

Attributes
• Waveform : is a plot of amplitude against time.
• Period: repeating portion of the sound wave, although sound waves are never
perfectly smooth or uniformly periodic.
• A periodic waveform : A waveform that repeats itself at regular intervals.
• Amplitude : Measure of displacement of the air pressure wave from its mean.
• Intensity of sound : is the amount of power transmitted through an a m2 rea
of 1 oriented perpendicular to the propagation direction of the sound.
• Frequency : the number of cycles a sound wave creates in one second.
• Dynamic range : means the change in sound levels.
• Bandwidth : is the range of frequencies a device can produce, or a human can
hear e.g.

2. What is the pulse code modulation (PCM) ?

❖ PCM (digitizing process) consists of sampling, quantizing, and coding.
1. Sampling :
Sampling process basically involves :
▪ Measuring tha analog signal at regular discrete intervals.

2. Quantization :
❖ Quantization: divide the vertical axis (signal strength - voltage) into pieces.
For example, 8-bit quantization divides the vertical axis into 256 levels. 16 bit
gives you 65536 levels.
❖ Lower the quantization, lower the quality of the sound.

3. Coding :
• Encoding each N-level value to a m-bit binary digit

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3. What is the Sample and Hold Reconstruction ?
➢ One we commonly used technique is known as sample and hold we need to
reconstruct the signal from the digital representation.

4. WAV files are better quality than MP3 files: Why ?

➢ A lossless WAV file is always best for recording and for carrying high-quality
audio files .

5. What is the Audio File Formats ?

• wav: Waveform Audio File Format.
– Original Windows audio file format.
– Supported on Mac.
• aif (aiff): Audio Interchange File Format.
– Original audio format for Mac.
– Supported by Windows and other platforms.
• au: u-law (myoo-law).
– Unix standard audio format.
• mp3: MPEG-1 layer 3 audio.
– MPEG: Moving Pictures Expert Group.
• ra (ram): Real Audio

What is the Quantization error ?

• Quantization error (or quantization noise) : is the difference between the
actual value of the analog signal at the sampling time and the nearest
quantization interval value.

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 Image

1. What is the difference between Bitmap image and vector image ?

2. What is the Advantage and disadvantage of Bitmap ?

Advantage
• The bitmap can be more photorealistic.
• We can set the color of every individual pixel in the image.

Disadvantage
• Bitmaps are memory intensive, and the higher the resolution, the larger the
file size.
• Not easy to make modification to objects/drawings.
• When an image is enlarged (zoom), the individual colored squares (pixels)
become visible and the illusion of a smooth image is lost to the viewer.

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3. What is the Advantage and disadvantage of Vector ?

Advantage
• Small file size.
• High maintaining quality as in size and rotate of the graphics without
distortion.
• Easy to edit the drawings as each object is independent of the other.

Disadvantage
• They cannot display photorealistic quality.
• Objects/drawings cannot have texture; it can only have plain colors or
gradients ; limited level of detail that can be presented in an image.

4. What is the image File Formats ?

➢ GIF (Graphics Interchange Format).

➢ JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group).
➢ BMP (Microsoft Bitmap).
➢ PNG (Portable Network Graphics).
– Successor of GIF, support true color (16 million colors).
– It Excels when the image has large areas of uniform color.
– The lossless PNG format is best suited for editing pictures.
➢ TIFF (Tagged Image File Format).
➢ EXIF (Exchange Image File).
➢ WMF (Windows Metafile).

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5. What is the image Dithering ?
is the process of defining gradations of gray or color shades in a 2-D graphic by
varying the gray or color shades in the neighboring pixels.

6. What is the difference between Additive vs. Subtractive Color Models ?

• Additive Color Model :
– Used by computers.
– When light energy is added, a color appears brighter (the background is
black).
– Different visible light wavelengths can be combined to create new colors.
• Subtractive Color Model :
– Used in the print media.
– When more color is added, a color appears darker (the background is white).
• Since additive color models display color as a result of light being transmitted
(added), the total absence of light would be as black.
• Subtractive color models display color as a result of light being absorbed
(subtracted) by the printing inks.
– As more ink is added, less and less light is reflected.
– Where there is a total absence of ink the resulting light being reflected (from
a white surface) would be perceived as white.

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 Video

1. What is the types of Video Signals ?

A. Component Video :
• High-end video systems, such as for studio:
– Three separated video signals: Red, Green and Blue image plane.
– Three wires connecting to Camera or other devices to TV or monitor.
• Giving the best color reproduction:
– No “crosstalk” between the different channels.
– Requiring more bandwidth and good synchronization.

B. Composite Video :
• Chrominance and luminance signals mixed into a single carrier wave:
▪ Chrominance: I and Q ( or U and V).
• Combined into a chroma signal, and then put at the high-frequency end of the
signal shared with the luminance signal Y.
▪ Only one wire for video signal.
• Some interference: Interference is inevitable.
• Audio signals added through separate wires.
▪ Chrominance and luminance components separated at the receiver end and
then two color components be further recovered.

C. S-Video :
• S-Video: Separated video, or Super-video.
• A compromise, with Two wires:
▪ One for luminance.
▪ Another for a composite chrominance signal.
▪ Less crosstalk between color and the crucial gray-scale information.
• Reason for placing luminance into its own part:
▪ Black-and-White is most crucial for visual perception.
▪ Both in terms of brightness and spatial resolution.
Humans are better in spatial resolution for grey-scale image.
▪ Less information for color is fine. Color 9 information can be less accurate.

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2. What is the types of Scanning ?
• Progressive scanning :
▪ Scanning a complete frame row-wise for each interval that reflects the frame
or frames.
• Interlaced scanning :
▪ Widely used in traditional (non-digital) TV.
▪ Odd-numbered lines first, then even-numbered lines.
▪ “odd” and “even” fields make up a frame.
▪ Reducing perceived flicker.
▪ High-speed action: image blurred.
▪ Vertical retrace and horizontal retrace.

3. What is Advantages of Digital Representation :

• Storing video on digital devices or in memory.
• Ready to be processed (noise removal, cut and paste, etc.) and integrated into
various multimedia applications.
• Easy of editing tasks,
• Repeated recording without degradation of image quality.
• Ease of encryption and better tolerance to channel noise.

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 Comparisons

Formats
Audio Image Video
wav GIF Audio Video Interleaved(.avi)
aif JPEG Windows Media Video (.wmv)
au BMP Motion Pictures Expert Group (.mpg)
mp3 PNG Adobe Flash video (.flv)
ra (ram) TIFF (Apple QuickTime Movie) (.mov)
EXIF
WMF
AutoCAD DXF
Postscript

Multimedia Software Tools

Audio Image Video Animation Multimedia
- Adobe Adobe Adobe 3D Studio Macromedia
Audition Illustrator Premiere Max Flash
(formerly
Cool Edit)
- Sound Adobe Adobe After Softimage XSI Macromedia
Forge Like Photoshop Effects Director
Audition
Pro Tools Macromedia Final Cut Pro Maya Authorware
Fireworks
Macromedia CyberLink RenderMan Quest
Freehand PowerDirector

Audio Quality Versus Data Rate

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 Depth of Image

Color model in image

RGB CMY
basic colors ▪ R: Red ▪ G: Green ▪ B: Blue ▪ C:Cyan ▪ M:Magenta ▪ Y:Yellow
Used (internally) in monitors internally in color pinters
in computer graphics
System type additive Subtractive

Types of Video Signal

Component Video Composite Video S-Video
Num of signal Three signal One signal Two signal
Advantages • Giving the best ▪ Chrominance and placing luminance
luminance components
color reproduction: separated at the into its own part
– No “crosstalk” receiver end and then
between the two color components
be further recovered.
different channels.
DisAdvantages – Requiring more • Some ▪ Less crosstalk
bandwidth and interference: between color and
good Interference is the crucial gray-
synchronization inevitable. scale information.

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 Standards for Analog Video
NTSC PAL SECAM
Scan line 525 line per 625 line per frame. 625 line per
frame. frame.
Fps 30 frames per 25 frames per 25 frames per
second second second
Aspect Ratio 4:3 length and 4:3 length and 4:3 length and
width ratio width ratio width ratio
color model YIQ Color Model. YUV Color Model.
Scanning Type Interlaced fields. Interlaced fields. Interlaced fields.

Standards for Digital Video

First Standard and it's Versions
DV DV PRO DV PRO HD
HDDV
Subsampling 4:1:1 4:2:2 4:2:2
Bitrate 25M bit/s 50Mbits/s 40Mbits/s~100Mbits

Second Standard and it's Versions

CCIR-601
Name Consultative Committee for International Radio - 601
Type of signal produced for component digital video
Scanning Type interlaced scan

Third Standard and it's Versions

Standard Definition Television (SDTV)
NTSC PAL SECAM
Scan line 525 line per 625 line per frame. 625 line per
frame. frame.
Fps 30 frames per 25 frames per 25 frames per
second second second
Aspect Ratio 4:3 length and 4:3 length and 4:3 length and
width ratio width ratio width ratio
color model YIQ Color Model. YUV Color Model.
Scanning Type Interlaced fields. Interlaced fields. Interlaced fields.

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 Fourth Standard and it's Versions
CIF QCIF
Name Common Intermediate Quarter Common
Format Intermediate Format
Use lower bitrate more lower bitrate
Scanning Type progressive scan
Subsampling 4:2:0 scheme
Versions 4CIF, CIF, QCIF, and SQCIF.

Fifth Standard and it's Versions

High-definition television (HDTV)
HDTV UHDTV
Goal higher resolution
Aspect Ratio 16:9 16:9
Scanning Type progressive scan
720p 1080i 1080p
Scanning Type progressive scan interlaced scan progressive scan

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