Describing the MIPS multimedia presentation system with the IMMPS reference model

The Web contains a lot of information but computers can't do very much with it. We have access to and a need for a lot of information (thanks to pervasive information devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, smart devices, TV, radio...) but we don't have time to find and make associations between information every time we want to. Given the need for quick, intuitive access to information, multimedia presentation is an effective form of communication - different media act as a better means to communicate dependant on the context, and synchronization (organisation of media in space and in time) can express non- verbally relationships between the content (e.g. linear presentation to represent a timeline of events). Appropriately delivering content in the form of synchronized multimedia is a complex task which needs to meet the requirements of the user, device, and actual context. This proves to be too complex to be fulfilled by manually authoring for all possibilities. This has lead to efforts in developing systems for (semi-)automatic multimedia generation. Knowledge representation techniques developed in earlier AI work are being applied to the World Wide Web. Through standards such as RDF and OWL, the so-called "Semantic Web" offers the potential of a large scale distributed knowledge repository built upon the existing Web infrastructure. This makes powerful amounts of knowledge available to Web-based applications as the basis for a new paradigm of Web-oriented services which are intelligent, dynamic, flexible and user-centred. Such services could find the information we need and present it to us in an effective manner. The current situation of Web content discovery and delivery displays significant disorder and inflexibility: natural language is problematically ambiguous and Web content is only adaptive to a limited extent. Using the Semantic Web, intelligent Web clients will be able to deliver the correct information every time by unambiguously understanding the meaning of queries and reasoning on them (through the knowledge available to them on the Web) to come to an answer. Likewise, Web resources will be described with metadata that supports their selection, adaptation and presentation to the needs of the client. Such a paradigm shift in Web-based systems (from content to knowledge-centred) requires a similar paradigm shift in system models, architectures, implementations and operations. This is equally the case for multimedia presentation systems. We propose a framework for a new type of multimedia presentation system in which the multimedia generation process is tightly integrated with the distributed knowledge of the Semantic Web. Unlike previous work in which knowledge is narrowly defined and used by the system, this approach is built with the scale and dynamics of the Web in mind. We name this framework SWeMPs - a Semantic Web-enabled Multimedia Presentation System. The key results of our research are the conceptual model for a multimedia presentation system and the generic rule base which interacts with that model (through querying, reasoning and deriving new knowledge) to realise individual multimedia generation tasks. These form the basis for an implementation of a multimedia presentation system which is fundamentally different from existing multimedia presentation systems in that it operates at the logical or conceptual level rather than the data or syntactic level. This reflects the reality that what users seek is information (knowledge about concepts) and effective communication of that information (respecting the relationships between concepts). It leverages the potential of the Semantic Web as a distributed, large scale, accessible repository of knowledge about the world of the user just as systems today use the Web as a repository of content. The implementation of this proposal serves as a 'proof of concept' and as a basis for the evaluation of the new approach through use cases.

Multimedia presentations are composed of objects belonging to different data types such as video, audio, text and image. An important aspect is that, quite often, the user defining a presentation needs to express sophisticated temporal and spatial constraints among the objects composing the presentation. We present a system (called MPGS-Multimedia Presentation Generator System) which supports the specification of constraints among multimedia objects and the generation of multimedia presentations according to the specified constraints. The constraint model provided by MPGS is very flexible and powerful in terms of the kinds of object constraints it can represent. A large number of innovative features are supported including: asynchronous and simultaneous spatial constraints; components of interest and priority levels; motion functions. Obviously, the flexibility provided to the users requires the development of nontrivial techniques to check constraint consistency and to generate a presentation satisfying the specified constraints. We illustrate the solutions we have devised in the framework of MPGS.

In this paper we argue that the automatic generation of dynamic multimedia presentation requires both low-level collections of objective measurements for media units representing prototypical style elements, and high-level conceptual descriptions supporting contextual and presentational requirements. Only the combination of both facilitates the retrieval of adequate material and its user-centred presentation. We discuss the problems of visual signification for images in dynamic systems and explain how a combined approach can help overcome such problems. We then propose an architecture for such a system and present its applicability for a museum-oriented multimedia system with a working example.

Traditionally, research in applying Semantic Web technology to multimedia information systems has focused on using annotations and ontologies to improve the retrieval process. This paper concentrates on improving the presentation of the retrieval results. First, our approach uses ontological domain knowledge to select and organize the content relevant to the topic the user is interested in. Domain ontologies are valuable in the presentation generation process, because effective presentations are those that succeed in conveying the relevant domain semantics to the user. Explicit discourse and narrative knowledge allows selection of appropriate presentation genres and creation of narrative structures, which are used for conveying these domain relations. In addition, knowledge of graphic design and media characteristics is essential to transform abstract presentation structures into real multimedia presentations. Design knowledge determines how the semantics and presentation structure are expressed in the multimedia presentation. In traditional Web environments, this type of design knowledge remains implicit, hidden in style sheets and other document transformation code. Our second use of Semantic Web technology is to model design knowledge explicitly, and to enable it to drive the transformations needed to turn annotated media items into structured presentations.

Semi-automatic inductive construction of reference process models that represent best practices in public administrations: A method

We are interested in the development of distributed multimedia information systems that use the HyTime international standard as the data model and interchange format. We have developed and implemented a prototype system in which interactive multimedia presentations can be stored and retrieved. Sample document instances are externally encoded in HyTime and stored in the database using the HyTime data model. The architecture and operation of our system are presented. Issues related to using a HyTime engine for general multimedia presentation and interchange are discussed.

In this study, 3-dimensional flow characteristics around three concept EV models were computed for steady, incompressible, and viscous flow, adopting a realizable k-εturbulence model. In order to research the relationship between different structure of models and aerodynamic drag, comparative study were carried out for the aerodynamic characteristics of three concept EV models at a high Reynolds number, Re≈8.2×106(base on the vehicle length). As a result of this study, the new concept EV model with low aerodynamic drag was completed by integrating the advantages of three reference models.

This paper proposes a novel approach to quantifying the quality degradation of Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony in the presence of codec and network-related impairments. This approach differs from the baisc ITU-T E-Model for VoIP quality estimation in that it addresses mixed narrowband/wideband scenarios. It makes novel use of instrumental models and symbolic regression via Genetic Programming (GP) to enable the evolution of degradation models from a modest set of initial parameters. Here, a two-step approach has been used. First, values of impairment factors are derived using WB-PESQ as a reference model. Secondly, a GP based symbolic regression approach has been utilized to automatically evolve the functional form of equipment impairment factors from a set of variables. Very few a priori assumptions are made about the model structure. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by a number of generated models which compare favorably with WB-PESQ and outperform the traditional E-Model in terms of prediction accuracy when compared using WB-PESQ. A significant advantage of the approach is that new models are easily generated to account for continuing evolution of the VoIP standards.

With the development of pervasive systems and positioning technology, the analysis of data resulting from moving objects trajectories has attracted a particular interest. Those data are called trajectory data and are stored in a suitable repository called trajectory data warehouse (TDW). TDW view definitions are constructed from heterogeneous mobile information sources schema. Those latter are more and more autonomous and they often evolve by changing their contents and/or their schema then the TDW view definition may become undefined and consequently the analysis process may be affected. For this reason, it is important to achieve view definitions restoring or synchronization following schema changes occurred at the heterogeneous mobile information sources. The goal of this paper is to propose a TDW view definition maintenance based on mobile agent view adaptation system.

This paper describes a new semantic metadata-based approach to describing and integrating diverse data processing activity descriptions gathered from heterogeneous organisational sources such as departments, divisions, and external processors. This information must be collated to assess and document GDPR legal compliance, such as creating a Register of Processing Activities (ROPA). Most GDPR knowledge graph research to date has focused on developing detailed compliance graphs. However, many organisations already have diverse data collection tools for documenting data processing activities, and this heterogeneity is likely to grow in the future. We provide a new approach extending the well-known DCAT-AP standard utilising the data privacy vocabulary (DPV) to express the concepts necessary to complete a ROPA. This approach enables data catalog implementations to merge and federate the metadata for a ROPA without requiring full alignment or merging all the underlying data sources. To show our approach's feasibility, we demonstrate a deployment use case and develop a prototype system based on diverse data processing records and a standard set of SPARQL queries for a Data Protection Officer preparing a ROPA to monitor compliance. Our catalog's key benefits are that it is a lightweight, metadata-level integration point with a low cost of compliance information integration, capable of representing processing activities from heterogeneous sources.

Model reference adaptive control based on Popov's hyperstability theory is applied to the trajectory tracking control of a two-link SCARA-type manipulator, and its effectiveness is examined experimentally. A linearized state equation with an optimal state feedback is used as a reference model. The similarity of the structure of the model and a real system like this is useful for simplifying the design of the adaptive control system. Further, by introducing a new adaptation law which consists of a combination of linear and non-linear control, it is possible to reduce high frequency chattering in the control inputs. The results of a simulation and experiment show that by adding a rather simple adaptation mechanism to a conventional state feedback, the effects of Coulomb frictions and parameter identification errors are removed and the accuracy of trajectory tracking is greatly improved.

This chapter has reviewed the requirements for the communications subsystem in each of a set of interconnected computers that enables them to communicate in an open way to perform various distributed application functions. The philosophy behind the structure of the ISO Reference Model for open systems interconnection has been presented and a description of the functionality of the seven layers that make up the reference model described. Finally, a selection of the ISO/CCITT standards that have been defined have been identified.

Relations among temporal intervals can be used to assist the automatic generation of multimedia presentations. The authors analyze the domains of interval temporal relations. A set of algorithms is proposed to derive reasonable relations between intervals. Possible conflicts in the user specification are firstly detected and eliminated. The mechanism then constructs partial order relations among temporal intervals before the presentation time chart is built. The algorithm is extended for objects in an arbitrary n-dimensional space. Thus, presentation layouts in 2D space, or virtual reality object representations in 3D space can be constructed. They use the algorithms to design a reasoning system that generates the schedule and layout of multimedia presentations.

The information present in Hospital Information Systems (HIS) is heterogeneous and is used primarily by health practitioners to support and improve patient care. Conducting clinical research, data analyses or knowledge discovery projects using electronic patient data in secondary care centres relies on accurate data collection, which is often an ad-hoc process poorly described in the literature. This paper aims at facilitating and expanding on the process of retrieving and collating patient-centric data from multiple HIS for the purpose of creating a research database. The development of a process roadmap for this purpose illustrates and exposes the constraints and drawbacks of undertaking such work in secondary care centres. A data collection exercise was carried using a combined approach based on segments of well established data mining and knowledge discovery methodologies, previous work on clinical data integration and local expert consultation. A case study on prostate cancer was carried out at an English regional National Health Service (NHS) hospital. The process for data retrieval described in this paper allowed patient-centric data, pertaining to the case study on prostate cancer, to be successfully collected from multiple heterogeneous hospital sources, and collated in a format suitable for further clinical research. The data collection exercise described in this paper exposes the lengthy and difficult journey of retrieving and collating patient-centric, multi-source data from a hospital, which is indeed a non-trivial task, and one which will greatly benefit from further attention from researchers and hospital IT management.

Distributed multimedia presentation systems require flexibility and good quality of service for multimedia data presentations. To ensure flexible and satisfiable presentations of multimedia data, collaborations between servers, network, and clients must be carefully designed to retrieve the data from the disk and transfer the data to the client. In this paper we investigate a multi-level buffering and feedback scheme to guarantee the on-time retrieval and transmission of multimedia data in the distributed multimedia presentation environments. In the multi-level buffering scheme, both client and server buffers are designed and collaborated to support the end-to-end multimedia data transmission. These buffers can absorb the rate variations of media streams in different locations. Local and remote feedback messages are used to dynamically prevent buffer overflow/underflow problems. Experiments demonstrate that highly smooth and synchronized presentations of multimedia streams can be supported.