A synchronization scheme for multimedia annotation

Multimedia annotation is of benefit to many multimedia applications in the enhancement of presentation, instruction, and communication. In the present paper, we make use of voice and electronic pen as annotation media in the designing of a multimedia annotation and playback system. Our contributions are as follows: 1) a time-based synchronization mechanism is developed which takes care of not only voice and electronic pen movement temporal synchronization issue but also electronic pen movement spatial synchronization problem; and 2) file storage and replay mechanisms are devised to handle multimedia storage process and to facilitate interactive presentation process during replay phase. We implemented the proposed system on the Microsoft Windows 95 platforms in the Multimedia Information Networking Laboratory (MINE) at the Tamkang University.