December 1999
TM220 : INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA

QUESTION 1 (Compulsory)

Total Marks: 30 Marks

• Question 2
• Question 3
• Question 4
• Question 5
• Cover Page

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
Solutions and allocated marks are indicated in green.
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When developing a multimedia application you need to go through a number of steps. What are the six basic steps that you need to go through?

Concept Definition;Storyboard Design;Development of Multimedia Building Blocks; Authoring;Testing and Revision;Delivery. One mark each.

Presentations can be classified into four levels,depending on their complexity.What are those levels?

Slide presentations, Multimedia presentations,Interactive multimedia presentations, Multimedia Web pages. One mark each.

For two of the levels described in part (b),explain in what ways they differ from each other,and how those dfferences make them suitable for different applications.

Slide presentations vs Multimedia:the latter may include sound (1),moving images (1),thereby making them more attention-grabbing (1),and better-suited to certain forms of content (1).They are therefore more expensive to produce (in general terms), so there is a trade-of .(1).

Multimedia vs interactive multimedia:the latter allow the user to interact and change the presentation (1),whereas the former are fixed and unchanging (1).The former may work well used by a presenter (1);the latter for end-user driven work (1).The latter are therefore more expensive to produce (in general terms),so there is a trade-of .(1). etc. Allow marks for any reasonable comparisons.

Why is sound important in a multimedia presentation?

to reinforce a message or theme (1),
to set the mood (1),
to catch the interest of and alert the audience (1),
to include narration effectively in training and educational applications (1).

One mark each.

What is AfterBurner?

AfterBurner takes DIR files,compresses them (1),and broadcasts them through the Web as DCR files (1).The main purpose of AfterBurner is to reduce the down-load times by 40-70 percent (1).

Describe the term scrolling text.Give an example of a situation where scrolling text might be useful.

Some authoring programs make it easy to incorporate large blocks of text into a multimedia application for individual users (1).You can handle large amounts of text as scrolling text (1).The feature may attach a scroll bar to one side of the text box (1).

Example:a licence agreement within a Wizard (1). There are plenty of examples to choose from.

When preparing to distribute a multimedia application,it is important to keep in mind the likely system configurations of its target users.Describe two application features which must be considered,and why.

Any two from the following,or similar:

Number and length of digitized videos:keep to a minimum (1).To avoid over-large applications,and over-slow presentations (1).

Window size of the digital video should not exceed one quarter of the screen (1) (similarly,minimize colour depth (1)).To avoid over-large applications (1).

Sound files:use AIF file format;do not integrate (1).To avoid over-large applications (1).

Text should be bitmapped and included at a suitable resolution (1).To avoid missing font problems (1).