curious design dm report

8/14/2019 Curious Design DM Report

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Digital Media Applications

(Audio, Photography & video)

Technical Report

Compiled by Meg Garven MM2Digital Media Components (Event 1)

Curious Design Consultants Pty L98 Bourke StreetWoolloomooloo NSW 2011AustraliaTel(02) 9358 5333 Fax(02) 9357 7078Email:[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Abstract

The last forty years has seen a massive change in audio and visual media. Theemergence of digital media has overtaken many forms of analogue media interms of both immediacy and quality; from conventional audio, photography andvideo (including television broadcasting). More forms of media are accessible tothe general public than ever before, out of just the hands of professionals to theenthusiasts.

It is vital as a design company that we embrace new technology not only forsurvival in a cut throat world but to emerge as an innovative force for the future.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Audio ..................................................................................5

1.1 Commonly used software and hardware ......................5

1.2 Characteristics of file types and compression techniques ...........................6

1.3 Applications and Examples ............................................7

1.4. Delivery Options ...........................................................10

1.5. Future Trends ................................................................11

2.1 Commonly used software and hardware ....................11

2.2. Characteristics of file types and compression techniques ........................15

2.3. Applications and examples ..........................................16

2.4 Future Trends ................................................................17

3.1 Commonly used software and hardware ....................17

3.2. Characteristics of file types and compression techniques ........................18

3.3 Applications and examples ...........................................19

3.4 Future Trends ................................................................19

4.0. Benefits (ROI) ...............................................................19

5.0 References .....................................................................19

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..........LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 The Eiger Labs MPMan F10 5

Figure 2 An MP3 CD player (Philips Expanium) 5

Figure 3 Apple iPod, the best-selling hard drive- based player 6

Figure 4 TASCAM's new X-48 is the world's first standalone 848-track Hybrid Hard Disk Workstation

Figure 5 AKAI MPC-2500 digital audio workstation sampler 8

Figure 6 Zoom MRS-802BCD Hard disk recorder 9

Figure 7- Audacity - Audio editing software 9

Figure 8- AVS Audio Tools 9

Figure 9 - Audio Editor Plus (screen) 10

Figure 10 - Canon PowerShot A95 with Compact Flash card 13loaded

Figure 11 - Canon EOS 30D (SLR) 13

Figure 12 - A Hasselblad 503CW with a digital camera back 14

Figure 13 - Samsung debuts five mega pixel camera phone with 143X optical zoom, ISO controls

Figure 14 - Sony unveils Qualia - Ultra compact digital camera 14

Figure 15 - Corel's Paint shop Pro software 15

Figure 16 - Mac Digital Photography software 15

Figure 17 - Adobe Photoshop CS2 software 16

Figure 18 - SONY DSR-570WSP Professional camera 17

Figure 19 - Panasonic NV-GX7 DV camera 17

Figure 20 - Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 17

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Digital Media Applications

1. Audio

1.1 Commonly used software and hardware

A digital audio player(DAP) is a device that stores, organizes and playsaudio files.DAPs often play many additional file formats. Some formats are proprietary, such asWindows Media Audio (WMA), and to a degree,Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) andMP3. Other formats are completely patent-free or otherwise open, such as Ogg Vorbis,FLAC, Speex(all part of theOgg open multimedia project), and Module file formats.There are three main types of digital audio players:

Flash-based Players - These are solid state devices that hold digital audio fileson internal or external media, such as memory cards.

Hard Drive-based Players orDigital Jukeboxes - Devices that read digital audiofiles from a hard drive.

MP3 CD Players - Devices that can play audio files from a CD-ROM in additionaudio CDs1

Figure 2 The Eiger Labs MPMan F10 1

Figure 2 An MP3 CD player (Philips Expanium)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_formathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_formathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietaryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Codinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Codinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg_Vorbishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speexhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speexhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_filehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_cardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_drivehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3_CDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Dischttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_formathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietaryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Media_Audiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Codinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogg_Vorbishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speexhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Module_filehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_cardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_drivehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3_CDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc


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Figure 3 Apple iPod, the best-selling hard drive- based player

1.2 Characteristics of file types and compression techniques

1.2.1. Free and Open File Formats

wav - standard audio file format used mainly in Windows PCs. Commonlyused for storing uncompressed (PCM), CD-quality sound files, which meansthat they can be large in size - around 10MB per minute of music.

ogg - a free, open source container format supporting a variety ofcodecs.the most popular of which is the audio codec Vorbis.

flac - a lossless compression codec. You can think of losslesscompression as like zip but for audio. If you compress a PCM file to flac andthen restore it again it will be a perfect copy of the original. (All the othercodecs discussed here are lossy which means a small part of the quality islost). The cost of this losslessness is that the compression ratio is not good.

aiff - the standard audio file format used by Apple. It is like a wav file forthe Mac.

raw - a raw file can contain audio in any codec but is usually used withPCM audio data. It is rarely used except for technical tests.

au - the standard audio file format used by Sun, Unix and Java. The audioin au files can be PCM or compressed with the -law, a-law or G729 codecs.

1.2.2 Open File Formats

mp3 - the MPEG Layer-3 format is the most popular format fordownloading and storing music. By eliminating portions of the audio file thatare essentially inaudible, mp3 files are compressed to roughly one-tenth thesize of an equivalent PCM file while maintaining good audio quality.

gsm - designed for telephony use in Europe, gsm is a very practicalformat for telephone quality voice. It makes a good compromise between filesize and quality. Note that wav files can also be encoded with the gsm codec.

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dct - A variable codec format designed for dictation. It has dictationheader information and can be encrypted (often required by medicalconfidentiality laws).

vox - the vox format most commonly uses the Dialogic ADPCM (AdaptiveDifferential Pulse Code Modulation) codec. Similar to other ADPCM formats,

it compresses to 4-bits. Vox format files are similar to wave files except thatthe vox files contain no information about the file itself so the codec samplerate and number of channels must first be specified in order to play a vox file.

aac - the Advanced Audio Coding format is based on the MPEG2 andMPEG4 standards. aac files are usually ADTS or ADIF containers.

mp4/m4a - MPEG-4 audio most often AAC but sometimes MP2/MP3

1.2.3 Proprietary Formats

wma - the popular Windows Media Audio format owned by Microsoft.Designed with Digital Rights Management (DRM) abilities for copy protection.

atrac (.wav) - the older style Sony ATRAC format. It always has a .wav fileextension. To open these files simply install the ATRAC3 drivers.

ra - a Real Audio format designed for streaming audio over the Internet.The .ra format allows files to be stored in a self-contained fashion on acomputer, with all of the audio data contained inside the file itself.

ram - a text file that contains a link to the Internet address where the RealAudio file is stored. The .ram file contains no audio data itself.

dss - Digital Speech Standard files are an Olympus proprietary format. It

is a fairly old and poor codec. Prefer gsm or mp3 where the recorder allows.It allows additional data to be held in the file header.

msv - a Sony proprietary format for Memory Stick compressed voice files.

dvf - a Sony proprietary format for compressed voice files; commonlyused by Sony dictation recorders.

m4p - A proprietary version of AAC in MP4 with Digital RightsManagement developed by Apple for use in music downloaded from theiriTunes Music Store.2

1.3 Applications and Examples

1.3.1. Software

There are different kinds of digital audio applications and can be divided intothree main categories: a) Samplers, b) hard disk recorders and c) CD burnersand MP3 encoders.

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..........1.3.2. SamplersA sampler is an electronic instrument that uses digital recordings to eitherreconstruct existing instruments or build new ones. The software sampler ishe most affordable solution of all.

1.3.3. Stereo Hard Disk Recording

Along with sequencing, files can be opened, edited and saved as well asconvert sample rates, apply equalization and effects and normalize tracks.

1.3.4. Multi-Track Hard Disk Recording

While programs like Bias Peak and Sound Studio place a stereo tape deck onyour hard disk, other applications provide multiple tracks for overdubbingaudio and mixing it later

1.3.5. CD Burners and MP3 Encoders

Rippin and burnin CD burners and MP3 encoders are definitely closer todigital audio recorders than samplers. Given their prominence as of latethough.3

Figure 4 TASCAM's new X-48 is the world's first standalone 48-trackHybrid Hard Disk Workstation

Figure 5 AKAI MPC-2500 DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION SAMPLER

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Figure 6 Zoom MRS-802BCD Hard disk recorder

1.3.6. Examples of Audio Software

Audacity

iTunes

QuickTime Pro

Deck

Performer

Goldwave

Multiquence 4

Figure 7- Audacity - Audio editing software

Figure 8- AVS Audio Tools

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Figure 9 - Audio Editor Plus (screen)

1.4. Delivery Options

Once analog audio is digitized, institutions have the option of delivering theaudio files through the Web for listening or downloading, and/or they maywant to provide delivery to on-site patrons. Institutions should consider theneeds of their user groups before deciding upon delivery options.

1.4.1. On-site Delivery

For public listening stations, think in terms of disposability: public units suffermuch wear and tear. Generally, purchasing and maintaining a computer ismore costly than using personal style CD or MP3 players available atdiscount stores for less than $100 per unit. A good unit will come with a powersupply and headphones, and will also have a display capable of showingsome of the basic text metadata embedded into the MP3 files.

Headphones generally provide the most manageable way for patrons to listento the audio without interrupting other users, and patrons will need access toa software panel to control the volume of the audio. Audio workstationsshould be outfitted with these basics:

Hardware: Each audio workstation requires a sound card, a CD-ROM drive,a network connection of some type for audio accessed via a local networkor the Internet and headphones.

Software: Each workstation should have a software audio player, such asWindows Media Player, QuickTime, Winamp or RealPlayer etc., that iscapable of playing a wide variety of audio formats, including CD audio, MP3files, and streaming media.

1.4.2. Online Delivery

It is important to note that the needs of users should drive the technologydecisions, and not the other way around. While it is also important to considerthe technology support that is available from institution, the needs of usersshould drive format decisions. There are presently two predominant ways ofdistributing audio via the Internet: streaming and downloading.

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Streaming Audio is available in a number of proprietary formats, includingReal media, Windows Media, QuickTime and others. To provide streamingmedia, an authoring package, available through one of the above vendors, isneeded to prepare the audio for streaming.

Downloading the complete audio files is the simplest way of making your

audio files available over the Internet, perhaps as MP3 files. By making thefiles available as a download, access is needed to a basic Web servereither in-house or via an Internet service provider but no other specialserver hardware or software requirements are necessary.

1.4.3. Pod casting

Although downloading audio files over the Internet has been available foryears, the explosion of portable MP3 players particularly Apples iPodthat allow users to play files at their convenience, has created a demand foronline distribution of audio files. A pod cast is simply an audio recordingposted for download, and can be coupled with RSS (really simple

syndication) to allow users to subscribe to desired Web content andautomatically receive updates that are downloaded to portable musicplayers.5

1.5. Future Trends

New digital audio services like satellite radio, online radio, HD radio, and podcasting with new subscription and data service business models are changingthe way consumers listen to radio. All four digital audio markets will growsteadily by 2010, 20.1 million households will listen to satellite radio and12.3 million households will synchronize pod casts to their MP3 players.Broadcasters and music labels must learn to deal with this new, fragmentedaudience. The keys to success will be subscriptions, ad targeting, andmonetizing the many ways that digital audio will be consumed.6

2. PhotographyDigital photography, as opposed to film photography, uses electronic devicesto record and capture the image as binary data. This facilitates storage andediting of the images on personal computers, and also the ability to show anddelete unsuccessful images immediately on the camera or software itself.

Digital cameras now outsell film cameras and include features that are notfound in film cameras such as the ability to shoot video and record audio.Some other devices, such as mobile phones, include digital photographyfeatures.7

2.1 Commonly used software and hardware

2.1.1. Compact digital cameras

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..........The compact is the biggest selling class in both digital and conventionalcameras. The benefits are easy to see, the cameras are relatively small andoffer good quality images. The range is large from basic budget fixed lenscameras to high end cameras with zoom lens and larger mega pixels (betterquality). They are characterized by great ease in operation and easyfocusing; some models allow for limited motion picture capability. They tend

to have significantly smaller zooms than DSLR cameras. They have anextended depth of field. This allows objects at a larger range of depths to bein focus, which accounts for much of their ease of use. It is also part of thereason professional photographers find their images flat or artificial-looking.They excel in landscape photography and casual use. They typically savepictures in only the JPEG file format. All but the cheapest models have abuilt-in flash.

2.1.2. Phone and PDA Cameras

Original phones with camera facilities were pretty rudimentary in terms ofquality and performance. However these have rapidly developed. They are

primarily used for quick photos where great quality is not an issue. Howeveryou can instantly share these photographs by sending them instantaneouslyto family and friends.

2.1.3. Ultra Compact Cameras

Using the camera electronics and lens from a mobile phone and putting themin a more conventional casing gives an ultra compact camera. The bulk ofcameras of this type is the batteries. Battery technology has not caught up interms of miniaturization. Benefit is they are so small they can be sold on keyrings, the downside is you generally need to connect to a computer to viewand download images.8

2.1.4. Digital single lens reflex cameras

A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camerathat operates on the same optical and mechanical principles as a modernelectronic auto focus 35mm film single-lens reflex camera. The key differenceis that the film is replaced with a CCD or CMOS image sensor plusaccompanying electronics, thus creating images digitally in-camera, withoutthe need to first chemically develop a latent image on film.9

These cameras tend to have the highest resolutions and offer the optimum inimage quality. They also allow rapid shooting than most other camera withmotor drive capability and most models allow lens interchange. They are

mainly used by professionals and serious amateur photographers and tend tobe expensive. There is a small niche in the market of SLR-style cameras thatsit between the compact and the SLR. They generally feature an electronicviewfinder rather than an optical one and feature a fixed zoom lens. 10

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2.1.5. Digital rangefinders

A rangefinder is a focusing mechanism once widely used on film cameras,but much less common in digital cameras. The term rangefinder alone isoften used to mean a rangefinder camera, that is, a camera equipped with arangefinder. These type of cameras are very useful in travel photography,

they are very quiet and discrete. The downside is that they do not use zoomlens but a range of fixed lens, not so convenient but ensures very goodquality particularly in low light conditions.

2.1.6. Professional modular digital camera systems

This category includes very high end professional equipment that that can beassembled from modular components (winders, grips, lenses, etc.) to suitparticular purposes. Common makes include Hasselblad and Mamiya. Theywere developed for medium or large format film sizes, as these capturedgreater detail and could be enlarged more than 35mm.

Typically these cameras are used in studios for commercial production; beingbulky and awkward to carry they are rarely used in action or naturephotography. They can often be converted into either film or digital use bychanging out the back part of the unit, hence the use of terms such as a"digital back" or "film back." These cameras are very expensive (up to$40,000) and are typically not seen in the hands of consumers.11

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Figure 10 - Canon PowerShot A95 with Compact Flash card loaded

Figure 11 - Canon EOS 30D (SLR)

Figure 12 - A Hasselblad 503CW with a digital camera back

Figure 13 - Samsung debuts five mega pixel camera phone with 3Xoptical zoom, ISO controls

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Figure 14 - Sony unveils Qualia - Ultra compact digital camera

2.2. Characteristics of file types and compression techniques

Exchangeable image file format (Exif) is a set of file formats specified for usein digital cameras. This specifies the use of TIFF for the highest quality format

and JPEG as a space-saving but lower quality format. Many low-endcameras can deliver only JPEG files. Another format, particularly found ondigital SLRs and other high-end digital cameras, is the RAW image format,which is not standardized.

A large variety of data storage device formats are used in consumer digitalcameras:

* Secure Digital card (SD)

* Compact Flash (CF-I and CF-II)

* Memory Stick* Multi Media Card (MMC)

* Smart Media

* xD-Picture Card (xD)

* MiniSD Card

* microSD card

* USB flash drive

Most manufacturers of digital cameras do not provide drivers and software toallow their cameras to work with Linux or other free software. Still, manycameras use the standard USB storage protocol, and are thus easily usable.Other cameras are supported by the gPhoto project.12

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..........2.3. Applications and examplesThere are endless applications for digital photography from the professionalto amateur. The majority of professional news photographers now capturetheir images digitally, due to its speed.

Advertising, commercial photography, wedding photography and photo artistsalso use digital to enable pictures to be manipulated either fixing thephotographs e.g. getting rid of Red Eye to adding colour, cropping theimage, adding art effects, improving reality and photo montage using varioussoftware packages available, e.g. Adobe Photoshop.

Figure 15 - Corel's Paint shop Pro software

Figure 16 - Mac Digital Photography software

Figure 17 - Adobe Photoshop CS2 software

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2.4 Future Trends

Lighting, optics, sensors, processing, storage, and display and software areall advancing. Here are a few examples.

* 3D models can be created from collections of normal images. The

resulting scene can be viewed from novel viewpoints, but creating the modelis very compute-intensive. Microsoft's Photosynth is available with models offamous places.[9]

* High Dynamic Range cameras and displays are commercially available.>120 decibel sensors are in development. You can create your own HDRimages, with a non-HDR camera, by combining multiple exposures.

* Motion blur can be dramatically removed by a flutter shutter (a flickeringshutter which adds a signature to the blur, which post processing canrecognize).[10] It is not yet commercially available.

* An object's specular reflection can be captured using computer controlledlights and sensors. This is needed to create attractive images of oil paintings,for instance. It is not yet commercially available, but is starting to be used bymuseums.13

3. Digital Video3.1 Commonly used software and hardware

Video cameras are classified as devices whose main purpose is to recordmoving images.

Professional video cameras such as those used in television and movieproduction. These typically have multiple image sensors (one per color) toenhance resolution and color gamut. Professional video cameras usually do nothave a built-in VCR or microphone.

Camcorders used by amateurs. They generally include a microphone to recordsound, and feature a small liquid crystal display to watch the video during tapingand playback.

Webcams are digital cameras attached to computers, used for videoconferencing or other purposes. Webcams can capture full-motion video as well,and some models include microphones or zoom ability.

In addition, many Live-Preview Digital cameras have a "movie" mode, inwhich images are continuously acquired at a frame rate sufficient for video.14

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Figure 18 - SONY DSR-570WSP Professional camera

Figure 19 - Panasonic NV-GX7 DV camera

Figure 20 - Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000

3.2. Characteristics of file types and compression techniques

Formats for video are AVI, DV, MPEG, MOV (often containing motion JPEG),WMV, and ASF (basically the same as WMV). Recent formats include MP4,which is based on the QuickTime format and uses newer compression

algorithms to allow longer recording times in the same space.

Other formats that are used in cameras but not for pictures are the DesignRule for Camera Format (DCF), an ISO specification for the camera's internalfile structure and naming, Digital Print Order Format (DPOF), which dictateswhat order images are to be printed in and how many copies, and the

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Exchangeable Image File Format (Exif), which uses metadata tags todocument the camera settings and date and time for image files.15

3.3 Applications and examples

3.4 Future Trends

4.0. Benefits (ROI)

5.0 References

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1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_player2 Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_file_format"3 http://www.atpm.com/6.04/digitalaudio.shtml4 http://www.vtmidi.org/files/modifiedforSI06.doc5 http://www.cdpheritage.org/digital/audio/documents/CDPDABP_1-2.pdf6http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,36428,00.html7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_photography8 Mastering the Digital World by Peter Cope (Funtastic Ltd 2005)9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_single-lens_reflex_camera10 Mastering the Digital World by Peter Cope (Funtastic Ltd 2005)11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cameras12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_photography#File_types_and_data_storage_formats13

14 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_camera15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_camera
http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,36428,00.htmlhttp://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,36428,00.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_photographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_photographyhttp://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,36428,00.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_photography

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