SMIL State: an architecture and implementation for adaptive time-based web applications

In this paper we examine adaptive time-based web applications (or presentations). These are interactive presentations where time dictates which parts of the application are presented (providing the major structuring paradigm), and that require interactivity and other dynamic adaptation. We investigate the current technologies available to create such presentations and their shortcomings, and suggest a mechanism for addressing these shortcomings. This mechanism, SMIL State, can be used to add user-defined state to declarative time-based languages such as SMIL or SVG animation, thereby enabling the author to create control flows that are difficult to realize within the temporal containment model of the host languages. In addition, SMIL State can be used as a bridging mechanism between languages, enabling easy integration of external components into the web application. Finally, SMIL State enables richer expressions for content control. This paper defines SMIL State in terms of an introductory example, followed by a detailed specification of the State model. Next, the implementation of this model is discussed. We conclude with a set of potential use cases, including dynamic content adaptation and delayed insertion of custom content such as advertisements. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

InfoLink: analysis of Dutch broadcast news and cross-media browsing

In this paper, a cross-media browsing demonstrator named InfoLink is described. InfoLink automatically links the content of Dutch broadcast news videos to related information sources in parallel collections containing text and/or video. Automatic segmentation, speech recognition and available meta-data are used to index and link items. The concept is visualised using SMIL-scripts for presenting the streaming broadcast news video and the information links

Requirements for an Adaptive Multimedia Presentation System with Contextual Supplemental Support Media

Investigations into the requirements for a practical adaptive multimedia presentation system have led the writers to propose the use of a video segmentation process that provides contextual supplementary updates produced by users. Supplements consisting of tailored segments are dynamically inserted into previously stored material in response to questions from users. A proposal for the use of this technique is presented in the context of personalisation within a Virtual Learning Environment. During the investigation, a brief survey of advanced adaptive approaches revealed that adaptation may be enhanced by use of manually generated metadata, automated or semi-automated use of metadata by stored context dependent ontology hierarchies that describe the semantics of the learning domain. The use of neural networks or fuzzy logic filtering is a technique for future investigation. A prototype demonstrator is under construction

Adding state to declarative languages to enable web applications

On the web, media tend to be encoded in declarative formats, which facilitate accessibility, reuse, and transformation. Web applications, on the other hand, are created with more procedural technology and do not enjoy these benefits. In this thesis we examine how this can be fixed. We examine a small part of the problem space, adaptive time based applications, and investigate how we can extend existing declarative languages to fa

Processing Structured Hypermedia : A Matter of Style

With the introduction of the World Wide Web in the early nineties, hypermedia has become the uniform interface to the wide variety of information sources available over the Internet. The full potential of the Web, however, can only be realized by building on the strengths of its underlying research fields. This book describes the areas of hypertext, multimedia, electronic publishing and the World Wide Web and points out fundamental similarities and differences in approaches towards the processing of information. It gives an overview of the dominant models and tools developed in these fields and describes the key interrelationships and mutual incompatibilities. In addition to a formal specification of a selection of these models, the book discusses the impact of the models described on the software architectures that have been developed for processing hypermedia documents. Two example hypermedia architectures are described in more detail: the DejaVu object-oriented hypermedia framework, developed at the VU, and CWI's Berlage environment for time-based hypermedia document transformations

Separation of educational and technical content in educational hypermedia

The creation and development of educational hypermedia by teachers and educational staff is often limited by their lack of computing skills, time and support from the educational institutions. Especially the lack of computing skills is a hinderance to most of today’s educational experts. The problem is to find out how those educational experts could be supported by computer based tools which are tailored especially to their needs without having any technical limitations. In this study the separation of technical and educational content in educational hypermedia is examined as a solution to this problem. The main hypothesis of this study is that the separation of technical and educational content is possible if it is based on a fine-grained structure of different teaching and learning strategies and their conversion into an authoring tool. Such an authoring tool would make the creation of educational hypermedia very easy for teachers and therefore enable them to overcome the existing obstacles. The development of a new model, the creation of a new XML language and the implementation of a new authoring tool form the basis for a detailed investigation. The investigation was done by undertaking several research tasks like the evaluation of the XML language and the authoring tool by a group of educational experts of different knowledge domains, the practical usage of the authoring tool for the creation of real-life based educational material and the analysis of the gained research results. The analysis of the qualitative data showed that the separation of educational and technical content in educational hypermedia is possible and that it can be applied by educational experts with low computing skills as well as by technical experts with no educational background. Furthermore, the analysis allowed some additional insights into the creation of educational material by teachers and how it can be improved. The main conclusion of this study is that authoring tools in educational hypermedia should use the separation of educational and technical content based on different teaching and learning strategies which allows educational experts with low computing skills to create educational content for delivery via the World Wide Web