Multimedia Systems

AuthorGeorge Mundrake
Pages527-530

Page 527

Multimedia can be defined as any application that combines text with graphics, animation, audio, video, and/or virtual reality. A computer system is a combination of equipment (hardware), processes and programs (software), and people organized to perform a function. Combining these definitions, a business multimedia system includes equipment, programs, and people organized for the purposes of communication, data storage and retrieval systems (multimedia databases and electronic filing systems), information security, and Internet use (Web pages and electronic-business applications).

Within organizations, multimedia systems are used in all forms of information systems from transaction processing

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systems to executive decision support systems. These systems also can be found across industries such as accounting, banking, communications, education, entertainment, insurance, manufacturing, medical, retailing, and real estate. Anywhere there is a need for combining text, pictures, sounds, and animation, multimedia systems are found.

Multimedia systems are used for security to keep intruders out of a system and for the protection of stored documents. Scanning devices are available to scan potential user's eyes (retina imaging) or thumb prints to gain access to a computer or site. Other systems can scan a person's signature or capture voice pattern recognition for the same purposes. Stored text, pictures, original document images, sound files, and video files can be protected through encryption methods, read/write protection, password management, and copyright protection that keep intruders from copying or accessing sensitive files.

ANALOG SYSTEMS

Analog multimedia systems use books, documents, films, photographs, records, tapes, videotapes, and many other forms of media to store text, sounds, and pictures. As technology improves, converting from one medium to another and combining different media formats becomes difficult and cumbersome.

Analog systems are being replaced with systems that digitize the original documents and store them on digital media; nevertheless, analog systems still remain vital for legal, historical, and research purposes. Many new companies have come into existence for the sole purpose of converting analog media into digital formats.

COMPUTER-BASED MULTIMEDIA

Technological advances have changed the hardware and software used for developing multimedia from the traditional analog equipment to computer-based or digital multimedia systems. Computers use 0s and 1s to store and process sounds, still graphics (pictures), and motion video. Text scanning, digital imaging (using digital cameras and scanners), sound cards, and analog video-capturing devices sample, compress, and convert analog media into a series of 0s and 1s (digital) signals for processing by a...

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