Page 145 - DCAP104_EXPOSURE_TO_COMPUTER_DISCPLINES

Exposure to Computer Disciplines

Notes Multimedia games and simulations may be used in a physical environment with special effects,
with multiple users in an online network, or locally with an offline computer, game system, or
simulator.
The various formats of technological or digital multimedia may be intended to enhance the users’
experience, for example to make it easier and faster to convey information or in entertainment or
art, to transcend everyday experience.

Figure 7.1: A Lasershow is a Live Multimedia Performance

Enhanced levels of interactivity are made possible by combining multiple forms of media content.
Online multimedia is increasingly becoming object-oriented and data-driven, enabling applications
with collaborative end-user innovation and personalization on multiple forms of content over time.
Examples of these range from multiple forms of content on Web sites like photo galleries with
both images (pictures) and title (text) user-updated, to simulations whose co-efficients, events,
illustrations, animations or videos are modifiable, allowing the multimedia “experience” to be
altered without reprogramming. In addition to seeing and hearing, Haptic technology enables
virtual objects to be felt. Emerging technology involving illusions of taste and smell may also
enhance the multimedia experience.
7.2.2 Word Usage and Context

Since media is the plural of medium, the term “multimedia” is a pleonasm if “multi” is used to
describe multiple occurrences of only one form of media such as a collection of audio CDs. This
is why it’s important that the word “multimedia” is used exclusively to describe multiple forms
of media and content.
The term “multimedia” is also ambiguous. Static content (such as a paper book) may be
considered multimedia if it contains both pictures and text or may be considered interactive if
the user interacts by turning pages at will. Books may also be considered non-linear if the pages
are accessed non-sequentially. The term “video”, if not used exclusively to describe motion
photography, is ambiguous in multimedia terminology. Video is often used to describe the file
format, delivery format, or presentation format instead of “footage” which is used to distinguish
motion photography from “animation” of rendered motion imagery. Multiple forms of information
content are often not considered modern forms of presentation such as audio or video. Likewise,
single forms of information content with single methods of information processing (e.g. non-
interactive audio) are often called multimedia, perhaps to distinguish static media from active
media. In the Fine arts, for example, Leda Luss Luyken’s ModulArt brings two key elements of
musical composition and film into the world of painting: variation of a theme and movement of
and within a picture, making ModulArt an interactive multimedia form of art. Performing arts
may also be considered multimedia considering that performers and props are multiple forms
of both content and media.

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