Multimedia Capabilities in Distributed Real-Time Applications

Abstract

Distributed real-time industrial control applications can benefit significantly from the incorporation of multimedia information into the control environment. Potential benefits of such systems include enabling more intuitive visualization of the state of the control process, resulting in improved quality and/or safety of the process, better decision making at both the management and supervisory operator levels, as well as distance collaborative planning, design and effective trouble shooting. Thus, the processing and analysis of different types of multimedia information provides a wider range of capabilities to different entities (e.g., operation, maintenance, training, and administration) within a company than is possible now. Recent advances in computer technology, high speed networks, high capacity storage and innovative sensors make it possible to realize such enhanced control systems. The goals of this chapter are to examine real-time control applications that can exploit multimedia capabilities so as to determine their requirements, to identify key research issues at the system and database levels, and to propose a generic architecture for these applications.