🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <81307@hydra.gatech.EDU>, jt34@prism.gatech.EDU (THOMPSON,JOHN C) writes:
>
> One of the most talked
> about issues concerns technical capabilties of the various hardware and
> software alternatives, another concerns the perceived advantages of these
> various platforms by both users and developers, another issue concerns
> baseline capabilities in the installed base of equipment, another is cost -
> both before and after installation, and another depends on availablitiy
> and widespread knowledge of available titles. What do you think?

I don't know whether this comes under your category of "technical capabilities",
but it seems to me a very important issue is the availability of an overall
architecture which allows easy interoperability between a wide selection of
plug-in hardware and software. This allows you to tailor the cost and features
of the system to suit your needs: like using hardware-assisted compression
on the authoring machine, without this being a necessity on the delivery
machine. It also eases the incorporation of multimedia features into more
"mainstream" applications, such as databases and e-mail.

> My definition of Interactive Multimedia: Computer based presentation of
> information in multiple modalities including but not limited to textual,
> audio,still graphics, and motion video in a way that requires active interaction
> by the user (active response and control - not just passive viewing).

I would say further that "Interactive Multimedia" is splitting into two
distinct varieties: the "traditional" variety, involving reliance on external
hardware like laserdisc players and the like in the delivery platform, and
(for want of a better term) the "desktop digital video" variety, exemplified
by QuickTime and Video for Windows.

The "traditional" variety, it seems to me, uses the computer as little more
than a control centre, sending commands to the external hardware telling it
to start and stop and so on. "Desktop digital video", on the other hand,
involves storing the data (and not just video) in computer-accessible digital
form, and playing it back from there. Both kinds let you be interactive, but it
seems to me the latter form offers new opportunities for interaction, because
you can do all kinds of manipulations of the stored data that aren't otherwise
possible--create your own presentations, in other words.

Lawrence D'Oliveiro                       fone: +64-7-856-2889
Computer Services Dept                     fax: +64-7-838-4066
University of Waikato            electric mail: ldo@waikato.ac.nz
Hamilton, New Zealand    37^ 47' 26" S, 175^ 19' 7" E, GMT+13:00