This PSEB 7th Class Computer Notes Chapter 7 Introduction to Multimedia will help you in revision during exams.
PSEB 7th Class Computer Notes Chapter 7 Introduction to Multimedia
Introduction:
Multimedia is an interactive media and provides many powerful ways to present information to the user. It provides communication between users and digital information. It is a medium of communication. Some of the areas where multimedia is widely used are education, training, reference materials, business presentations, advertising and documentation.
Multimedia:
Multimedia is a form of communication that combines different types of data such as text, audio, images, animations or video into a single presentation. Multimedia is a computer based technology where all kinds of information can be digitally presented, displayed, processed and transmitted.
As the name suggests, multimedia is a combination of multi and media. Multi means many and media means the way by which data can be transmitted or sent. Email, newspaper, messaging, radio, TV context, etc. are all examples of media.
Components of Multimedia
1. Text: Text is the primary part of multimedia and the most common way of conveying information to another person. It is a combination of characters and certain symbols. Text is commonly used to send messages. In multimedia we can present text in a very attractive way using fonts, colors and styles. The most commonly used software for viewing text files are Microsoft Word, Notepad, WordPad etc.
We can use two types of text in multimedia.
(а) Static Text: Static text is a simple text that we use to type messages or other documents or given along with images to describe the image.
(b) Hypertext: Hypertext is text that contains links to other texts. These texts are displayed on the screen with blue underline. By clicking on this text we can easily and quickly go to the linked page.
2. Images: Every multimedia presentation is based on images. In multimedia we make the concept more effective and presentable with the help of images. Sometimes we do not like to read the large amount of text therefore images are used to explain the concept in very easy manner.
There are two types of images:
(a) Raster or Bitmap Images: Bitmap images are real images that are captured from digital cameras or scanners.. A bitmap is a simple matrix of small dots called a pixel that creates a raster or bitmap image. Each pixel contains two or more colors. Generally bitmap images are not editable. Bitmap images require a large amount of memory.
(b) Vector Images: Vector images are drawn using lines, circles and other mathematical equations. These images remain smooth even when zoomed in. Vector imagery requires less memory to store and thus we can use less data to represent the image. These images are editable.
3. Audio: In multimedia audio means recording or playing sound, speeches, music etc. Audio is an important part of multimedia because the concept that we cannot understand in the form of text, we explain in audio format.
Some sound formats are:
(a) MIDI: The full name of MIDI is Musical Instrument Digital Identifier. It is a communication tool developed for computers and electronic devices. It’s a flexible and easy way to create music projects in multimedia.
(b) Digital Audio: Digital audio is a better alternative to MIDI files. Digital sound files are created from predefined music to record live music. We can digitize any type’of sound. These files are larger in size than MIDI. The sound quality of these files is better than MIDI files. A special format is used for digital audio. This is called a WAV. Commonly used software for playing audio files is: Quick Time. Real Player, window media player.
4. Video: Video means moving pictures with sound. This is the best way to communicate with each other. It is used in multimedia to present more information and saves a lot of time. The most commonly used software for watching videos are: Quick Time, Real Player, window media player.
The video is divided into two parts:
(a) Analog Videos: Analog video is created in a video camera. Analog video, represents moving visual images (video) in the form of analog signals. The red, green and blue intensities are used to record these videos.
(b) Digital Videos: Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data. Digital video is audio/visual data in a binary format. Information is represented as a sequence of zeroes and ones.
5. Animation: Animation is the process of displaying multiple images one after the other. In traditional animation, to show on film, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Animation is a method in which images are shown as a video at high speed. For example Cartoon movies, games etc.
There are two types of animation:
(а) Path Animation: In this animation, path geometry is used as an input.
(b) Frame Animation: In this animation, pictures are shown moving in a frame.
Features of Multimedia:
- Photo Gallery: Show your photos arranged in a nice-looking grid format.
- Slideshows: Combine your pictures with music and animate them in a slideshow.
- Audio Player: Add music, podcasts or other audio files to your website.
- Video Player: Upload videos and display them in a professional player or embed videos directly from video sharing websites such as http:// www.youtube.com
- Embedded Documents: Embed already existing documents from script.com or other document sharing websites directly into your website for easy viewing.
Requirements of Multimedia
In multimedia, projects are created by combining text, graphics, sounds, videos, etc. These projects require verity of hardware and software. These hardware and software are based on the need of the project, budget and its presentation. The hardware and software commonly used in multimedia are as given ahead:
Hardware Requirements
The following hardware is required to create multimedia apps. This hardware include inputs, outputs and storage devices.
1. Input Devices: Those devices which are used to enter data and instructions into a computer are called input devices. They add text, graphics, sounds, videos, etc. to projects. The following are the input devices used in multimedia.
(a) Keyboard
(b) Mouse
(c) Scanner
(d) Touch Screen
(e) Microphone
(f) Voice Recognition System
(g) Digital Camera
(h) Joystick
(i) Light Pen
2. Output Devices: Those devices which are used to receive data from a computer. For example printing a document, displaying images on a screen and playing audio or video. Below are the names of some of the output devices.
(а) Monitor
(b) Audio Devices
(c) Video Devices
(d) Projectors
(e) Speakers
(f) Printers etc.
3. Storage Devices: The process of permanently saving data and instructions is called storage, and the devices in which multimedia projects are stored are called storage devices. The following are some of the storage devices used to store multimedia projects:
(a) Hard Disk Drive
(b) Magnetic Tape
(c) RAM
(d) CD-R, CD-RW, DVD
(e) Pen Drive
(f) External Disk Drive
Software Requirements
Multimedia software is a tool used to edit and manage the key elements of multimedia such as text, graphics, sound, animation and video.
The following are some of the specific software used for multimedia projects.
- Adobe Director
- Create Together
- Media Blander
- Media Works
- Play mo
- Multimedia Builder
- 4 File Format for Multimedia
File formats are designed to store specific types of information. Such as JPEG for storing raster data, AI for storing vector data, WAV and MPEG for storing audio data and video data. Before reading about the file format in multimedia, we need to know how many types of files are in multimedia.
Multimedia consists of 3 types of files which are mentioned ahead:
- Uncompressed: These are the files which are not compressed and are capable of storing a large file size.
- Lossless: Files that can be compressed and when they are compressed there is no loss in image quality such as (Vector images) which do not lose quality even when zoomed in and the image will remain clear.
- Lossy: Files that lose their quality when compressed. Such as bitmap Images. The easiest way to find any file type is to look at the file extension. The file extension determines which file it is.
Audio File Format
Audio file format is the file format used to store digital audio data on a computer system. Below are some audio file formats:
- MP3: The full form of MP3 is MPEG audio Layer-3. It is a standard technology and format that reduces the size of the file by one-tenth of the actual size and does not allow any loss in sound quality. The extension of these files is MP3.
- WAV: The most popular audio file format in Windows for storing compressed sound files. In order to the reduced the size of the files, these files can be converted to MP3 file format. The extension of these files is WAV.
- WMA (Window Media Audio): These file formats are used to encode digital audio files similar to MP3. It can compress files at a higher rate than MP3. WMA files can be compressed to any size to match many different connection speeds or bandwidths. Their file extension is .wma.
- AAC (Advanced Audio Coding): The default audio format of Apple iTune. They work very well on Apple computing but do not work on web browsers. Their file extension is .aac.
- Real Audio: This format has been developed by Real Media to allow steaming of audio with low bandwidth. Its file extensions are ,rm, .ram.
Video File Format
Video files are a collection of images, audio and other data. The following are many different formats for encoding and saving video data.
- AVI (Audio Video Interleave); One of the oldest video formats developed by Microsoft. Due to its simple architecture, these files are able to run on different systems such as Windows, Macintosh, Linux. The file extension of these files is .avi.
- MPEG (Moving Pictures Expert Group): The first popular video format on the web is MPEG, These are compressed video files that can store both audio and video files. The file extension of these files is .mpeg.
- MP4: MP4 is one of the earliest digital video file formats introduced in 2001. Most digital platforms and devices support MP4. An MP4 format can store audio files, video files, still images and text. In addition, MP4 delivers high quality video with relatively small files. The file extension of these files is .mp4.
Image File Format
There are many different image formats and image file extensions that can be used to create and save images to a computer. The most common image formats are listed below:
1. TIFF: Stands for Tagged Image File Format. TIFF file format is widely used bitmapped file format. TIFF files originally use lossless compression. Today TIFF files also use lossy compression according to the requirement. It allowing for very high-quality images but also larger file sizes.TIFF can store many different types of image such as 1 bit image, grayscale image, 8 bit color image, 24 bit RGB image etc. It is supported by many image editing applications, software used by scanners and photo-retouching programs. The file extension of these files is .tiff.
2. BMP: The bitmap file format (BMP) is a very basic format supported by most Windows applications. BMP files are uncompressed. It allowing for very high-quality images but also larger file sizes. Therefore, these are not suitable for the internet. BMP can store many different type of image: 1 bit image, grayscale image, 8 bit color image, 24 bit RGB image etc. The file extension of these files is .bmp.
3. GIF (Graphics Interchange Formats): The GIF format is one of the most popular on the Internet due to its compact size. They are widely used for web graphics, as they are limited to 256 colors and can be animated. The file extension of these files is .gif.
4. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Groups): Jpeg is a “loosy” format meaning it compresses the image to make it a smaller file. Compression of the image causes loss of image quality but this loss is usually not noticeable. JPEG files are very common on the Internet and JPEG is a popular format for digital cameras. The file extension of these files is -jpeg.
5. PNG (Portable Network Graphics): PNG files are a lossless image format designed to actually improve and convert GIF format. Unlike the 256 colors supported by GIF, PNG files can handle up to 16 million colors. The file extension of these files is .png.
6. RAW: Raw images are images that are not processed by a camera or scanner. Most digital SLR cameras can shoot in RAW format. The file extension of these files is raw.
Creating text files and using a word processor is the most common task on a computer. The following are the most common file formats used to store text files and documents.
- RTF (Rich Text Format): Rich Text Format is a primary file format. Files of this format can be read in any word processor. The file extension of these files is .rtf
- Plain Text: Plain text files can be opened, read and edited with most text editors. The most commonly used text editors are Notepad (Windows), Gadget or Nano (Unix, Linux), Text Edit (Mac OS) and more. Other computer programs are also capable of reading and importing plain text. Plain text is a real and popular way to deliver an email.
Multimedia Presentation
The multimedia presentations are electronic documents that can include text, diagrams, graphics, photographs, sounds, animations, video clips etc.
Multimedia presentations are used to convey a message to others using a variety of communication methods. These presentations usually include text, animation, video, audio or interactive features such as forms, popup and more. First presentations were offering by Microsoft PowerPoint. You could say that most PowerPoint presentations are multimedia presentations. Today there are many multimedia presentation creators available who use various tools to make the presentation attractive which attracts the attention of the audience.
The following should be kept in mind when creating a multimedia presentation.
- Text should be kept to a minimum in multimedia presentations.
- The level of audio and music quality should be good.
- The keyboard and mouse should be accessible for the convenience of the user.
- Multimedia presentation should be effective and small in size.
Types of Multimedia Presentation
There can be many types of multimedia presentations, some of which are as follows:
1. Virtual Presentation: Where hosts and viewers attend the presentation remotely, are becoming common place. It is a technology that allows us to gather information on any topic and create a virtual presentation using high technology hardware software tools.
2. Slide Presentation: A slide is a presentation page. A group of slides is known as a slide deck. A slide show is a display of a series of slides or images in an electronic device or on a projection screen. A slide can be a 35 mm slide seen with a slide projector. Presentation slides can be created in many pieces of software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, LibreOffice Effects, Preeze,
3. Web Presentations: When we add audio, video, animation etc. to web pages instead of static photos and text, web Pages turn into web presentations.
Applications of Multimedia
Multimedia is the most fast growing area in the field of information technology. A Multimedia is an application which uses media sources like text, images, sound/ audio, animation and video on a single platform. Following are the common areas of applications of multimedia.
1. Education: Multimedia is used to teach students in school and colleges. Nowadays multimedia CDs are used instead of text books.
2. Business: Multimedia applications are used in business for marketing, advertising, network communications, online shopping and more. It is also used in commercial marketing to motivate customers to buy products. ‘
3. Advertisement: Advertising industry uses multimedia to promote businesses, products and services. Multimedia advertising is done using animations and graphic design. Television, radio and print advertising are the most common mediums used in advertising.
4. Entertainment: Multimedia is widely used in the entertainment *> industry. It is used especially in movies and video games to create special effects. Music and video apps are a great example of multimedia in entertainment.
5. Public Places: Multimedia is available in many public places like trade ’ shows, libraries, railway stations, museums, malls, airports, banks, hotels and exhibitions in the form of kiosks. It provides information to the customers and helps them.
6. Software: Software engineers can use multimedia in computer entertainment to design everything from entertainment to digital games; it can be used as a learning process.
7. Medical Services: Multimedia also use in Hospitals. For surgery methods, Tiny digital cameras are inserted in human body and it displays the inner scene of the body. In this way the medical practitioners were , able to see the inner part without examine it.
Note:
- Multimedia is a combination of the two words multimedia and media.
- Multi means many, media means mean of communication such as newspaper, email, radio, television.
- The five main elements of multimedia are text, voice, pictures, animation and video.
- Hardware and software are essential elements for multimedia.
- There are two types of images in multimedia: raster images and vector images.
- Multimedia has two types of videos: analog video and digital video.
- Animation is a method in which pictures are sorted and played as a video. For example: Cartoon movies.
- Multimedia applications are use in education, banking, entertainment, advertising, hospital field.