Anthony Y. Chang

Toward a generic spatial/temporal computation model for multimedia presentations

Relations among temporal intervals can be used to assist the automatic generation of multimedia presentations. The authors analyze the domains of interval temporal relations. A set of algorithms is proposed to derive reasonable relations between intervals. Possible conflicts in the user specification are firstly detected and eliminated. The mechanism then constructs partial order relations among temporal intervals before the presentation time chart is built. The algorithm is extended for objects in an arbitrary n-dimensional space. Thus, presentation layouts in 2-D space, or virtual reality object representations in 3-D space can be constructed. They use their algorithms to design a reasoning system that generates the schedule and layout of multimedia presentations.

The algebra of spatio-temporal intervals

The relations among temporal intervals can be used to model all time dependent objects. We propose a fast mechanism for temporal relation compositions. A temporal transitive closure table is derived, and an interval-based temporal relation algebraic system is constructed. Thus, we propagate the time constraints of arbitrary two objects across long distances n by linear time. We also give a complete discussion of different possible domains of interval relations. A set of algorithms is proposed to detect time conflicts and to derive reasonable interval relations. The algorithms are extended for time-based media in an arbitrary n-dimensional space.

Indexing and retrieval scheme of the image database based on color and spatial relations

We propose a new approach to retrieve images from an image database. We combine both color and spatial features of a picture to index and measure the similarity of images. We propose a new automatic indexing scheme of the image database according to our clustering method which could filter the image efficiently. As a technical contribution, a Seed-Filling like algorithm that could extract the shape and spatial relationship feature of the image is proposed. Also, the system is incorporated with a visual interface, which allows the user to specify objects as the spatial specification of pictures. With color identification and spatial similarity functions, the preliminary experience shows that the system is able to retrieve image information of a very high satisfaction.

Design of consistent SMIL documents for distributed multimedia presentation using temporal algebra

We aim to develop an intelligent multimedia presentation system that supports the presence of multiple distributed multimedia objects, as well as human-computer interaction. We develop a temporal algebra system as multimedia synchronization model to unify media presentation time and interaction event. The synchronization models are generalized by composing point-interval temporal relations with qualitative and quantitative functions. We also construct an automatic reasoning framework in which to help user design presentation more easily. The presentation system generates SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language) documents automatically after the author designing. SMIL is provided to describe multimedia presentation to be distributed over the Web. Users could search presentation document, media attribute, and semantics from presentation database.

Design of an intelligent distributed multimedia presentation system using temporal algebra and SMIL

We have developed an intelligent multimedia presentation system that supports the presence of multiple distributed multimedia objects, as well as human-computer interaction. Several computation algorithms and operation tables, which include a set of complete temporal logic, are proposed. Using the authoring environment, authors can describe the temporal behavior of a multimedia presentation, specify the layout of the presentation on a screen, and associate hyperlinks with media objects over the Internet. The presentation system generates SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) documents automatically after designing by an author. A SMIL player can be implemented to present other SMIL documents. The player can also analyze the SMIL presentation contents, and record grouping objects, time, linking, structure, and reasoning results.

An efficient color-spatial indexing and retrieval scheme for image database

We present a new method of retrieving images from an image database. We combine both color and spatial features of a picture to index and measure the similarity of images. Several color spaces that are widely used in computer graphics are discussed and compared for color clustering. In addition, we propose a new automatic indexing scheme of image databases according to our clustering method, which could filter the image efficiently. As a technical contribution, a Seed-Filling like algorithm that could extract the shape and spatial relationship feature of the image is proposed. Also, the system is incorporated with a visual interface, which allows the user to specify objects as the spatial specification of pictures. Our experience shows that the system is able to retrieve image information efficiently by the proposed color-spatial approach.

The specification and implementation of a virtual university software system

Distance learning is one of the interesting research topics of distributed computing. This paper discusses a joint research project between the University of Aizu in Japan and Tamkang University in Taiwan. A software system supporting virtual university operations is proposed. The software architecture is designed based on three criteria of virtual university operations: administration, awareness and assessment. Specifications of each tools in the system are proposed, with some implementation details and solutions being discussed. We also point out some interesting research directions in the realization of a virtual university.

Interval algebra for spatio-temporal composition of distributed multimedia objects

Relations among temporal intervals can be used to model time dependent objects. The extension of temporal relation results in many researches related to the spatio-temporal modeling of distributed objects. We propose a fast mechanism for temporal relation compositions. A temporal transitive closure table is derived, and an interval-based temporal relation algebraic system is constructed. Thus, we propagate the time constraints of arbitrary two objects across long distances n by linear time. A set of algorithms is proposed to derive reasonable relations between intervals. Possible conflicts in the user specification are detected and eliminated. The algorithms are extended for time-based media in an arbitrary n-dimensional space. The contributions of these algorithms and the interval algebra system can be used to detect and eliminate time conflicts, to generate the schedule and layout of multimedia presentations, to model interval-based synchronization specifications, to analyze the distributed real-time playout, to denote the semantics of natural language sentence tense, and to capture the temporal semantics among distributed multimedia objects.

Multimedia presentation designs using spatial/temporal relations

The importance of knowledge underlying temporal interval relations was found in many disciplines, such as artificial intelligence, linguistics, and information science. We developed a set of algorithms based on temporal interval relations for the automatic generation of both schedule and layout of multimedia presentations. A multimedia presentation system is developed on Windows 95 to justify the feasibility of our approach.

A Qualitative Approach to Content-Based Color Image Retrieval with Chinese Captions

This paper presents an intelligent method of retrieving images with Chinese captions from an image database. We combine color, shape and spatial features of the image to index and measure the similarity of images. As a technical contribution, a Seed-Filling like algorithm that could extract the shape and spatial relationship feature of images is proposed. Due to the difficulty of determining how far objects separate, we use qualitative spatial relations to analyze object similarities. Also, the system is incorporated with a visual interface and a set of tools, which allows the users to express the query by specifying or sketching the images conveniently. Besides, our feedback learning mechanism enhances the precision of retrieval. Our experience shows that the system is able to retrieve image information efficiently by the proposed approaches.