INTERACTIVE MEDIA SYSTEMS. FLAME is researching and developing “FMI products and services that use real-life adaptive experimental infrastructures”. In other words, we are building Interactive Media Systems (IMS) and actually we assume we are dealing with distributed IMS. EXPERIMEDIA [Boniface15] provides a short discussion on Networked Multimedia Systems outlining the changes to user experience and the relationship with advanced infrastructures responsible for storage, processing and transmission of multimedia content. Other general definitions exist [Wikipedia, Britannica] but the common aspect is that the user shifts from the role of observer to a participant where their input (e.g., on-demand navigation and streaming) determines the output. An important scoping factor is that we are exploring the relationship between media and the infrastructure resources used to store, process and transmit the content. Traditionally, interactive media systems are developed by assuming an infrastructure and without the involvement of the network operator. This is the meaning of over-the-top (XXX) service provision. We are now exploring how to bring the media service providers and operators together in a way that allows the infrastructure to be dynamically optimised based on the demand for interactive multimedia content. The optimisation of the quality of interactive media content vs available infrastructure resources is the primary purpose of the platform. Content itself refers to the information provided through the medium and is what is being expressed. The same information can be expressed through different media. A definition of Interactive Media is given below [InteractiveMedia]: “Interactive media is the integration of digital media including combinations of electronic text, graphics, moving images, and sound, into a structured digital computerised environment that allows people to interact with the content for appropriate purposes. The digital environment can include the Internet, telecoms and interactive digital television.” We must model and analyse factors influencing the relationship between content and the communication system used to deliver it. Our initial analysis highlighted personalisation, interactivity, mobility and localisation as our initial set of demand factors that can influence adaptation in the infrastructure [Xxxxxxxx0000]. These factors will be further analysed considering the expected changes in interactive media and emerging capabilities of the platform. We must als...
INTERACTIVE MEDIA SYSTEMS. The high-level domain model is based on the concept of participants interacting in communication processes through exchange of media content. We focus initially on human-to-human (H2H) communication systems in contrast to other types of systems such as those designed for machine communication and control as shown in Figure 4. Nevertheless, some discussion may occur on how we support other forms of communication using the FLAME (e.g. Internet of Things, Security Systems, etc.), especially with the emergence of soft-machines (i.e. online robots and personal intelligent avatars). What’s clear is that M2M is beyond the scope of our work but we may consider H2M/M2H in some circumstances where it makes sense for the vision of the FMI.
INTERACTIVE MEDIA SYSTEMS. The high-level domain model is based on the concept of participants interacting in communication processes through exchange of media content. We focus initially on human-to-human (H2H) communication systems in contrast to other types of systems such as those designed for machine communication and control as shown in Figure 4. Nevertheless, some discussion may occur on how we support other forms of communication using the FLAME (e.g. Internet of Things, Security Systems, etc.), especially with the emergence of soft-machines (i.e. online robots and personal intelligent avatars). What’s clear is that M2M is beyond the scope of our work but we may consider H2M/M2H in some circumstances where it makes sense for the vision of the FMI. Figure 4: Positioning of FLAME in relation to types of communication system Figure 5 shows a set of high-level actors in the system that are further described in Table 1. The Participant is the end-user of the system and the primary beneficiary. The Content Producer and Communication Provider are abstract roles that are related to the core assets of Content and Communication Process. Each role could encapsulate further roles or aggregate roles in some business situations as required by the FMI ecosystem. For example, a Communication Provider could be realised through a combination of three organisations Media Service Provider, Platform Provider and Infrastructure Provider but the result of their collaboration is still a communication process supporting exchange of interactive multimedia content. The Content Producer is responsible for managing the production of content, for example, a games provider or broadcaster would be considered Content Providers supporting interaction between Participants. There are cases where Participants create Content as part of an interaction but this is not production as it involves only the exchange of information within a communication process itself.
