MMM 2001 ¡ª Tutorials
Tutorial 1: Methodologies and Software Systems for Virtual University Operations
Monday Morning, November 5th, 2001
presented by Timothy Shih, Tamkang University, Taiwan
Description
Distance Learning/Virtual University system is one of the most important research issues in the literature of distributed multimedia computing. The tutorial starts from the discussion of current distance learning approaches, with a highlight of some potential research problems. State-of-the-art technologies toward possible solutions of such problems will be presented. The tutorial will cover three important research topics: multimedia communication tools for virtual university operations, instruction design and assessment systems, and multimedia databases for distance learning. The methodologies to support the design of these systems rely on three virtual university operation criteria: administration, awareness, and assessment. The conclusion of this tutorial will cover suggestions and directions to the potential future university operations. Audiences of this tutorial may benefit from the tutorial by understanding the fundamental concepts and new research issues of distance learning.
Presentation Outline
- Preliminary concepts of distance learning and virtual university operations
- A survey of current distance learning programs around the world
- The Multimedia Macro University Project
- Distance learning operation criteria
- State-of-the-art research issues in distance learning
- A virtual university software system
- Demonstration of the VU software system
- Conclusion and discussion
Audience
This tutorial is intended for software engineers, educators, researchers, students and people interested in gaining an overall understanding of distance learning/virtual university software systems, as well as practitioners, system developers, multimedia course designers, programmers and people interested in distance learning applications.
Prerequisite Knowledge
The audience of this tutorial should know general concept of Web technology, as well as basic knowledge of multimedia networks. In general, participators of MMM'2001 should have no problem of understanding the presentation.
About the Speaker
Dr. Shih is a Professor and the Chairman of Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at Tamkang University, Taiwan, R.O.C. His research interests include Multimedia Computing and Networking, Distance Learning, Software Engineering, and Formal Specification and Verification. He was a faculty of the Computer Engineering Department at Tamkang University in 1986. In 1993 and 1994, he was a part time faculty of the Computer Engineering Department at Santa Clara University. He was also a visiting professor at the University of Aizu, Japan in summer 1999. Dr. Shih received his BS and MS degrees in Computer Engineering from Tamkang University and California State University, Chico, in 1983 and 1985, respectively. He also received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Santa Clara University in 1993. Dr. Shih has published over 200 papers and participated in many international academic activities, including the organization of DMS'98, SEMA'99, IMMCN'2000, ICPADS'2000, ICCLC'2000, MNS'2000, SEMA'2000, CAIIC'2000, MNS'2001, DMS'2001, and Human.Society@Internet'2001. Dr. Shih has received many research awards, including Tamkang University research awards, NSC research awards (National Science Council of Taiwan), and IIAS research award of Germany. He also received many funded research grants from NSC, from the Institute of Information Industry, Taiwan, and from the University of Aizu, Japan. Dr. Shih has been invited frequently to give tutorials, panels, and talks at international conferences and overseas research organizations, including DMS'99, ICCLC'2000, COMPSAC'2000, CAIIC'2000, MSE'2000, Santa Clara University (USA), Hiroshima City University (Japan), Iwate Prefecture University (Japan), University of Aizu (Japan), City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), and Hosei University (Japan).
Tutorial 2: SMIL 2.0: Interactive Multimedia on the Web
Monday Morning, November 5th, 2001
presented by Lloyd Rutledge, CWI, Amsterdam
In co-operation with W3C NL and ISOC.nl (Internet Society Nederland).
Description
SMIL 2.0 specifies interactive multimedia on the Web. It was just released as a W3C recommendation in August 2001 ¡ª just in time for Multimedia Modeling 2001. The specification document is 15 times the size of its predecessor SMIL 1.0, offering many new, rich features and constructs. SMIL 2.0 also has the backing of major industrial players, such as RealNetworks, Microsoft, and Oratrix. SMIL 1.0 already has a major presence on the Web as the integration format for the RealPlayer media browser. It also is supported by QuickTime 4.1, the GRiNS editor and player, and several other players. This tutorial presents SMIL 1.0 and 2.0 and the tools for them.
Before describing the details of the SMIL language, the tutorial first presents an overview of the components required in a hypermedia document description language. The SMIL language includes features for specifying the media items included in a document, referred to with URL's, how these are temporally and spatially related to one another, and how links can be specified within the multimedia environment. Alternates for different data formats for the heterogeneous web environment are also provided.
The goal of the tutorial is to explain the concepts that form the basis of the SMIL language and to provide sufficient detail on the language itself so that participants can create their own simple presentations. Participants will also understand the underlying issues of temporal and spatial layout and the complexity of creating links within multimedia. The tutorial also describe the use of the major SMIL implementations: the RealPlayer, the GRiNS authoring environment, and HTML+SMIL on Internet Explorer.
Intended Audience
The tutorial is intended for content developers who have created HTML documents or have used tools such as Macromedia Director or Authorware. Multimedia designers, web-page creators, creators of interface prototypes such as user interface designers, human factors practitioners and industrial designers will also benefit from this course. It can also be followed usefully by participants unfamiliar with existing tools and environments. The level is introductory and expects knowledge of the Web at a user's level, not necessarily that of an HTML author. Familiarity with basic HTML constructs is desirable, though not necessary.
Course Objectives
The goal of the tutorial is to explain the concepts that form the basis of the SMIL language and to provide sufficient detail on the language itself so that participants can create their own simple presentations. Participants will also understand the underlying issues of temporal and spatial layout and the complexity of creating links within multimedia. They will also be able to use available tools to play and create SMIL presentations.
Instructor Background
Lloyd Rutledge is a researcher at CWI. His research involves adaptable hypermedia, and standards for it such as SMIL. He received his Sc.D. from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he worked with the Distributed Multimedia Systems Laboratory (DMSL) on developing the HyOctane HyTime-based hypermedia environment. Dr. Rutledge is a member of the W3C working group that developed SMIL. He has given this SMIL tutorial at many venues including WWW10, WWW9 and WWW8, ACM Multimedia 99, Multimedia Modeling 2000 and Hypertext 2001, 2000, 99 and 98. He is also co-author of "SMIL: Interactive Multimedia on the Web", to be published early next year by Pearson Education.
Tutorial 3: MPEG-4
Monday Afternoon, November 5th, 2001
presented by Frederic Bouilhaguet, France Telecom
Description
The MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards, specified in the ISO MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group) comitee, triggered the digital revolution few years ago in the audio and video fields on compact disc and digital broadcast television. The tutorial presents an overview of the MPEG-4 architecture. Then it deal with the techniques to author, encode, transport and decode an MPEG-4 presentation. Few examples enables the audience to understand how basically different media objects are spatially and temporally related in MPEG-4, and stored finally in the MP4 file format. A comparison with SMIL will be done about the scene description. The principle of streaming MP4 on Internet in RTP streams will be also presented. The tutorial will end with a "state of the art" of the current MPEG-4 market.
Intended Audience
The tutorial is intended for multimedia content producers familiar with scene description language like SMIL for 2D or VRML for 3D, or who have experience in using authoring tools (Director, Flash), or who have any skills in media data management and delivery on broadcast networks or Internet. A knowledge of the current audiovisual platforms on Internet (RealMedia, QuickTime, and Windows Media) would be a plus.
Course Objectives
The goal of the tutorial is to explain MPEG-4 so the audience can start by itself to evaluate its characteristics as a standard for rich media content.
Instructor Background
Frederic Bouilhaguet works in ResonateMP4, a company that he co-founded after his PhD on MPEG-4 Systems in Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications in Paris. ResonateMP4 is focused on developing MPEG-4 software components and consulting missions to transmit its knowledge of MPEG-4 to digital media systems developers. Before this, he graduated for the Ecole Centrale Nantes and worked for 2 years in MdEo-Zentropy Partners on the development and integration of medical imaging software.