Unit12MultimediaTechnologyTextKeywordsTechnicaltermsExpressionsNotestothetextText

Multimediatechnologycombinesaudioandvisualmaterialtoenhancecommunicationandenrichmultimediapresentation.Asaterm,“multimedia”?isfrequentlyusedbutrarelydefined.Theword?“multimedia”isbeingusedtodescribeamixtureofhardware,softwareandapplications,withaconsequentconfusioninpeople’smindastowhatitis.Thetermmultimedialiterallymeansmanyformsofcommunicationandinasensewehavealwaysbeenimmersedinamultimediaenvironmentbecausewearebeingthatrespondtosound,light,touch,andideas.Multimediaistheintegrationoftext,audiosound,staticgraphicimages,animations,andfull-motionvideo.Thisisessentiallyaninteractiveenvironment.Multimediamayusesomeoralloftheseaspectsofcommunication.

Ifwebreakthewordmultimediaintoitscomponentparts,wegetmulti-meaningmorethanone,andmedia-meaningformofcommunication.Thosetypesofmediaincludes:text,audiosound,staticgraphicsimages,animation,andfull-motionvideo.

Let’slookateachofthesecomponentssimply.

(1)?Text

Textisthebasisforwordprocessingprogramsandisstillthefundamentalinformationusedinmanymultimediaprograms.Thecomputerizedformofabookallowstheusertolookupinformationquicklywithoutreferringtotheindexortableofcontents.

(2)?AudioSound

Theintegrationofaudiosoundintoamultimediaapplicationcanprovidetheuserwithinformationnotpossiblethroughanyothermethodofcommunication.Audiosoundcanalsoreinforcetheuser’sunderstandingofinformationpresentedinanothertypeofmedia.

(3)?StaticGraphicsImages

Staticgraphicsimagesareanimportantpartofmultimediabecausehumansarevisuallyoriented.Thereisnomovementinthesetypesofpicture.Staticgraphicsimageshaveanumberofformatsandcanbecreatedinanumberofdifferentways.

(4)?Animation

Animationreferstomovinggraphicsimagesanditisalsoapowerfulformofcommunication.Animationisespeciallyusefulforillustrationconceptsthatinvolvemovement.

(5)?Full-motionvideo

Full-motionvideo,suchastheimagesportrayedinatelevision,canaddevenmoretoamultimediaapplication.ItisstillinitsbeginningstagesonPCsandislimitedinresolutionandsize.

Inthemodernpresentationofmultimediawenowhavethetechnologythatcanbegintomovetowardsanability,alreadyheldbythehumanbeing,inthatbyusingcomputertechnology,suchasCD-ROM,notonlycanwebringtogetheraudioandvisualimagesbutalsobeinteractivewithothercomputerusers.

Forthemultimediasystemofthepersonaldesktopcomputers,thefirstelementassociatedwithmultimediaisperhapstheCD-ROM,nowconsideredamaturetechnology.TheCD-ROMisusedtostoredatathatrepresentsvisualimageryandcurrentunitscanstoreupto650Mbytesofdata.

Thecrucialelementintheprovisionofmultimediaistheuseofcompressedvideo.WithoutcompressiontheamountofstoragethatwouldhavetobeprovidedbytheCD-ROMwouldbeimmense,oryouwouldonlybeabletostore15secondsofafullmotionpicture.Ifcompressionisappliedtothemotionpicturesexpertsgroup(MPEG-1)standard,thena650MbytesCD-ROMcanholdeither72minutesofvideo,or19hoursofaudio,or7,000stillphotographs.

ThestandardsformovingpicturesaresetbyMPEGasinternationalstandards.ThetwolevelsareMPEG-1,whichsetstheprovisionofconsumerqualityofvideoandaudioandMPEG-2,whichsetsthehigherstandardsforprofessional,broadcastimagesandalsolookstodefinehighdefinitiontelevision(HDTV).

Consideringthebusinessareaofmultimediaapplications,theprovisionofvideoiscrucialandthatvideoinformationmustcometouserinrealtimeandthereforebeprocessedinrealtime.Theindividualelementsofmultimediaarealreadyhandledbyastandardpersonalcomputer,suchthingsasaudio,graphicsandtext,butthemajorchallengeisinrealtimevideo,forthisisthemajorbusinessrequirement.Thisrealtimeprocessingrequiresavastamountofdatastorageandthisisafunctionoftheamountofinformationcontainedinacolorpicture.Keywords

multimedia n.多媒體，多媒體的采用

audio adj.音頻的，聲頻的，聲音的

visual adj.看的，視覺的

mixture n.混合，混合物

confusion n.混亂，混淆

literally adv.照字面意義，逐字地

immerse vt.沉浸，使陷入

environment n.環(huán)境，外界

integration n.綜合

static adj.靜態(tài)的

image n.圖像

index n.索引

oriented adj.導(dǎo)向的

illustration n.說明，圖解

portray v.描繪

interactive adj.交互式的

associate vt.使發(fā)生聯(lián)系，使聯(lián)合

mature adj.成熟的，到期的Technicalterms

staticgraphicimages 靜態(tài)圖像

full-motionvideo 全動態(tài)圖像

desktop 臺式電腦

motionpicturesexpertsgroup(MPEG) 運動圖像專家組,一種壓縮比率較大的活動圖像和聲音的壓縮標(biāo)準(zhǔn)

High-DefinitionTV(HDTV) 高清晰電視Expressions

inrealtime 實時地

asto 至于，關(guān)于

inasense 從某種意義上(說)Notestothetext

1.?Inthemodernpresentationofmultimediawenowhavethetechnologythatcanbegintomovetowardsanability,alreadyheldbythehumanbeing,inthatbyusingcomputertechnology,suchasCD-ROM,notonlycanwebringtogetheraudioandvisualimagesbutalsobeinteractivewithothercomputerusers.在現(xiàn)代多媒體的表達(dá)形式中，由人類掌控的技術(shù)開始向能力方向發(fā)展。由于使用諸如光盤驅(qū)動器之類的計算機技術(shù)，我們不僅可以將聲音和圖像結(jié)合在一起，還能夠與其他計算機用戶間進(jìn)行交互。這是一個長句，主干是“wehavethetechnology….”;“that”引出定語從句修飾“technology”，“inthat”意為既然、因為；“notonly…butalso…”意為不但…而且…，其后面的謂語用倒裝形式。

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