multimedia assignment 1

Multimedia Systems Development

IT441

College of Computing and Informatics

Question One

1.5 Marks

Learning Outcome(s): LO1

Explain the origin and evolution of modern multimedia.

Question Two

2.5 Marks

Learning Outcome(s): LO1

Explain the origin and evolution of modern multimedia.

 He contributed to the development of Ethernet, laser printing, and client-server architecture

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alan-Kay​

Steve Jobs

Founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak.​

Macintosh computer introduced in 1984​

· Graphical desktop and Icons provide user interface.​

· First mass produced computer with built in sound support.​

· Multimedia computing became the standard for modern computers'

iMac (1998) + iPod (2001) + iPad (2010): These three devices fall into the same category. With them, the Californian “tweaker” proposed reinventing three devices that seemed to him to be stagnant and/or useless: the personal computer, the MP3 player and the tablet PC. In all three cases his strategy was the same. He led teams of talented designers and software engineers and had them invent more and more prototypes. Then he eliminated the vast majority until he was left with one that did not upset him and, from that prototype, he had ​​them start over, once again refining, looking for simplicity and beauty.

iPhone: This same “Jobs method” was the key to developing the iPhone, perhaps the technological work that definitively exalted the president of Apple in 2007. Rather than reinventing the smartphone, the iPhone integrated functions of other mobile devices such as MP3 players, GPS navigators or even cameras, almost sweeping the market. The key to integrating all these capabilities into a single terminal was reinventing the operating system, again putting together pieces that already existed: icons, touchscreens and gesture control (like using two fingers to enlarge or reduce a picture on the iPhone, or swiping the screen to unlock the phone).

Typography on screen: One of the major innovations of the original Macintosh was that it showed on the screen the font chosen for the text. Until then, what was drawn on computer screens was just like on a typewriter. It was on the insistence of Steve Jobs that the first Mac had the ability to display different fonts. As he explained in his famous speech at Stanford University, this effort was due to a fleeting period in college when he was bored and decided to take a course in calligraphy.

https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/technology/visionaries/5-inventions-steve-jobs/

Question Three

1 Marks

Learning Outcome(s): LO1

Explain the origin and evolution of modern multimedia.

Write at least two important challenges of Digital Data Systems.

DIGITAL INFORMATION — CHALLENGES​

File sizes are large.​

Digital media is processor intensive (massive).​

Absence of media standards renders data files incompatible.​

Some media requires high bandwidth to distribute on networks.​

Concern for longevity and future accessibility of digital data. (Preservation for future)

Security

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File Sizes

Digitization often produces very large files. This is particularly true of dynamic media, that is, media that changes over time, such as sound or video. A minute of CD-quality sound produces a file of over 10 MB. A minute of uncompressed full-screen, full-fidelity (24-bit) video takes up approximately 1.7 GB. At these sizes, digitized dynamic media soon tax the limits of available storage and processing in most personal computers.

Solutions to the challenge of large file sizes involve improvements in hardware and software. Many of these focus on compressing the original files. MPEG2, for instance, uses compression software in conjunction with specialized hardware to reduce the size of video files. It compresses video at about a 150:1 ratio and still retains excellent quality. Other solutions include hard drives with storage capacities in the hundreds of gigabytes and optical technologies such as DVD. DVD (digital versatile disc) uses an optical disc the same size as a CD-ROM but increases the storage capacity from the CD’s 650 MB to a potential 17 GB. An extension of the DVD standard, blu-ray, increased storage to 50 GB per disc based on four layers (see Chapter 3).

Processor Demand

Large digital files also burden a computer’s processor (see Chapter 3). Some forms of digitization are particularly processing-intensive. In the final stages of producing a 3-D animation, computers must make many calculations. This process, called rendering, may take many hours, or in the case of lengthy and complex presentations, days and weeks, to complete (see Chapter 9). In the case of the 3-D animated film Avatar, some individual frames would have required 100 hours of processing time from a single computer. At 24 frames per second, each second of the sequence would require 100 days to render. The producers met the rendering challenge with a “render farm” that combined 40,000 processors in a 10,000-square-foot, water-cooled data center. In the final stages of rendering the processors ran 24 hours a day for over a month.

Standardization

The development of multimedia technology is a competitive process in which different organizations pursue a variety of strategies to develop new software and hardware. As a result, a number of different conventions for encoding and manipulating digital data are created. These are often incompatible: data formats that work with one type of hardware or software do not work with others.

The absence of a common standard fragments the multimedia market and discourages the development of new applications. Over time, a combination of market forces and the work of standards committees generally produce a dominant standard. This, in turn, spurs the development of multimedia products and services. In the early stages of CD technology, different computer manufacturers used different standards for encoding data. The development of a common standard (ISO 9660) made it possible for most computers to access the information on any CD, thus encouraging the development of many more multimedia applications.

Bandwidth

Communications networks, especially the World Wide Web and cellular data services, greatly facilitate the distribution of digital multimedia. A basic challenge for network users is bandwidth. Bandwidth is the rate at which digital data can be transmitted over a communication medium, or band. For instance, in a basic 56 Kb modem connection, the medium is the twisted-pair copper wire of a telephone line and the data rate is 56 kilobits per second (56 Kbps, note lowercase b). Fifty-six kilobits is just 7 bytes, a very slow data rate for large multimedia applications. Improvements that have helped to meet the bandwidth challenge include dedicated digital lines such as T1 (1.54 Mbps), DSL (digital subscriber line, up to 8 Mbps), cable modems (up to 52 Mbps), fiber optics (100 Mbps or more), and wireless networks such as Bluetooth (2 Mbps), Wi-Fi (up to 54 Mbps) and 4G cellular (100 Mbps).

Preservation

As digital media continue to displace their analog counterparts, there is growing concern about the longevity and future accessibility of digital data in all its many forms. Although digital encoding supports much more economical and accessible modes of archiving, serious challenges remain in two key areas: (1) the durability and reliability of long-term storage media such as digital tape, CDs, and DVDs, and (2) the availability of the hardware and software required to read the archived files. These are serious concerns for individuals and organizations alike. Individual family members may have much less access to the digital photos of earlier generations than their ancestors had to the analog prints preserved in albums in drawers, closets, and attics. Governments, courts, hospitals, law firms, and businesses of all kinds also clearly have a substantial stake in the preservation of digital data.

The challenges of preserving this data are already clear. Digital tapes must be periodically refreshed and the long-term durability of optical formats, especially the recordable and rewritable variants, is not completely known. Other widely used technologies, such as flash drives, are even more susceptible to degradation with repeated use. This is a widely recognized problem and a subject of active research that is likely to produce a better understanding of the prospects for media longevity. On the other hand, each new technology will continue to raise these questions, and concerns about media preservation are likely to continue.

The second major challenge is to also preserve access to, and operability on, archived digital data. For this, appropriate hardware and software are essential. The rapid obsolescence of storage devices, processors, and software, including both applications and operating systems, means that perfectly well-preserved files may no longer be readable. While it may sometimes be possible to preserve older software and hardware in operating condition, far more promising solutions are migration and emulation.Migration is the process of updating digital data to a form that can be read and manipulated by current hardware and software. In the context of preservation, emulation is the use of a new technology to reproduce the operability of an older one. In effect, new hardware and software mimic the capabilities of their predecessors. Both migration and emulation pose demanding challenges with respect to issues such as file compatibility and maintaining full interoperability, including the original functionality of advanced products such as interactive multimedia applications.