Model-Driven Development of Interactive Multimedia Applications

The development of highly interactive multimedia applications is still a challenging and complex task. In addition to the application logic, multimedia applications typically provide a sophisticated user interface with integrated media objects. As a consequence, the development process involves different experts for software design, user interface design, and media design. There is still a lack of concepts for a systematic development which integrates these aspects. This thesis provides a model-driven development approach addressing this problem. Therefore it introduces the Multimedia Modeling Language (MML), a visual modeling language supporting a design phase in multimedia application development. The language is oriented on well-established software engineering concepts, like UML 2, and integrates concepts from the areas of multimedia development and model-based user interface development. MML allows the generation of code skeletons from the models. Thereby, the core idea is to generate code skeletons which can be directly processed in multimedia authoring tools. In this way, the strengths of both are combined: Authoring tools are used to perform the creative development tasks while models are used to design the overall application structure and to enable a well-coordinated development process. This is demonstrated using the professional authoring tool Adobe Flash. MML is supported by modeling and code generation tools which have been used to validate the approach over several years in various student projects and teaching courses. Additional prototypes have been developed to demonstrate, e.g., the ability to generate code for different target platforms. Finally, it is discussed how models can contribute in general to a better integration of well-structured software development and creative visual design

Clinical protocols enabling evidence based medicine practice in healthcare software solutions

Estágio realizado na ALERT Life Sciences Computing, S. A.Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 200

Web-based computer assisted laboratory instruction

The feasibility of computer-assisted instruction in a practical laboratory has been explored in this work. Computer assisted instruction (CAI), in which educational instruction is delivered through a computer, has been a popular area of research and development. Computer assisted laboratory instruction (CALI), on the other hand, has not been systematically studied in the past as literature reveals. In the work conducted in this research, the concept of CALI has been examined by developing a web-based multi-media CALI package for Control Systems laboratory that is used by around 100 students annually in the School of Electrical, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering, University of Wollongong. Some elements of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) have been also incorporated to increase the flexibility of the instruction provided. A systematic approach has been employed to develop the specifications of the package and design its structure to ensure its effectiveness. The latest tools in Web development have been employed to achieve all the defined specifications efficiently and systematically. The outcome is a system that has proved very effective in its operation and instruction for the students in the laboratory. In addition to the specific results and benefits produced directly as the result of employing the package in Control Laboratory, the study has also generated outcomes that are generic and can be considered in the application of the approach in any practical laboratory

Web tools: An aid for cognitive learning

The purpose of this project is to provide students and teachers with a disk of tools to aide in the development of Web pages either in the classroom or through online (distance education) learning. Many of the tools supplied on this disk have been field tested in a high school Web design class. When students are allowed to be creative and are able to fuse interesting visual displays the results can be significant in increasing cognitive and multiple intelligences skills

Interactive 2D and 3D Graphics over the World-Wide Web with ActionScript

Many efforts have been made to provide a mechanism for delivering interactive 3D content over the World-Wide Web. The majority of the solutions put forward require the use of a proprietary plug-in on the client browser and none of these required plug-ins have so far become part of the standard browser installation package. The Macromedia Flash player has however achieved near ubiquitous status as the standard plug-in for displaying interactive multimedia and graphics content. Flash does not provide native support for 3D graphics but the recent addition of the Shape Drawing API opens up the possibility of developers using ActionScript for this purpose. This paper describes the development of an ActionScript graphics library that consists of a set of reusable classes for adding interactive 2D and 3D graphics to Flash content. We describe these classes in detail, show examples of programs developed using them, and discuss the advantages of this approach

A Browser-Based Collaborative Multimedia Messaging System

Making a communication tool easier for people to operate can have profound and positive effects on its popularity and on the users themselves. This thesis is about making it easier for people to publish web-based documents that have sound, video and text. Readily available software and hardware are employed in an attempt to achieve the goal of providing a software service that enables users to compose audio-video documents with text

The Creation of a Multimedia Tutorial Based on the Traditional Model of Communication

Computer mediated multimedia learning is playing an increasingly important role in education. This study seeks to create and implement an interactive multimedia tutorial on the process of communication. The tutorial will be based on the traditional basic model of communication in used entry level undergraduate speech communication courses. The study examines the evolutionary development of the basic model of communication as well as models currently in in use popular textbooks. The study also examines educational theory, visual communication and multimedia learning as they pertain to the creation of the communication tutorial

Panoramic Multimedia Walkthrough ofUTP Campus

This report is on the project that aims to apply the concept of Virtual Walkthrough using Panoramic Images to promote the facilities available in the campus of University of Technology PETRONAS (UTP). A panorama can be defined as a wide picture or image that shows 100° to 360° widths. The end result of the project will be a Web application that provides imaging information about the hotspots in UTP. The system is meant to promote UTP to potential students who want to enroll themselves into the university; the majority is students who have just left secondary school. This project is aimed to contribute towards multidimensional disciplines such as virtual reality technology and multimedia

Virtual Field Trip via Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is a practice of combining digital content such as 3-dimensional images, text, sound, images, and video to create a short story. It is the intersection between the old art of storytelling and access to powerful technologies. This project will be a step to experiment the development and effectiveness of digital storytelling and hopefully ignite a source of motivation and encourages others to tap into their interests and skills to develop their own digital storytelling and expand ICT usage in this country. School children look forward to traditional field trips. However, such trips are costly. VFT aims to reduce if not eliminate the constraints that traditional field trips face such as money, time, energy, resources, distance and inaccessible area. To fit the time frame, the VFT is created only for small selected areas in the KL Bird Park even though the KL Bird Park is not that big because some of the areas are not suitable to take panoramic pictures. The development of the VFT is adapted from QTVR Creation Steps by Kitchens (2006). The procedure consists of defining the problem statements and goals, literature review and research, creating image content through taking photos at the site, transforming the photos to QTVR node through stitching, design and construct prototype, inserting interactivity such as hotspots, delivering the output, and last but not least, evaluation. The final output of the project is the KL Bird Park Virtual Field Trip which consists of a photo based 3D panoramic images for each scene from the site which are linked to one another and also hotspots which are placed on the panoramic images to reveal the birds' information with one click on the hotspots. The informal evaluation of the final output that was conducted shows an overwhelming response and acceptance. All of the respondents would like to see more of this type of VFT in the future