The use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way. Long touted as the future revolution in computing, multimedia applications were, until the mid-90s, uncommon due to the expensive hardware required. With increases in performance and decreases in price, however, multimedia is now commonplace. Nearly all PCs are capable of displaying video, though the resolution available depends on the power of the computer's video adapter and CPU.
Multimedia
Multimedia is the term used to describe two or more types of media combined into a single package—usually denoting a combination of some or all of the following: video, sound, animation, text, and pictures. Multimedia gives the user the opportunity to influence the presentation of material. The selection and manipulation of various aspects of the presentation material is the interactive aspect of a multimedia presentation. Interactive features could range from a question-and-answer function to choosing from a menu of particular subjects or aspects of a presentation. One application of multimedia, for example, involves presenting the user with a “what if” scenario, in which the choices the user makes affect the outcome of the presentation. This affords the user a degree of control, not unlike directing a motion picture and having the opportunity to make changes to the plot at various junctures.
TYPES OF MEDIA
There are certain types of media used in multimedia presentations, from simple to complex visual and audio devices. Multimedia components are divided into:
- Text. This refers to written documents, the words seen in handouts, powerpoint presentations, Web sites, and reports. One of the most simple types of media, text is also used to communicate the most information and appears in conjunction with visual aids.
- Audio. This is the sounds that often accompany visual presentations. Sound by itself can be used in radio broadcasts or online audio files, but in multimedia presentations audio is used as a complementary media. Sound effects can help make a presentation more memorable, while hearing the main points of information spoken can help listeners focus.
- Still images. Photographs, taken either by digital or analog means, are an important part of multimedia productions. Well-placed visual aids can explain concepts with clarity.
- Animation. Animations are graphics that move, accompanied by audio effects.
- Video. Video media is used to spread interviews, create movies, and post personal updates to communicate business messages. Currently, businesses can use videos online or create CDs to spread for instructional use within their company.
- Interactivity . The newest form of multimedia, interactivity, is a computer-based tool which allows users to choose to learn different parts of information on their own terms. By highlighting or choosing links and sections, users can manipulate the information environment, examining whatever knowledge is important to them.
USES OF MULTIMEDIA
Multimedia devices have an almost innumerable variety of applications. They are used in home-entertainment systems and can be extremely powerful educational tools. Educators, for example, have been exceptionally creative in combining some of the exciting elements of video-game
applications with select features of educational material. By doing this, the concept of “edutainment” was created. The goal of using the multimedia edutainment approach is to entertain the user so effectively that the user remains unaware that he or she is actually learning in the process.
Multimedia can also offer critical services in the business world. While information can certainly be conveyed adequately by the singular use of still pictures, video, film, audio, or text, multimedia potentially multiplies the degree of effectiveness, in no small part due to the added entertainment value and the extent to which the viewers feel a part of the action. Such benefits can't easily be matched by the application of a singular medium. The effectiveness of teaching, selling, informing, entertaining, promoting, and presenting are all dependent upon one factor: the ability of the presented material to hold the attention of the desired audience. A dynamic multimedia presentation can usually be more effective than earlier methods at accomplishing this task with an audience that was raised on television and motion pictures. The computerized multimedia presentation offers the added benefit of cost-effective flexibility, allowing easy editing of the basic materials in order to tailor them to specific target audiences.
Training, informational and promotional materials, sales presentations, and point-of-sale displays that allow for customer interaction and communication both within and outside the organization are all common applications of multimedia in the business world. Multimedia presentations for many such applications can be highly portable, particularly in the cases of the CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and videotape. The equipment required to produce these presentations is relatively commonplace or otherwise easy to access.
Perhaps the vanguard application of multimedia is virtual reality, a combination of video, stereo, and computer graphics that attempts to create an interactive three-dimensional environment that immerses the user within the simulation. Virtual reality has been employed in a wide range of practical applications: to train military troops, to streamline manufacturing and architectural design processes, to create simulated test environments for industry, and as a form of public entertainment.
One should still keep in mind, however, that even if rendered in a highly advanced multimedia format, an ineffectual presentation is still an ineffectual presentation. One should remain focused on the message being conveyed while shaping the choice and use of materials in accordance with that message.
The key to augmented reality is the software. Augmented reality programs are written in special 3D augmented reality programs such as D'Fusion, Unifye Viewer or FLARToolKit. These programs allow the developer to tie animation or contextual digital information in the computer program to an augmented reality "marker" in the real world.
The end user must download a software application (app) or browser plug-in in order to experience augmented reality. Most AR applications are built in Flash or Shockwave and require a webcam program to deliver the information in the marker to the computer. The marker, which is sometimes called a target, might be a barcode or simple series of geometric shapes. When the computer's AR app or browser plug-in receives the digital information contained in the marker, it begins to execute the code for the augmented reality program.
AR applications for smartphones include global positioning system (GPS) to pinpoint the user's location and its compass to detect device orientation. Sophisticated AR programs used by the military for training may include machine vision, object recognition and gesture recognition technologies.
Hallmark Cards, Inc., is using AR in their line of webcam greeting cards. The marker is on the card. In order to view the animation, the end user has to visit the Hallmark website and download a small software program for that specific card.
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