Dr Silvia Pfeiffer and Conrad Parker of the Mathematical and Information Science arm of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) claim the development of Continuous Media Web (CMWeb) will be as significant as the development of the Web itself.
"It's long been recognised that, while we can easily surf from text page to text page, when we want to experience rich content like video and audio we have to jump out to a separate application - and then all we get is a slower, jumpier version of linear TV or radio," said Pfeiffer. "Instead of just selecting a file and viewing it, now surfers can activate links while viewing video and audio files."
By activating a link within a video or audio file, the browser can be take to a related clip in another file, and then return to the original or follow further links into other subject areas, in much the same way they currently do with Web pages.
The researchers coined the term Annodex format media to describe the twin processes of indexing and annotating content, essential to the full integration of rich media content on the Web. The term combines indexing (meaning each segment of a program is uniquely identified and tagged) and annotating (each segment is described using a combination of formal metadata and free text descriptions). The format in which the original media was created is preserved, so content creators can use the tools they are familiar with.
"We have developed the core CMWeb tools as an open source development kit to encourage broad uptake of the concept," said Parker. "We have developed a basic set of tools including the Continuous Media Browser for Apple's Mac OS X and server tools for Linux, and expect tools for other platforms will quickly start to appear."
