Virtual Video Editing in Interactive Multimedia Applications
Early experiments in interactive video included surrogate travel, trainin);, electronic books, point-of-purchase
sales, and arcade g;tme scenarios. Granularity, interruptability, and lixrited look ahead were quickly identified
as generic attributes of the medium [l]. Most early applications restric:ed the user’s interaction with the video to traveling along paths predetermined by the author of the program. Recent work has favored a more constructivist approach, increasing the level of interactivity ‘by allowing L.sers to build, annotate, and modify their own environnlents.
Tod.ay’s multitasl:ing workstations can digitize and display video in reel-time in one or more windows on the screen. Users citn quickly change their level of interaction from passvely watching a movie or the network news to activ ?ly controlling a remote camera and sending the output to colleagues at another location [g].
In this environment, video becomes an information stream, a data type that can be tagged and edited, analyzed iand annotatetl.
sales, and arcade g;tme scenarios. Granularity, interruptability, and lixrited look ahead were quickly identified
as generic attributes of the medium [l]. Most early applications restric:ed the user’s interaction with the video to traveling along paths predetermined by the author of the program. Recent work has favored a more constructivist approach, increasing the level of interactivity ‘by allowing L.sers to build, annotate, and modify their own environnlents.
Tod.ay’s multitasl:ing workstations can digitize and display video in reel-time in one or more windows on the screen. Users citn quickly change their level of interaction from passvely watching a movie or the network news to activ ?ly controlling a remote camera and sending the output to colleagues at another location [g].
In this environment, video becomes an information stream, a data type that can be tagged and edited, analyzed iand annotatetl.
This, article explc res how principles and techniques of user-controlled video editing have been integrated into four multimed a environments. The goal of the authors is to explai I in each case how the assumptions embedded in particu1a.r applications have shaped a set of tools for building constructivist environments, and to comment on how tile evolution of a compressed digital video data format might affect these kinds of information environments in the future.