The phenomenal growth in the use of the World Wide Web often places a heavy load on networks and servers, threatening to increase Web server response time and raising scalability issues for both the network and the server. With the advances in the field of optical networking and the increasing use of broadband technologies like cable modems and DSL, the server and not the network, is more likely to be the bottleneck. Many clients are willing to receive a degraded, less resource intensive version of the requested content as an alternative to connection failures. In this thesis, we present an adaptive content delivery system that transparently switches content depending on the load on the server in order to serve more clients. Our system is designed to work for dynamic Web pages and streaming multimedia traffic, which are not currently supported by other adaptive content approaches. We have designed a system which is capable of quantifying the load on the server and then performing the necessary adaptation. We designed a streaming MPEG server and client which can react to the server load by scaling the quality of frames transmitted. The main benefits of our approach include: transparent content switching for content adaptation, alleviating server load by a graceful degradation of server performance and no requirement of modification to existing server software, browsers or the HTTP protocol. We experimentally evaluate our adaptive server system and compare it with an unadaptive server. We find that adaptive content delivery can support as much as 25% more static requests, 15% more dynamic requests and twice as many multimedia requests as a non-adaptive server. Our, client-side experiments performed on the Internet show that the response time savings from our system are quite significant.

General purpose operating systems have been designed to provide fast, loss-free disk service to all applications. However, multimedia applications are capable of tolerating some data loss, but are very sensitive to variation in disk service timing. Present research efforts to handle multimedia applications assume pessimistic disk behaviour when deciding to admit new multimedia connections so as not to violate the real-time application constraints. However, since multimedia applications are ``soft' real-time applications that can tolerate some loss, we propose an optimistic scheme for admission control which uses average case values for disk access. Typically, disk scheduling mechanisms for multimedia applications reduce disk access times by only trying to minimize movement to subsequent blocks after sequencing based on Earliest Deadline First. We propose to implement a disk scheduling algorithm that uses knowledge of the media stored and permissible loss and jitter for each client, in addition to the physical parameters used by the other scheduling algorithms. We will evaluate our approach by implementing our admission control policy and disk scheduling algorithm in Linux and measuring the quality of various multimedia streams. If successful, the contributions of this thesis are the development of new admission control and flexible disk scheduling algorithm for improved multimedia quality of service.

Traditional methods of teaching the laboratory course for Comparative Anatomy of the Vertebrates could be improved by applying current computer technology to construct an interactive, multimedial atlas of dissection. Five specimens used in comparative anatomy courses at most institutions were chosen as representative members of the Phylum Chordata: amphioxus, lamprey, dogfish shark, mud puppy, and cat. Specimens were dissected according to the modified method of Wischnitzer, 1993, and each stage was photographed with a Kodak DC120 digital zoom camera. These images were processed on a Power Macintosh 7600 computer with Adobe Photoshop v. 5.0. The atlas was constructed from these images using Macromedia Authorware v. 4.0.3. Each image contains a series of interactive objects that display a highlight and descriptive text as the cursor passes over each object.

Production and consumption of multimedia content on the Internet is rising, fueled by the demand for content from services such as YouTube, Netflix and Facebook video. The Internet is shifting from host-based to content-centric networking. At the same time, users are shifting away from a homogeneous desktop computing environment to using a heterogeneous mix of devices, such as smartphones, tablets and thin clients, all of which allow users to consume data on the move using wireless and cellular data networks. The popularity of these new class of devices has, in turn, increased demand for multimedia content by mobile users. The emergence of rich Internet applications and the widespread adoption and use of High Definition (HD) video has also placed higher pressure on the service providers and the core Internet backbone, forcing service providers to respond to increased bandwidth use in such networks. In my thesis, I aim to provide clarity and insight into the usage of core networking protocols and multimedia consumption on both mobile and wireless networks, as well as the network core. I also present research prototypes for potential solutions to some of the problems caused by the increased multimedia consumption on the Internet.

A l'ère d'Internet, la classification informatisée des images est d'une importance cruciale pour l’utilisation efficace de l'énorme quantité de données visuelles qui sont disponibles. Mais comment les ordinateurs peuvent-ils comprendre la signification d'une image? La Recherche d’Information Multimédia (RIM) est un domaine de recherche qui vise à construire des systèmes capables de reconnaître automatiquement le contenu d’une image. D'abord, des caractéristiques de bas niveau sont extraites et regroupées en signatures visuelles compactes. Ensuite, des techniques d'apprentissage automatique construisent des modèles qui font la distinction entre les différentes catégories d'images à partir de ces signatures. Ces modèles sont finalement utilisés pour reconnaître les propriétés d'une nouvelle image. Malgré les progrès dans le domaine, ces systèmes ont des performances en général limitées. Dans cette thèse, nous concevons un ensemble de contributions originales pour chaque étape de la chaîne RIM, en explorant des techniques provenant d'une variété de domaines qui ne sont pas traditionnellement liés avec le MMIR. Par exemple, nous empruntons la notion de saillance et l'utilisons pour construire des caractéristiques de bas niveau. Nous employons la théorie des Copulae étudiée en statistique économique, pour l'agrégation des caractéristiques. Nous réutilisons la notion de pertinence graduée, populaire dans le classement des pages Web, pour la récupération visuelle. Le manuscrit détaille nos solutions novatrices et montre leur efficacité pour la catégorisation d'image et de vidéo, et l’évaluation de l'esthétique. / In the internet era, computerized classification and discovery of image properties (objects, scene, emotions generated, aesthetic traits) is of crucial importance for the automatic retrieval of the huge amount of visual data surrounding us. But how can computers see the meaning of an image? Multimedia Information Retrieval (MMIR) is a research field that helps building intelligent systems that automatically recognize the image content and its characteristics. In general, this is achieved by following a chain process: first, low-level features are extracted and pooled into compact image signatures. Then, machine learning techniques are used to build models able to distinguish between different image categories based on such signatures. Such model will be finally used to recognize the properties of a new image. Despite the advances in the field, human vision systems still substantially outperform their computer-based counterparts. In this thesis we therefore design a set of novel contributions for each step of the MMIR chain, aiming at improving the global recognition performances. In our work, we explore techniques from a variety of fields that are not traditionally related with Multimedia Retrieval, and embed them into effective MMIR frameworks. For example, we borrow the concept of image saliency from visual perception, and use it to build low-level features. We employ the Copula theory of economic statistics for feature aggregation. We re-use the notion of graded relevance, popular in web page ranking, for visual retrieval frameworks. We explain in detail our novel solutions and prove their effectiveness for image categorization, video retrieval and aesthetics assessment.

Online Multimedia Management System (OMMS) is a project to provide users to store and share their mutimedia files. The users and administrator can modify and update the multimedia files and database information from a normal web browser. The administrator and users with access have different levels of permission.

<p>This thesis reports on two studies in the field of multimedia. The older one, completed in 2002, has as a general aim to explore, describe and analyse the concept of multimedia in relation to the concept of information systems. Four areas are investigated: product, process, requirements work and knowledge exchange between developers of multimedia systems and developers of information systems. The main research question has been: What are the distinguishing features of multimedia and how can multimedia be characterised from an information systems perspective? The investigation has shown that multimedia development is characterized by co-operation between people from many different areas of expertise who respect each other’s knowledge. The development work requires creativity, rationality and a systematic approach Detailed explicit requirements specifications are seldom produced in the companies studied. Specifying requirements for multimedia products is complicated which seems to stem from the nature of multimedia which makes the products hard to describe using traditional means such as text.</p><p>A more recent study, completed in 2004, continues the investigation of the challenges concerning requirements specifications for multimedia products reported in the first study. For this purpose, a new methodology for experimenting with graphical user interfaces to obtain acceptable design solutions has been developed and tested. This methodology is based on an experimental technique called ‘Wizard of Oz’. In Wizard-of-Oz experiments a test person thinks he communicates with the computer in front of him when in actual fact the test manager sits in the next room interpreting the user’s commands and providing the desired responses. In order to use this technique for experimenting with graphical user interfaces a prototyping tool called Ozlab has been utilized. Ozlab has been used to allow doctors and nurses to participate in the design of a new user interface in a robot application for hip surgery. The results show that graphical Wizard-of-Oz prototyping can be a useful tool for exploration, visualization and communication of interaction requirements in multimedia product development.</p><p>The most recent study is placed first in this volume, followed by the older study (Karlstad University Studies 2002:24).</p>

This paper documents the planning, design, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of the Multimedia Story Builder and Multimedia Story Player – two applications that together are used to create, edit, manage, and deliver web-based multimedia presentations. These applications incorporate simple and intuitive interfaces, extensive functionality, multiple presentation methods, and support for multiple media types, all of which represent improvements over similar systems. The results of a preliminary usability test and suggestions for future testing and development are also described.

This thesis reports on two studies in the field of multimedia. The older one, completed in 2002, has as a general aim to explore, describe and analyse the concept of multimedia in relation to the concept of information systems. Four areas are investigated: product, process, requirements work and knowledge exchange between developers of multimedia systems and developers of information systems. The main research question has been: What are the distinguishing features of multimedia and how can multimedia be characterised from an information systems perspective? The investigation has shown that multimedia development is characterized by co-operation between people from many different areas of expertise who respect each other’s knowledge. The development work requires creativity, rationality and a systematic approach Detailed explicit requirements specifications are seldom produced in the companies studied. Specifying requirements for multimedia products is complicated which seems to stem from the nature of multimedia which makes the products hard to describe using traditional means such as text. A more recent study, completed in 2004, continues the investigation of the challenges concerning requirements specifications for multimedia products reported in the first study. For this purpose, a new methodology for experimenting with graphical user interfaces to obtain acceptable design solutions has been developed and tested. This methodology is based on an experimental technique called ‘Wizard of Oz’. In Wizard-of-Oz experiments a test person thinks he communicates with the computer in front of him when in actual fact the test manager sits in the next room interpreting the user’s commands and providing the desired responses. In order to use this technique for experimenting with graphical user interfaces a prototyping tool called Ozlab has been utilized. Ozlab has been used to allow doctors and nurses to participate in the design of a new user interface in a robot application for hip surgery. The results show that graphical Wizard-of-Oz prototyping can be a useful tool for exploration, visualization and communication of interaction requirements in multimedia product development. The most recent study is placed first in this volume, followed by the older study (Karlstad University Studies 2002:24).

El present treball de recerca tracta de determinar las diferencies acadèmiques existents entre els estudiants d'enginyeries purament tecnològiques i els d'enginyeria multimèdia, que combina tecnologia amb continguts de l'àrea d'humanística i ciències socials. En particular, es restringeix al cas dels plans d'estudi de La Salle, que estan emmarcats en l'àmbit de las tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació, el seu sistema de tutories, l'evolució dels alumnes durant el curs i el rendiment manifestat en les diferents proves d'avaluació.Davant del poc rendiment de proves estadístiques de correlació i factorització, la novetat metodològica d'aquesta tesi consisteix en la creació d'una metodologia denominada Sistemes consistents de clústers. Aquesta metodologia realitza estudis d'evolució de clústers mitjançant diverses mesures. Es diferencia d'estudis tipus clústers dinàmics per la seva visió transversal i no longitudinal de les variables que han evolucionat en el temps i, a més, considera uns estats de referència separats en el temps, per la qual cosa es basa en un sistema discret de mesures.La metodologia dels Sistemes consistents de clústers redueix el problema de l'evolució dels clústers resultants en mesures successives, a un problema de cadenes de Markov i a proves simples de significació (Chi quadrat), per tant es pot exportar a recerques de ciències socials al poder ser explicat en termes de proves estadístiques habituals en les recerques d'aquest tipus.El resultat de la tesi ens mostra com la dinàmica evolutiva dels estudiants d'enginyeries anomenades "tecnològiques pures" és totalment diferent dels estudiants de multimèdia. S'obtenen sistemes de clústers completament diferents encara que comparteixen certa evolució comú a causa de la intervenció correctora i assistencial del Centre en el seu sistema de tutories. De la recerca resulten també directrius per a l'assistència a l'estudiant en aquestes titulacions i es constaten algunes sospites pel que fa al procediment d'aprenentatge que fins ara eren només conjectures. / La presente investigación trata de determinar las diferencias académicas existentes entre los estudiantes de ingenierías puramente tecnológicas y los de ingeniería multimedia, que combina tecnología con contenidos del área de humanística y ciencias sociales. En particular, se restringe al caso de los planes de estudio de La Salle, que están enmarcados en el ámbito de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, su sistema de tutorías, la evolución de los alumnos durante el curso y el rendimiento manifestado en las diferentes pruebas de evaluación.Ante el poco rendimiento de pruebas estadísticas de correlación y factorización, la novedad metodológica de esta tesis consiste en la creación de una metodología denominada Sistemas consistentes de clústeres. Dicha metodología realiza estudios de evolución de clústeres a lo largo de diversas mediciones. Se diferencia de estudios tipo clústeres dinámicos por su visión transversal y no longitudinal de las variables que han evolucionado en el tiempo y, además, considera unos estados de referencia separados en el tiempo, por lo que se basa en un sistema discreto de mediciones.La metodología de los Sistemas consistentes de clústeres reduce el problema de la evolución de los clústeres resultantes en mediciones sucesivas, a un problema de cadenas de Markov y a pruebas simples de significación (Chi cuadrado), por lo que puede exportarse en investigaciones de ciencias sociales al poder ser explicado en términos de pruebas estadísticas habituales en las investigaciones de este tipo.El resultado de la tesis nos muestra como la dinámica evolutiva de los estudiantes de ingenierías llamadas "tecnológicas puras" es totalmente diferente de los estudiantes de multimedia. Se obtienen sistemas de clústeres completamente diferentes aunque comparten cierta evolución común debida a la intervención correctora y asistencial del centro en su sistema de tutorías. De la investigación resultan también directrices para la asistencia al estudiante en estas titulaciones y se constatan algunas sospechas sobre el procedimiento de aprendizaje que hasta ahora eran sólo conjeturas. / The aim of the present research work is to determine the academic differences between technological-engineering students and multimedia students, who combine technology with humanistic and social contents. It specifically involves La Salle study plans, which are focused on information and communication technologies, their tutorial system and the students evolution and their academic performance along the year.Looking at the low performance of correlation and factorization statistical tests, this thesis presents an innovation in methodology that consists in what is called Systems of clusters. This methodology performs tests in clusters evolution through different kind of measures. The difference between them and dynamic clusters is caused by the transversal and not by the longitudinal vision of the variables that have evolved through time and, moreover, it considers a reference status separately from time, so it is based on a discreet system of measures. The high potential of this methodology is the advantage of reducing the problem of clusters evolution that comes from successive measures to a problem of Markov chain and simple test of signification (Chi-square), so there is the open possibility to export it to social research as it is possible to be explained in terms of statistical methods usually used in these research fields. The thesis results show that the dynamic evolution of engineering students of the strong technological branch is totally different from multimedia students. The Systems of clusters obtained are completely different, even though they share some common evolution due to the corrective and mentoring intervention of the University in their tutorial system. From the research, it is also important to highlight the directives obtained in order to assist the student in the degree and some suspects about the learning process are confirmed.