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Multimedia Systems

Concepts Standards and Practice

 Ramesh Yerraballi

What is Multimedia Systems?

In the context of Multimedia Systems, the term media refers to a digital representation of actions that are perceivable by humans. As all perception is inherently analog in nature, digitizing it is a necessary step to representing it in a computer. There are several types of media corresponding to various actions, for example, text, images, audio and video correspond to speaking, viewing still pictures, listening and viewing motion pictures. When a multiple of these media are used in a system, such a system is referred to as a Multimedia System.

In order to undertake a study of Multimedia Systems one has to first understand the characteristics of the media both in the analog world and their digital manifestation. Such an understanding entails representation, compression and communication of media. Following an understanding of media in isolation one can investigate the issues pertaining to the combination, interaction, and synchronization of the media.

Why a book on Multimedia Systems?

The idea for a book on Multimedia systems came to me as a result of copious amounts of material I compiled from teaching a course on the subject for the past five years. Since the first time I taught the course, I found that the material I sought to cover in this course was not readily available in a single book. I therefore chose not to use a book in my class but instead provide all my material in the form of notes, papers and slides on my class website. I received very positive feedback from my students on both the detail and currency of the material. Also, having the material in electronic form has made it easy to edit and update.

In the fall of 2000 the CSE department at UT Arlington started a new online degree program and my course on Multimedia Systems was included as one of the electives towards this program. The online courses in this program were delivered over the web in an asynchronous manner. Students did not attend a classroom lecture but instead were provided all the course material on a CD. A website provided all the supporting material and a way for the student to track his/her progress on the course material. The course involved a quiz each week administered online and three programming projects. Having taught this course in this mode since 2000 and in a more traditional classroom setting since 1998, I gained a very good grasp on both the subject and how best to instruct it. A logical consequence of this exercise is the proposed book.

What are some current books on the subject?

Here is a list of books that are closely related to the subject of Multimedia Systems and their shortcomings:
  1. Multimedia Fundamentals, Media Coding and Content Processing, Ralf Steinmetz and Klara Nahrstedt. IMSC Press Multimedia Series, Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN 0-13-031399-8, 2002.

    This is by far the closest I have seen a book come in meeting the need for a book on Multimedia Systems. This is Volume 1 of a three volume series by the authors. This volume deals with the fundamentals of Multimedia covering a lot of concepts but not much depth on individual topics. While this is great for a casual reader and as quick reference for a researcher it does not serve well for a course. Students find it overwhelming when a book prescribed for a class talks about a lot of topics but not in much detail. Here are specific examples:
    1. Information theory is the foundation for all media representation and compression mechanisms. This book does not treat this topic at all. I believe this a glaring omission on the part of the authors.
    2. The book does not discuss any of the data compression mechanisms that are the essence of media representation. Specifically, coding mechanisms like Shanon-Fano, Huffman, Arithmetic coding Adaptive Huffman, and Dictionary-based coding mechanisms like Limpel-Ziv-Welch are only cursorily mentioned. The concepts underlying these algorithms give great insight in understanding standards like zip, JPEG, GIF, MPEG, H 261, H 263, etc.
    3. There are no quiz/review questions, problems or programming projects at the end of chapters. This omission alone makes it unsuitable for a course textbook.
  1. Handbook of Multimedia Computing, Editor-in-Chief Borko Furht, Publisher: CRC Press, ISBN 0-8493-1825-4, 1998.

    This is a collection of articles written by different sets of authors. The chapters are organized in a systematic way starting with the basics and building up to more advanced topics. However, the book is not very cohesive as there is no clear train of thought or consistent presentation style. Also, several of the chapters repeat some fundamentals. Such books are best suitable for advanced courses and not as introductory texts.

  2. Multimedia Systems, John F. Koegel Buford, Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional, ISBN: 0-201-53258-1, 1994.
    This book takes an approach that is a combination of the two books cited above. It does poorly on both accounts, as textbook and as a compilation of chapters written by several sets of authors. Further, the book is outdated with several of the topics being no longer relevant and some newer developments that are missing.

  3. Readings in Multimedia Computing and Networking, Kevin Jeffay and Hong Zhang, Publisher:  Morgan Kaufmann, ISBN: 1-55860-651-3, 2001.

    This is also a compilation of chapters by several sets of authors and suffers from the same failings on the book cited above by Borko Furht.

Who is this book targeted towards?

The book is an introductory text on Multimedia Systems. There are two categories of audience that are targeted
  1. Undergraduate and Graduate Courses: As a textbook recommended for a senior-level undergraduate course and a graduate introductory course on Multimedia Systems. At the undergraduate level a course on Multimedia Systems can be Elective course in most departments. The graduate level course can be either an elective (breadth) course or the first course in a track on Multimedia Systems.
    The following list shows some universities where such a course is taught:
    1. CMPT 365: Multimedia Systems, Simon Fraser University,
      Website: http://www.cs.sfu.ca/CourseCentral/365/li/index_prev.html
    2. ECE 160: Multimedia Systems, Stanford University.
      Website: http://www-db.stanford.edu/~echang/Class/ece160/
    3. CS 314: Multimedia Systems, University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne.
      Website: http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/education/courses/cs314.html
    4. CSE 384M: Multimedia Systems, University of Texas at Austin.
      Website: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/vin/Classes/CS384M-Fall01/main.htm
    5. CS 460: Fundamentals of Multimedia, Illinois Institute of Technology.
      Website: http://multimedia.rice.iit.edu/
    6. CS 095: Multimedia Systems, University of Vermont.
      Website: http://www.cs.uvm.edu/~xqzhu/cs095.htm
  1. Researchers and Practitioners: Though the primary target of the book is to serve as a textbook for a structured course there is a secondary role it can play as a reference or a supplement to researchers. While the majority of the book focuses on the theory underlying Multimedia systems design, the theory is presented in the context of practical use. That is, there is discussion about the standards that adopted this theory and practical applications of Multimedia.