Enabling
Technologies
Digital Multimedia, 2nd edition
Nigel Chapman & Jenny Chapman
Chapter 2
This presentation © 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
2 32–33
Bits and Bytes
• Devices can only be in one of two states
• 0 or 1, yes or no, on or off, …
• Bit: a unit of data that can only have one of two
values
• Byte: an ordered sequence of eight bits
• Word: a short sequence of bytes, usually four
(32 bits)
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Interpretation of Bits
• Numbers to base 2 (binary)
• 01100001 = 97 decimal
• Characters – associate bit patterns (numbers)
with characters via a character set
• 01100001 = a in ASCII
• Brightness of an image at a point,
instantaneous amplitude of a sound wave, etc
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Addresses
• Each byte can be identified by its position in the
sequence of all bytes in memory – its address
• Collections of bytes can be combined into data
structures using addresses
• e.g. store an image as a sequence of
brightness values, use address of the first to
access the image data
• store a video sequence as series of images,
add address of next and previous to each
frame
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Instructions
• Bit patterns that cause the processor to carry
out operations on values stored in memory
• Hardware is constructed so that the desired
effect is achieved
• Programs stored in memory as a sequence of
instructions to be executed in order
• A computer is a stored program machine
• It can therefore be used for many different
tasks, depending on the programs it runs
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Digitization
• Converting a signal from analogue to digital
form
• Analogue signal can vary continuously, digital
is restricted to discrete values
• Two-stage process
• Sampling – measure the value at discrete
intervals
• Quantization – restrict the value to a fixed
set of quantization levels
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Sampling and Quantization
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Digital Signals
• Only certain signal values are valid
• Relatively immune to corruption by noise
• Do not degrade when copied or transmitted
over network
• Some information lost
• Undersampling
• Samples 'too far apart' so cannot accurately
reconstruct original signal
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Frequency Domain
• Any periodic waveform can be decomposed into
a collection of frequency components
• Each one is a pure sine wave
• The collection of frequencies and their
amplitudes represent the waveform in the
frequency domain
• Compute the frequency domain
representation (frequency spectrum) using
the Fourier Transform
• Higher frequency components are associated
with abrupt transitions
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Sampling Theorem
• If the highest frequency component of a signal
is at fh the signal can be properly reconstructed
if it has been sampled at a frequency > 2fh
• Nyquist rate
• Undersamping leads to aliasing
• Sound distortion, image 'jaggies' or Moiré
patterns, jerky or retrograde motion
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Too Few Quantization
Levels
• Reducing memory requirements by using fewer
bits for each value means fewer quantization
levels are available
• Cannot distinguish between values that fall
between levels
• Images: banding and posterization
• Sound: coarse hiss, loss of quiet passages,
general fuzziness (quantization noise)
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Hardware Requirements
• Consumption
• Capabilities of typical consumer systems
determine limits of what is feasible
• Mobile devices may impose even tighter
limitations
• Production
• Highly demanding on processor power,
memory, secondary storage (especially for
video)
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Peripherals
• High capacity disks connected via high speed
buses
• Firewire 400, Firewire 800, USB 2.0, SCSI III
• RAID arrays
• Graphics tablet and pressure-sensitive pen
• High-resolution monitor
• Digital camera, scanner, DV camera,…
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Software Requirements
• Applications for different media types
• Images: image editing, painting and drawing
(Photoshop, Illustrator)
• Text: editors, layout programs
• Video: editing and post-production
(Premiere, After Effects, Final Cut Pro)
• Animation: drawing, interpolation (Flash)
• Sound: editing and effects (Audition, Bias
Peak)
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Software Requirements
• Applications for combining media types
• 'Authoring systems'
• Timeline-based (e.g. Director)
• Markup-based for WWW (e.g. Dreamweaver)
• May require some programming in a scripting
language to provide interactivity
• Behaviours provide prefabricated
parameterized actions
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Networks
• Local area networks (LANs) connect several
computers on one site (Ethernet)
• LANs connected together by routers, bridges
and switches form an internet
• The Internet is a global network of networks
(internet) communicating via TCP/IP protocols
• Mostly operated by commercial Internet
Service Providers (ISPs)
• Domestic users connect via telephone, cable
or satellite
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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Internet Acess
• Dial-up connection uses modem and analogue
telephone line
• V90 modem, 56kbps maximum
• Broadband always-on digital connection (may
be as little as 512kbps, not true broadband)
• ADSL
• Cable
• Satellite
• Dedicated line (T1, T3)
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Download Times
kbps 100kB 100kB 4MB
(max) image image movie
slow
28.8 1.5s 28s 19mins
modem
fast
56 1s 14s 9mins
modem
T1 line 1544 <1s 1s 21s
Typical
6000 <1s <1s 5s
broadband
T3 line 44736 <1s <1s 1s
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Clients and Servers
• Servers listen on a communication channel for
requests from clients and send responses
• Often servers (the programs) run on
dedicated machines, also referred to as
servers
• Clients run on separate machines (e.g.
desktop computer)
• Interaction is governed by protocols
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
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The World Wide Web
• HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• Client (Web browser) sends request for a Web
page, server returns it (HTML document)
• Identify server and location of page from a URL
• http://domain name/path
e.g. http://www.digitalmultimedia.org/DMM/index.html
• Server may create page dynamically
• Communicates with other program via CGI
etc
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MIME Types
• Need to identify the type of media data in a
data stream in a platform-independent way
• MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension)
• Originally designed to allow inclusion of data
other than text in email, adopted by HTTP
• Content-type: type/subtype
• Types include text, image, audio, video,
application, subtypes define specific formats
• e.g. text/html, image/gif
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Standards
• "Standards are documented agreements
containing technical specifications … to be used
consistently … to ensure that materials,
products, processes and services are fit for
their purpose" (ISO)
• Ensure things that conform to standards are
interchangeable
• Multimedia standards concern file formats,
markup languages etc, and especially network
protocols
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Standards Organizations
• ISO (International Organization for Standards)
• All technical fields except electrical and
electronic engineering
• IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
• ITU (International Telecommunications Union)
• IT dealt with by joint ISO/IEC technical
committee
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Internet Standards
• Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) deals
with technical development
• Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)
registers MIME types, language codes, etc
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• No official status, but Recommendations are
treated as standards for the WWW
© 2004, MacAvon Media Productions
