Interactive vs. Multimedia

Thank you WIKIPEDIA!

"Interactivity in new media

Interactivity also relates to new media art technologies where humans and animals are able to interact with and change the course of an artwork. Artists and researchers around the world are working on unique interfaces to allow new forms of interaction that extend beyond the QWERTY keyboard and the now ubiquitous mouse. Artists, such as Stelarc work to define new interfaces that challenge our notion of what is possible when interacting with machines. His Hexapod for example looks like an insect though walks like a dog and the locomotion is controlled by shifting the body weight and turning the torso. Others like Ken Rinaldo have defined unique interfaces for fish in which Siamese Fighting Fish are able to control their rolling robotic fish bowls to interact across the gap of the glass. Simon Penny's Petit Mal allows a two wheeled sculpture to sense and respond to human presence and intelligently navigate the environment.

Denis McQuail mentions interactivity as one of the main characteristic of the new media. He quotes[3]:

Interactivity: as indicated by the ratio of response or initiative on the part of the user to the "offer" of the source/sender"


Multimedia:

"media that uses multiple forms of information content and information processing (e.g. text, audio, graphics, animation, video, interactivity) to inform or entertain the (user) audience. Multimedia also refers to the use of (but not limited to) electronic media to store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is similar to traditional mixed media in fine art, but with a broader scope. The term rich media is synonymous for interactive multimedia. Multimedia means that computer info can be represented through audio, graphics, image, video and animation in addition to traditional media (text and graphics). Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application."



Presentation of Multimedia can be Linear or Nonlinear:

"Multimedia may be broadly divided into linear and non-linear categories. Linear active content progresses without any navigation control for the viewer such as a cinema presentation. Non-linear content offers user interactivity to control progress as used with a computer game or used in self-paced computer based training. Non-linear content is also known as hypermedia content. Multimedia presentations can be live or recorded. A recorded presentation may allow interactivity via a navigation system. A live multimedia presentation may allow interactivity via interaction with the presenter or performer."

Interviewing Andrew Ng

Ted and I are going to interview Andrew Ng tomorrow. You don't know who he is? QUICK READ THIS: http://ai.stanford.edu/~ang/

We're going to use this interview as part of a multimedia story on the mainstream use or readyness of robotics (from Rosie to the Roomba).


So Ted was thinking our story will go something like this....

Main story: Andrew Ng, an assistant professor of computer science, leads the wireless Stanford Artificial Intelligence Robot (STAIR). The project consists of a mechanical robot arm mounted to a set of wheels. Ng sees STAIR as a consumer/office robot that could unload the dishwasher, clean up after a party, locate items in an office, or assemble an IKEA bookshelf. The robot is smart enough to perceive an object and determine how to grasp and operates without human oversight. Ng leads a team of 30 students and 10 professors.

Story shells:
- Who is Ng? Think “day in the life.” We gain an understanding of who Ng is, why he got interested in robots, and what he hopes to achieve. We could also focus on some of the students and research assistants. Story elements: text, video, audio.

- What does STAIR do? Show it in action and demonstrate its potential uses. Story elements: video, text, interviews.

- How does it work? Have Ng discuss the mechanics of STAIR and how its artificial intelligence works. Explain how it’s different from a robot that is merely programmed to perform tasks rather than think on its own. Story elements: video, interviews.

- Why does this matter? Our pop culture has always been fascinated with robots; STAIR shows just how close consumer robots are to being a reality. This could be a funny recitation of some of our more famous Hollywood robots (Rosie from the Jetsons, Kitt in Knightrider, etc.) with a side-by-side comparison of real-life counterparts at Stanford. Story elements: text, pix.

- Who could benefit? What’s the market for STAIR? The disabled. Lazy, rich people. Technophiles. Homemakers. Discuss how Stanford’s robots could affect these markets. Story elements: interviews, text, graphics.

- What is the future of STAIR? When might it hit the market? What would it sell for? Who would buy it? Story elements: interviews, text, graphics. (Could be combined with the market piece.)

- Where does this fit in historically? Stanford has a history of leading the way in artificial intelligence. In 1966, scientists at the Stanford Research Institute built Shakey, the first robot to combine problem solving, movement and perception. Flakey, a robot that could wander independently, followed. In 2005, Stanford engineers won the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge with Stanley, a robot Volkswagen that autonomously drove 132 miles through a desert course. Story elements: slides, text.


WHAT DO YOU THINK?