Multimedia simplicity just a few clicks away

Monday, October 25, 1999

ALEX LO

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E-mailing an audio to the Government, downloading a high-resolution movie and a personalised multimedia Web page will soon be possible with a few mouse clicks. And esoteric computer languages such as HTML will soon be a thing of the past as users of ordinary desktops with power manipulate objects in a multimedia environment with simple cut-and-paste commands.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology researchers cutting-edge compression technology that allows audio and video files to be manipulated and transmitted quickly through the Internet and other computer networks.

This new software uses advanced compression techniques - developed by engineers and computer scientists at the university's new Multimedia Technology Research Centre - to save on computing power. Compression to the use of computer instructions called algorithms to select and condense digital data for larger storage and quicker .

Many of the functions described are ready for commercial use. "They allow a novice user a multimedia scene in a three-dimensional spatial environment consisting of audio and video objects as well as texts, graphics and animation," centre director and associate professor of computer science Ishfaq Ahmad said. "The scene can be used as a multimedia presentation or a multimedia document to be transmitted over the Internet as an e-mail message. Consider it the next of e-mail."

Major telecommunication, broadcasting and computer companies in Hong Kong and overseas have entered into a with the centre but Professor Ahmad declined to name them.

Copyright © 1999 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. Reproduced with permission.

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