UECS2023 MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
Lee Kong Chian Faculty of Engineering and Science (LKC FES)
January 2015 Trimester1

UECS2023 MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT (10%)

Lecturer: Ms. Beh Hooi Ching

DUE DATE: 26th February 2015 (Thursday), during lecture hour





Name:
Lim Yiren
ID:
1300802
Course:
3E
Year/Semester:
Y2 S1


TASK 1 – Ten recent developments in multimedia technologies.
1. Digital Single-lens Reflex Camera (DSLR)
Description:
DSLR is a digital camera that uses a mechanical mirror system and pentaprism to direct light from the lens to an optical viewfinder on the back of the camera. The reflex design scheme makes DSLR different with the other digital cameras.
Advantages:
1. Having better image quality, especially at low light.
2. Faster time response for taking many pictures or capturing moments.
3. Provide more control of process of capturing the image.
4. Can be improved by different terms of equipment. E.g. Strobe, lens.
Example:
Products looks
Names
Prices

DSLR D5300
Colours: black, red
D5500 kit with AF-S 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G - RM4,098.00
D5500 kit with AF-S 18-55mm VR II f/3.5-5.6G - RM3,398.00
D5500 Body only - RM2,998.00

Source: http://www.nikon.com.my/en_MY/product/digital-slr-cameras/d5500









2. Smartphone
Description:
Smartphone is a mobile phone with an advanced operation system. It is an electronic deviced that provide different multimedia features all in one, for examples, phone, camera, Wi-Fi, GPS etc. It provides a touchscreen interface and the ability to run various apps. Some popular operating systems are android, iOS and Windows.
Advantages:
1. Communicating with friends, family and co-workers
2. Constant internet access
3. Applications and the All-in-One Device
Example:
Products looks
Names
Features

Asus ZenFone 2
Android 5.0 Lollipop
ZenFone 2's 13MP rear camera, f/2.0 wide-aperture lens, Optical Image Stabilsation (OIS) and a 5MP PixelMaster front camera.
Source: http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2323131/top-10-smartphones-for-2014-iphone-6-galaxy-s5-and-nexus-6-on-the-horizon








3. iMac
Description:
iMac is an advanced All-in-One computer. It is a Macintosh desktop computerdesigned and built by Apple Inc. Since 2006, iMac equipped Intel's line of core processors. One of the highlights of iMac is, it is available to switch and run Windows on Mac hardware. The high performances of iMac and its slim uni-body shape make it a successful computer innovation.
Advantages:
1. The software and hardware are designed to work together which enabled better outcome.
2. Integrated app ecosystem (iLife).
3. All-in-One computer.
4. Cheaper app store.
Examples:
Products looks
Names
Features

iMac with Retina 5K display
27-inch: 3.5GHz with Retina 5K display
3.5GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
8GB (two 4GB) memory
1TB Fusion Drive1
AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 2GB video memory
Source: http://store.apple.com/my/buy-mac/imac-retina








4. Graphics Tablet
Description:
Graphics tablet is an input device that enable user to hand-draw images into computer. It can be used to produce hand-draw images, animations, graphics and even handwritten signatures using a pen just like drawing on a paper. This device consists of a flat surface and a stylus as drawing apparatus. Some of the graphics tables also have a screen to display the image drawn.
Advantages:
1. Intended as a replacement for the mouse as the primary pointing device for computer.
2. A benefit for graphics artists.
3. Natural to use for anyone familiar with a pen.
4. Can record levels of pressure unlike other point and click devices.
5. A great level of accuracy can be achieved.
Example:
Products looks
Names
Features

Intuos5
(Wacom)
multi-touch surface, touch capabilities built into Windows7 and Mac OS X Lion
Express View Display allows accessibility to view all pen tablet settings on monitor
Can be equipped with the Wireless Accessory Kit to add wireless connectivity
Sources: http://www.wacom.asia/intuos5/new-features-of-intuos5, http://www.wacom.com/en-my







5. Optimus Keyboard
Description:
Optimus Keyboard is a keyboard that uses large LCD screen under the transparent keyboard instead of individual OLED display for each key. Optimus Keyboard allows for greater user interaction, by dynamically displaying the current function of the keys. Each of its key can change its display to adapt the keyboard layout (such as English and Cyrillic) or to show the function of the key (e.g. alphabets show its upper-case letter when "shift" key is pressed).
Advantages:
1. Compact, infinitely customizable keyboard.
2. 77 programmable keys, plus a function key for switching and a display bar.
3. Automatically switch between different layouts depending on the current OS language or active application.
4. Ideal for people who frequently write in more than one alphabet and publish materials with special characters.
Example:
Products looks
Names
Features

Optimus Popularis Keyboard
LCD key display - 7" TN panel with LED backlighting

Each key visible area: 0.5" square

Resolution: 72×72 pixels

Frame rate: min 10 frames per second

Colours: 262,144

Materials: Aluminium, plastic
Source: http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/181d/#tabs






6. Adobe Photoshop
Description:
Adobe Photoshop is an image editing tools that enable users to edit their photos seamlessly and blend change. It ispowerful software for photographers and graphic designers. It came with many features and abilities to raster graphics, vector graphics, edit text, 3D graphics and video. However, it required high price to get a legal version and it needed a lot of hard work to get used to it.
Benefits:
1. Able to reshape reality, create seamless, realistic results.
2. Can sync your settings and preferences worldwide online in Creative Cloud account.
3. Able to cure the "shakes" that produced by unwanted camera motion.
4. May resize images frequently. Photoshop's intelligent up sampling feature can make small images larger while preserving their sharpness and detail.
5. Ability to combine bitmap images and vector graphics using layers.
Example:
Products looks
Names
Features

Adobe Photoshop CS6
Creative Cloud Libraries

Support for Windows touch devices

Support for 3D PDF files

Mercury Graphics Engine performance boost

Improved guides

3D printing support for figurine posing and animations
Source: https://www.adobe.com/sea/products/photoshop/features.html





7. Microsoft Excels
Description:
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application developed by Microsoft Office for Windows and Mac OS. It features graphing tools, pivot tables, calculation and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. It is more than just a spreadsheet program, it is the best and most equipped spreadsheet program in the market. Microsoft Excel can be used to store, organize and analyse all sorts of data. The variety of users includes businesses, professionals and even home users. It is much quicker, easier to use than any of its competitor. Most importantly, it is the most compatible spreadsheet program in the market.
Benefits:
1. VBA allowing the user to employ a wide variety of numerical methods.
2. Provides graphs, chats, histograms, and 3D graphical display.
3. Has a battery of supplied functions to answer statistical, engineering and financial needs.
Examples:
Products looks
Names
Features

Microsoft Excel 2013
Developer(s): Microsoft

Date release: 11 December 2012

Operating system: Microsoft Windows

Type: Spreadsheet

License: Trialware
Source: http://microsoft_excel.en.downloadastro.com/






8. 3D Studio Max (3ds Max)
Description:
One of the most widely used off the shelf 3D animation programs by content creation professional. 3ds Max is a high-end 3D computer graphics and 3D modelling software package. It provides the user to create realistic and complex 3D text, image and animation. 3ds Max delivers efficient new tools, streamlined workflows and accelerated performance to aid in increasing overall productivity for working with high resolution, complex assets.
Benefits:
1. View point clouds in true colour in the 3ds Max viewport.
2. Interactively adjust the extent of the cloud displayed.
3. See the effects of changing lighting or materials interactively; helping you more easily refines your work.
4. Match the final renderer to help you preserve creative intent.
5. Work in the 3ds Max viewport substantially faster and more interactively.
6. Create advanced HLSL viewport shaders with the ShaderFX.
7. Manage complex scenes faster and more easily.
Examples:
Products looks
Names
Features

Autodesk 3ds Max 2015
With the upgrades to 3ds Max 2015 version, the 3ds Max provide:

Camera sequencer

Dual Quaternion skinning

Populate enhancements

Enhanced ShaderFX

Easier Revit and SketchUp imports

Alembic support
Source: http://www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max/overview




9. PDF Eraser
Description:
Everyone knows about PDF document, it can be viewed on almost any device, including desktop and mobile platform. However, most of the time, we may have wanted to split the PDF pages into individual files, or remove a few unwanted objects from the document itself, PDF Eraser serves us the functions. PDF Eraser allows us to remove any unnecessary objects, images, and text from PDF documents, annotate them and split a single file into multiple documents. The working of PDF Eraser is different from any other similar tools in the way that it treats every PDF document as an image file. Users are able to erase anything on it using simple eraser tool. Different sizes of erasers give users flexibility and control in removing tiny objects.
Benefits:
Another add-on to this software is the ability to delete pages that we don't want from a PDF file via its integrated Page Cutter tool. Considering lots of scanned PDF documents, PDF Eraser added the PDF Rotating function to rotate PDF pages properly with just 2 clicks.
Example:
Products looks
Names
Features

PDF Eraser
Delete PDF Text Easily

Erase PDF Images or Logos

Add Your Text to PDF

Place Your Images to PDF

Cut PDF Pages

Customize Eraser Size
Source: http://www.pdferaser.net/, http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/pdf-eraser-edit-pdf-files-add-images-text-to-them/






10. Mozilla Firefox (Firefox)
Description:
Firefox is a web browser just like Internet Explorer, Chrome and Opera. It is an OS-neutral web browser which was firstly born on UNIX. It is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X, Linux and also mobile Android.
Benefits:
1. Fastest browser as of 2014.
2. High security, flag off dangerous sites by security add-ons.
3. Able to customise to block Ads and JavaScript.
4. Able to customise own preference toolbars.
5. Colourful Tabs, making your tabs more colourful.
Examples:
Products looks
Names
Features

Firefox
tabbed browsing

spell checking

incremental find

live bookmarking

Smart Bookmarks

download manager

private browsing

location-aware browsing (also known as "geolocation") based on a Google service

integrated search system that uses Google by default
Source: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/desktop/






TASK 2 – Discussion on three different game web sites.
Site 1
Minecraft
URL (address)
https://minecraft.net/
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements does it have? What colours does it use? Is it cluttered?
The web site showed non-linearity, interactive and integrity characteristics. It contains interactive multimedia (IMM). The multimedia components presented are text, pictures, video and sound. It lacks of animation components in the website. The interactive attributes in the web site are text entry, mouse input, touch screens and real time interaction.

The navigation elements contained in this web site are pull-down menus (at the top of the web page), buttons or icons (at the bottom, such as google+ and Facebook plugin), hypertext and hypermedia.

The theme of the web site is dark colour. The background is black in colour. It shows a big video media at the centre of the page. The wordings are mainly in white and light blue colours.

The hypertexts are frequently used in this website. It is used to direct user to different type of products of Minecraft such as Minecraft for PC/Mac, Minecraft: Xbox 360 and Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition.

The images in this website are in raster graphics. It suits its game theme which Minecraft is a game built in low resolution graphics. The overall web site is not cluttered. It has a clear introduction with a video and text. The links direct users to "getting started", "what is Minecraft", store, profile and many more basic info.

The disadvantage of this web site is it is designed in such a way of simplicity, easy to view mode. Some users who prefer high-end graphics and wordings may not interest in it. Those who dislike low resolution raster graphics will have a hard time playing it.


Is the content relevant and appropriate? What additions/deletions of content might improve the site?
The context is relevant and appropriate. It provides user basic information and products variety on the main page.

The additions suggested would be more interactive tools such as animated graphics and gaming gallery. It would be best if able to include a database of the basic items, general guidelines for better adventurous gaming.

The deletion of extra plugin is optional in this case. The plugin may lead the users to a social media page which enables users to get latest updates about their games. The web site is in simple design so there is not much deletion needed.


Describe any multimedia presentations of specific products. What formats do they use?
The multimedia presentations used in this web site is non linear multimedia. User may click from one page to another by using the hypertext and hypermedia provided. The format of presentation is through video clip. User may play, stop, fast forward the video in non-trivial way. Minecraft delivers its video games information through an interactive way. User may need to interact with the presentation directly through different kinds of navigation using buttons, menu items or hyperlinks.


Figure 1.1 Introduction Video.

Figure 1.2 Pull-down menu

Figure 1.3 Icon (hyperlink)






Site 2
Tower of Saviours
URL (address)
http://www.towerofsaviors.com/en/
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements does it have? What colours does it use? Is it cluttered?
The web site has an interesting pre-main page before leading into its main page. At there, users select his or her preferred language.

The web site has nice graphics at its main page. It is very colourful and interactive with the users. Where ever the mouse cursor point to, it shows an indication (by changing colour or having bold or underlined).

There are numerous pull down menu in its main page. User is very easy to be directed to his or her interested page. Notification are classified into 4 groups of "event", "update", "system" and "features" using 4 different colours.

There are a lot of hypertext which showed a non-linear navigation path way. User is able to move from one page to another freely and easily.

The web site also provides buttons and icons for its cooperatives, supportive media and Facebook plugin.

The main attraction of the main page would be the slide showed images at the centre of it. They showed upcoming or ongoing hot events and attracts user to click on it to be directed to the specific page.


Is the content relevant and appropriate? What additions/deletions of content might improve the site?
The content of this wed site is fully relevant and appropriate. It contains most of the guidelines needed by the gamers and does not put in Ads in it.

The additions will be having more language version because now there are only 2 languages (English and Chinese). Some of the players are from Korea and Thailand will be lack of updates due to less having translation or events prepared to them. Having more languages available will definitely bring more players into it.

No deletions needed for this web site.


Describe any multimedia presentations of specific products. What formats do they use?
The multimedia presentation in this wed site is done by the slide shows of images for upcoming/ongoing events. There are 5 slide shows which arrange according to 5 dots. User may drag mouse cursor onto the dot to change the slide shows. The slide shows is arrange in 5 sec order, which means every 5 seconds it will change into next slide.

The slide show is a form of hypermedia. It shows image and text at the same time and it can link the user to the event page. This is a very interactive and integrating multimedia presentation.


Figure 2.1 Pre-main page

Figure 2.2 Pull-down menu

Figure 2.3 Slide show of Images


Site 3
Pokémon
URL (address)
http://www.pokemon.com/us/
Describe the GUI. What navigational elements does it have? What colours does it use? Is it cluttered?
The web site is designed in such a way that user may get into the main topics by clicking into the hypermedia (which contains images and text). There are few main topics which made the main page a long page.

User may login to the web site using the icons at the left side while click into different sub menu by clicking the tools bar at the top.

There are some videos showed on the main page too. It doesn't have a good interactive with the users as the videos titles are in short form. Those videos are series episodes, which only those who wish to watch Pokémon series will have a look at it.

The colour used in this website is colourful but with a plain white background.

It is quite well organized so it does not show clutter.


Is the content relevant and appropriate? What additions/deletions of content might improve the site?
The content seems a bit loose as there is no focus on its main page. There are too many varieties with different objectives for the users while the main topics are not attractive enough. For example, the "Pokémon shuffle" was on the top centre. Users should be more interested in those game featured only for Pokémon (such as Pokémon Gameboy or Trading Card Game) but not a common game with a Pokémon icon on it.

The addition suggested would be new updates on Pokémon movies or new events about Pokémon in certain location. A high-end graphics should be used in the web site instead of normal mixing of colours as a theme.

The deletion would be some redundant hypermedia on the main page. As too much info stuffed in one place will look confused for the user, a cleaner and tidier arrangement of hypermedia may attract the user to look into the contents.

Background music (sound) should be included in the main page (with the ability to switch on and off). Old time Pokémon theme songs will be a good nostalgia for the Pokémon lovers nowadays.


Describe any multimedia presentations of specific products. What formats do they use?
Hypermedia was used to get attraction of the users. It was meant to delivers the topic title of specific contents to the users.

Pokémon videos are arranged in an orderly manner to allow users to watch them.

A database about the games contents was shown in the main page too. Users may get into about the featured contents from there.




Figure 3.1 Main page


Figure 3.2 Game content database



Figure 3.3 Videos in the main page



Figure 3.4 Redundant Game Contents










TASK 3 – Locate and describe a kiosk or other public multimedia installation.
Kiosk Name: Menara Dato' Onn (Umno Building)
Location: 142, Jalan Ipoh, 50350 Kuala Lumpur,
Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Description: Menara Dato' Onn is owned by Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (UMNO) and is managed and maintained by Putrade Property Management Sdn Bhd. It is a 40-storey office building with a total lettable area of 360,000 sq. feet.
Specification: Total LED Screen area is 11591.6416 Square Meter which is 133.760 meter height and 86.660 meter width.
This engineering project and design was constructed by KOI (M) Sdn Bhd in early year 2011.
Viewing Distance: Under the clear atmospheric or good weather conditions can go up to 10 kilometer.


Photo credit to: Mohd Salim Yunus [22 January 2009]
Discussion:
No.
Questions

Answers
1.
What is it? Who uses it? And for how long.
The largest full coloured LED Wall Screen in Malaysia is located at Menara Dato Onn (UMNO Building).

2.
Who uses it?
Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (UMNO).

3.
For what purpose?
For UMNO's general assembly use as UMNO's headquarters.

4.
Describe the installation.


UMNO Building at Night.
1979 - The UMNO Supreme Council agrees on the design for PWTC.

1979 - The building committee under the chairmanship of Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad began construction of the building.

1985 - The building that was to be Kuala Lumpur's World Trade Centre is named Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) after Malaysia's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj.

2011- KOI (M) Sdn Bhd contructed and build the LED wall screen.

Source: http://www.pwtc.com.my/c/our-history/

5.
What are the functionalities or features?

Menara Dato' Onn
The LED wall screen is used to do advertisement for UMNO.

It is normally used to promote UMNO and let the surrounding people know about UMNO. It often showcase our prime minister Dato' Seri Najib Razak.

Sometimes, it is used for prosperity purpose, such as Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Figure 4.1). It is also used to call for concern on natural disaster such as Incident Flight MH17 (Figure 4.2).

6.
Where is it located? Is there a lot of foot traffic going past it? Is it conveniently located? Is it accessible to a wide range of users
It is located at Jalan Ipoh, right beside Macalister Highway.

There is massive traffic passing through it. Almost every driver who using Macalister Highway will notice it.

It is accessible to a large range of users, from vehicles driver to road pedestrian. The viewable range is around 10km from the building.

7.
Describe the usage pattern. Characterize the users. Were children attracted to it? Did users "play" with it?
The currently primary usage mainly for UMNO purpose. It should be improved by inserting some good advertisements to rise the public concern about natural disaster, good driving attitude or moral values.

The users are not able to "play" with it as it is just for a showcase purpose. Many times it might cause distraction to vehicle users when they driving due to its bright light especially at night time.

8.
Improvement and suggestion.


Participants saving the ice-cream cone in the middle of Bukit Bintang.

McDonald's: Save the Sundae Cone
Event
Source: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/
outdoor/mcdonalds_save_the_
sundae_cone
UMNO should consider adding in more features such as social media, weather reports, news, or even important notices from government.

For example, wall screen at WOLO Hotel Bukit Bintang did a successful job in inserting social media components. It cooperates with Line and McDonald to organize event at the McDonald's outlets nearby. It brought joy and fun to the public.

WOLO also offer weather reports to the public. This may help to notice the pedestrian about the raining season so they can be prepared.

Put business aside, advertisement is not just for our own benefits. It should benefit the public instead. People should learn to give back to the society but not only know taking from it. A small good deed may help a lot if everyone is doing it.



Figure 4.1 UMNO Building wishing Prosperity Chinese New Year.

Figure 4.2 UMNO Building sending condolences to the family of MH17 victims.
Night views of UMNO Building


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