A Software-Oriented Approach to the Design of Media Processing Environments

Authors:
D. L. Tennenhouse, J. Adam, D. C. Carver, H. Houh, M. Ismert, C. Lindblad, W. Stasior, D. Weatherall, D. Bacher, and T. Chang

Proceedings of the International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems, pp. 435-444, May 1994.

Abstract:
The ViewStation system embodies a software-oriented approach to the support of interactive media-based applications. Starting from the premise that the raw media data, e.g., the video pixels themselves, must eventually be made accessible to the application, we have derived a set of architectural guidelines for the design of media processing environments. The resultant ViewStation system, as described in this paper, consists of the VuSystem, a complete media programming environment, and the VuNet, a substrate for the acquisition, communication and rendering of video and closed caption text.

We describe a set of computer-participative applications that demonstrate the present day viability of applications that participate in, i.e., actively process, the flow of media-based information. Early performance results illustrate the affordability and benefits of our software-oriented approach.

(postscript)
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