Multimedia Frontiers
After completing this chapter, you will be able to:
- Understand how researchers invent new uses for multimedia and use multimedia technology to find new methods for solving problems
- Consider what kinds of printed books can be or should be replaced by electronic books
- Know what is meant by the term rural datafication
- Explore how virtual reality will improve the multimedia user interface
- Dream about the multimedia possibilities of appliance-based computing
- Consider whether there are other frontiers of multimedia that ought to be explored
- Join and participate in the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Publishing
How much longer will books, magazines, and newspapers continue to be printed on paper? Anyone who has used hypertext knows how printed manuscripts pale by comparison. Printed manuscripts do not contain links that let you expand the text and navigate to related information; hot words that let you trigger explanatory sound tracks, videos, or animations; or full-text Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) searching that lets you locate quickly the material you need. Follow the Multilit Web site links to emerging technologies that are making electronic publishing become a reality. See especially the Microsoft Reader timeline, which predicts that by the year 2020, 90% of all book titles will be sold in electronic rather than paper form, and Webster's Dictionary will have changed its first definition of book to mean, "a substantial piece of writing commonly displayed on a computer or other personal viewing device."
Regulating the Internet
Many citizens are concerned about how the government goes about developing policies to regulate the Internet. So many people are concerned about this that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has become one of the most frequently visited sites on the Web. To see for yourself, follow this link to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and while you are there, decide for yourself whether you want to join the organization. Instructions for joining are provided at the EFF site.
Virtual Reality
Multimedia computers can show any picture, play any sound, and link any word of any document or any part of any picture to any object on your computer. What's missing? A better human interface. We need better ways for users to communicate with multimedia computers. Follow this link to learn how the Web3D Consortium is working to bring virtual reality to the Web.
Lawnmower Man
If you have never seen the movie Lawnmower Man, treat yourself. You can rent it from almost any video store or online video provider. Watching Lawnmower Man will make you wonder whether multimedia computers will ever be able to enable users to experience VR immersion to the extent Jobe Smith (Jeff Fahey) does in the movie.
