My Wild Experiences with Multimedia
Multimedia is anything and everything that we watch and
listen in the form of text, photograph, audio, video, and many. As the name
implies, Multimedia is the integration of multiple forms of media. This
includes text, graphics, audio, video, etc. For example, a presentation
involving audio and video clips would be considered a "multimedia
presentation." Multimedia refers to that which uses several media
simultaneously in the transmission of information. The concept applies to
systems that appeal to multiple physical and digital media to communicate their
contents. Newspapers were perhaps the first mass communication medium to employ
Multimedia -- they used mostly text, graphics, and images. Mainly there are five
multimedia elements, which include text, image, audio, video, and animation.
Multimedia has become an enormous power in today's world of
technology. The influence of multimedia can see in every aspect of our lives.
From business to advertising, mass communications to entertainment, science,
and technology to education, we see multimedia influencing one way or another. Parents
and teachers are not the only important "teachers" of young children:
the media plays a large role in the education and socialization process. My first
exposure to multimedia as a child was mostly through the television. Programs
like Sesame St., Jonny Quest, the Electric Company helped me not only learning
new concepts but also facilitated my cognitive development in higher-level
thinking, problems solving and collaborative skills development since my other siblings and
friends of my age used to watch those programs together (I was raised in
Pakistan and these programs were telecasted in the early evening hours). One of
the benefits of multimedia learning is that it takes
advantage of the learner's cognitive engagement to make connections between
verbal and visual representations of content, leading to a deeper
understanding, which in turn supports the transfer of learning to other
situations. Multimedia helps in understanding and learning since it is very
similar to direct human contact (face to face). In a conversation, we observe
the speaker (which would be equivalent to a video) and listen to him (audio)
while accompanying his words with gestures and body movements (animations).
My first notable experience with multimedia was when I was
studying mechanical engineering. A few of the subjects like Stress-Strain Analysis
(methods to determine the stresses and strains in materials and structures
subjected to forces), Structural Vibrations (a process that monitors the levels
and patterns of vibration signals within a component, machinery, or structure,
to detect abnormal forces, and to analyze how healthy the machines and their
components are), were complicated. The unseen forces and their impact on the
machine components, or aeronautical equipment were hard to visualize and
calculate structural integrity was problematic for many of us. Our noble
professors used multimedia to show us the structural forces, and software to
show any miscalculation may result in component fatigue and failure. Those
exercises were very informative and helpful to understand complicated concepts.
Here are some of the videos to explain stress analysis and vibration control
designs.
The Stress Analysis
An Introduction to Vibration Analysis
In my professional life, I was involved in designing and commissioning of a Municipal Waste to Energy Facility. Due to the enormous coat of the project, the Ministry of Economic Development had to be convinced to fund the project. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats were mostly financial experts and had no idea that trash could be used as a raw material in a power plant. Feasibility reports and other technical documents could not do an excellent job of convincing the officials. When I played an animated video on the working of a WTE plant, everyone was convinced that it could be a viable and profitable project. Using persuasive but straightforward animation videos had a positive and attitude changing effect on my audience. The project was approved, and a plant is working near the major landfill of Lahore, Pakistan.
A Waste to Energy Facility
Multimedia's cornerstones are integration, interactivity,
hypermedia, immersion, and narrativity. The principles of integration and
hypermedia are concerned with combining and linking separate forms of media
into a single work that creates a new experience. Interactivity allows the
audience to manipulate and affect his expertise to make it unique.
The future remains unknown. However, the prevalence of
interactive multimedia may be lasting and enduring. Interactive installations allow
the audience to become participants instead, and this quality is what makes it
such an everlasting relevant form of multimedia in contemporary times. The
inclusion of multiple aspects of multimedia in interactive art proves that it
is versatile that it can easily be adapted for modern audiences, as the
changing contexts and meanings of media transform to fit the present-day world.
The world in front of us will be a mix of reality and the virtual, and, at
times, it will be unable to decipher which one is which. Information will be
displayed, floating in the air....the web will appear in the real world, not
just on glass screens.
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