Research directions in multimedia systems

The growth of the availability and use of multimedia systems in the next few years is likely to be enormous. The market, initially driven by consumers wishing stand alone systems with multimedia capabilities mainly for games, will extend rapidly into the requirement for truly integrated and networked multimedia systems. The driving force for this, as we are already seeing, is the availability of the Internet and world wide web (WWW) and the plans to provide networking to every home and workplace. The challenge for researchers in multimedia systems is how the stand alone systems can be transparently integrated with a wide number of different type of networks ranging from those providing high speed multi services to slower wireless based systems supporting mobile systems. In addition to the research into protocols to support such systems there is considerable research to be done in the provision of tools that allow the end user to take of advantage of the services offered. For example the need for intelligent browsers. This research will only be successful if a number of researchers from different areas are brought together. The author outlines some important areas that still need addressing. The main assumption made is that multimedia systems of the future will be distributed.