A novel multimedia synchronization model and its applications in multimedia systems

A synchronization problem, which always arises when sound, video, motion pictures and other media are brought together and integrated into a computer system, is one of the most important issues in multimedia communications and applications. In a time-sharing and multi-process environment such as the UNIX operating system, the traditional synchronization mechanism results in two fatal defects, namely, audio discontinuity and out of synchronization between the audio and video signals. A novel media synchronization model in a multi-process environment is proposed. Based on this model, a continuous media playback module was implemented and served as the key component of the two multimedia systems developed in the Communication and Multimedia Laboratory of National Taiwan University. One is the multimedia authoring system which provides interactive VCR-like operations and audio/video editing facilities. The other is a prototype of the VOD (video on demand) system which provides video browsing facility. Both systems show that the performance of the proposed synchronization model is quite satisfactory