A scalable approach to continuous-media processing

Techniques that emphasize software reuse and scalability are becoming more important than ever. We present a component-based model for continuous-media applications. Components encapsulate expert knowledge and facilitate reuse. They provide a toolkit that is used to create a wide range of continuous-media applications. Our model is scalable in several dimensions: media transformations, number of processors, number of configurations, media types, and processing and communication requirements. The paper is organized as a catalog of four software patterns. Developers and researchers working on continuous-media applications can also benefit from and apply software patterns.