The increasing use of multimedia systems has led to a need for retrieval mechanisms not just for static media (such as text and graphics) but also for the "new" dynamic media (timevariant media such as audio and video). All these media are indexable by physical attributes, but as yet generally only text and graphics are indexable to a further level of granularity by content. This paper explores the issues associated with attaching application-dependent semantics to objects which occur visually (or otherwise) within video sequences. The principles discussed here make particular reference to video, but they shouldbe general enough to be applicable to other dynamicmedia such as audio, or even smell and tactility. Thus, they describe an extension of the anchor concept common in hypermedia models towards a more general mechanism, applicable to a wide range of media. The paper first describes a general concept for accessing the contents of dynamic media by considering two points of view -- ...

Global information management systems based on the vision of the "docuverse" -- such as the WorldWide Web (WWW) -- show that on-line access to vast amounts of distributed information is possible not only for the expert, but also for the end user. At the same time, the availability of affordable mid- and longrange wireless data communication services, based, e.g., on cellular phone technology, has put the vision of ubiquitous mobile information access within the reach of viable projects. It is now an interesting challenge to combine both concepts into a system model granting everyone ubiquitous access to the global information repository. However, problems such as low bandwidth and limited resources make this a non-trivial task. This paper describes MIS/0, an experimental mobile information system based on wireless data communication which has been developed at the Computer Graphics Center during 1994. MIS/0 and its underlying concepts address the above mentioned problem areas by introd...

Relatively cheap and widely available wireless data communication services are available to the mass-market. Within the coverage of the cellular network used,the vision of information access for `everyone, anytime, anywhere' has become reality. A Global Information Visualization environment can be imagined where the vision of `All information at your fingertip' is reality. In this environment, every information, data, or tool available on any computer connected to the global network is directly accessible to the user. However because of the low bandwidth of wireless networks and the limited resources of mobile hardware, the handling of highly interactive distributed multimedia applications faces severe problems. The objective of `Mobile Visualization' is to provide effective solutions to these problems. This paper discusses the relevant aspects of systems and data models for Mobile Visualization and tries to provide an integrative view on the field based on the vision of Global Informa...

India’s most valued and revered gift not only to Herself but also to the entire humanity is its profound and timeless heritage. It is for this reason the Indian heritage is to be properly grasped, understood, documented and apprehended and made accessible to widespread audience. However, this task is not easy. In Indian context, concept of heritage is explained in detail taking into account the broader vision of humanity. A fundamental problem associated with the new classes of visual data and their related analysis is that they focus, (despite their appearance) on abstract information, which does not automatically map onto the physical world. Thus, many interesting classes of visual information have no natural and obvious metaphorical representation. Once this is accepted, then it is necessary to visualize the complete picture of the heritage tree, that enables to express a logical flow of such tree with more authenticity, and in a metaphoric fashion to put it in digital form, with better human-computer interaction. In this research paper, effort is to bring the clarity in the structure of Indian Heritage to express it in the form of Visual Metaphor Model, while undertaking a work of creation of ‘digital library (DL) of Indian heritage’.

. Today'sworld wide distributed information systems, like, e.g., the World Wide Web, enable the homogeneous, simple access to all kinds of globally distributed scientific data (images, graphics, simulation results, etc.) and services. At the same time, wireless data communication enables location independent data access from mobile computing systems. An interesting challenge is the generalization and integration of both concepts, providing mobile access to scientific and multimedia data in a unified, globally distributed repository, the "Infoverse". The focus of the MOVI project outlined in this paper is the location independent visualization of scientific and other multimedia data accessible in the Infoverse. This scenario is met by mobile computers like laptops or palmtops, being connected via wireless networks to communication servers, as well as by mobile users accessing the Infoverse through stationary "telephone cell" computers. This paper describes first concepts of a system arc...