Thesis Information

3 Part System

 

Multimedia Management and Delivery System

 

Concept Summary

Phase 1 - Management and Web Based Delivery:

Create a web based Multimedia Management System and Multimedia Delivery System that allows site owners to add, delete and manage Image, Music and Video files.  Files do not necessarily have to be optimized before uploading, but the MMS must be capable of this.  Users should be able to manage the system via another medium besides the web (email, SMS, phone, stand-alone app).  All information needs to be available via XML, be it static, or dynamic. 

Phase 2 - Content Serialization:

Serialize all of the media based upon gallery for RSS syndication. Video Blogs, Audio Blogs, Photo Blogs.

Phase 3 - Physical MDS:

Create an interface for an internet enabled appliance to consume all of these media. Anticipating a 7" LCD display (smaller end) to a 20" LCD display (higher end) that is connected to the internet and has hidden speakers. Device would subscribe to various syndicated media for constant display and rotation of media. There needs to be a switch on the unit to toggle between the three modes, or to enter hybrid modes.

 

Technologies

• PHP
• CSS
• Flash
• AJAX
• SQL
• XML
• Python
• IP Networking
• Hardware Modding

Wishlist Phase 1:

• Users should be able to add archives directly to the system, and it extract them.
• Users should be able to add files via email attachments.
• Media should be serialized via Podcasts/Vidcasts/Photoblog.
• Unlimited galleries.
• Quick to get up and running (<1 hour, as long as media is already created).

Wishlist Phase 2:

• Available through pre-existing global distribution systems.
• Free to distribute.
• Compliant with ad hoc and EFF standards.

Wishlist Phase 3:

• Device needs to be powered, and may use WiFi.
• Power save mode.
• Sub $200 to build for low end design.
• Can connect to other serialized media, podcast, videoBlogs, PhotoBlogs
• Open Source
• Copyrighted under the Creative Commons License

Background:

While blogs are very popular, it is somewhat confusing to add structured media to them.  There are different ways to add these services to blogs, but most of them involved knowledge of web servers, or cobbling together disparate web components to achieve a 'multimedia gallery' effect.  There needs to be a simple way to manage a gallery based system, one geared for those capable of managing playlists, or gallerues in programs such  as iPhoto, iTunes or Windows Media Player.  A major problem when people migrate from using desktop based applications to the web, is that average users don't fully comprehend the nature of file sizes, dimensions and compression.  An ideal MMS/MDS will manage all of this for the user, giving only basic options regarding file/media size.  It should also be as close to a drag-n-drop operation as possible, as this is the visual language understood by both PC and Mac users.

The delivery system needs to be both web based, and ideally there also needs to be a physical device that can consume the serialized content that is being produced. As the volume of freely distributed content continues to bloom on the internet, devices need to be designed that can harness and use this new medium/media.

 

Implementation:

The MMS will use AJAX for the interface, as it allows for immediate visual feedback even while using a database backend.  (for an AJAX overview, please visit the original essay written by Jesse James Garrett defining AJAX ).  The information for the MMS will be stored in a MySQL database, and manipulated via PHP, a powerful and common server side scripting language.  The MDS will be a Flash Interface that can also be customized via the MMS backend.  In English, this means that there will be a web based system to manage the galleries, where users can drag and drop files into galleries, and update metadata (or added textual content and keywords) associated with individual files.  Adding galleries will be as easy as adding an attachment to an email.  Users will be able to update ZIP or StuffIt archives, and the system will extract those files and create thumbnails and put them in the create order.  Users will be able to reorder files, remove galleries, and update captions all via this interface.  Adding the MDS to their website will be as easy copying 10 lines of code into their web page, and it would be nice if the MDS was setup for popular blog and CMS systems.  An interesting way to manage this system would be for people to be able to send email addresses with attachments and have a simple system where the subject would be the gallery name, and the body would be the caption/description.  Another idea would be a 'bot' on AIM where you could send commands to the MMS ('Edit ' Venezuela' gallery caption?). 

The physical MDS will take some time to fully research, but as long as a web browser can be enabled on this physical device, Python and PHP scripts will be able to drive its operation (assuming it always has a live net connection).

 

MMS and Web based MDS Screenshots

Control Panel 1 - Main 2 - Custom Colors
Gallery Manager 1 - Main 2a - Inner Gallery Manager 2b - New Gallery
Public Display 1 - Main 2 - Individual Item