Multimedia: Technology Dimensions and Challenges

Abstract

Multimedia services are made possible by a host of underlying technologies. These include the processing of speech, audio, image and video signals, and handwritten data, as well as the high-quality transmission of audiovisual messages and data information. Audiovisual signal processing incorporates the subtechnologies of coding, synthesis, and recognition, and the technologies that support acoustical and optical transducers. Synchronous processing of component signals in real time is a particularly important challenge. The communication technologies used to transmit multimedia services include wired and wireless modems, circuit-switched and packet-switched networks, and technologies such as simultaneous voice and data for seamless integration of multimedia messages. All these technologies depend, for their efficiency and pervasiveness, on the low-cost processing power provided by submicron very large-scale integration (VLSI). This paper describes the current capabilities in these technologies and the future challenges, in terms of quantitative metrics and tradeoffs.