A Z specification approach to multimedia modeling

An interactive multimedia presentation system is introduced. We first define a model for interactive presentations in the Z notation. The model looks at the presentation from two views: the navigation view and the representation view. The presentation navigation is based on message passing among presentation frames of a presentation, while common information is inherited and shared by frames. The system allows a presenter to plan the audience's reaction in advance. When the audience is watching a presentation, the underlying inference system is learning from his/her responses. This mechanism makes a presentation to be proceeded again act according to the audience's background and knowledge. Thus, the resulting presentation is more diversified. We also propose a multimedia resource database and a number of important resource attributes that we used in the classification of resources. A resource browser is implemented to allow users to preview resources and maintain the database. The prototype system is implemented under MS Windows. This system can be used for general purpose presentations or demonstrations in different fields such as education, training, product demonstration, and others.