understanding current uses of video in interactive media

there are many different platforms for interactive media some of them are: pc and internet, mp4 players, atm machines, TV-sky/cable ,world web, email attachments, DVD, cd rom, kiosks, presentations and mobile devices.

Video can be used to produce adverts, to promote, educate and inform. This is an effective way to transfer information.

Using video has its constraints, like mobile phones will have low quality.

Some platforms can be better than others for video. For example atm machines would be simple slideshows whilst it is not active rather than videos which will be ignored because people only use the machine when they need money.

The world web is where you can view sites with text, images and video but again there is constraints videos on the web can be viewed through flash player and not everyone has flash.

Email attachment is where something is attached to an email wither its an image or a video again there is a constraint if the video file is to big you cant download it like if you have limited internet like me only having 50mb a month will limit you to how much you can download.

Dvds come in different formats like flv, mpeg , avi, wmv, mov.
Dvd is a popular optical disk storage media format. many resolutions and formats are supported, most consumer DVD-Video discs use mpeg 2 most dvd players support all dvd formats DVD-Video also supports features such as menus, selectable subtitles, multiple camera angles, and multiple audio tracks.

A Cd rom is a compact disk that contains data, there use to distribute computer software including games. The capacity of a cd rom is 682 mb which gives you the playing time of 74 minuets this would be considered as a constraint if you have produced something that runs longer than 74 minuets.

A kiosks is an interactive touch screen computer. You will find then in hospitals, car showrooms, they provide information, gather data, gather opinions, and even entertaining children in museums.

For presentations you can use video in them like have a flash player but people that don’t have flash wont be able to veiw your full presentation.

Interactive media is use for a range of things like making short films, adverts, film trailers,virtual reality tours, e-learning and games.

Video data compression processes information using fewer bits which is useful for helping to reduce transmission of band width. The down side of compressed data is the it needs to be uncompressed to be viewed.

Formats ,mov ,avi, digital TV uses mpeg 2. When playing a video on the web it has a, Bit rate is a measure of the rate of content in a video a higher bit rate allows better video quality. In digital multimedia, bit rate is often the number of bits used per unit of playback such as audio or video after data compression Variable bit rate is a way to maximize the visual video quality and minimize the bit rate also it depends on the amount of people watching the video at the same time. On fast motion scenes, a variable bit rate uses more bits than it does on slow motion. The smaller the bit rate a video the less download you use. Streaming media storage is a file system of megabytes and gigabytes and terabytes and so on, which is calculated from streaming bandwidths and the length of a video/media .. some of the screen resolutions are 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and higher apparently around only 8% use a 800 x 600 monitor so its better to make your video that small because if you make a video for a wide screen monitor then people using a small screen will only see half the video and have to use the bottom scroll bar.

video

the examples i have chose for interactive videos are banner adds a dvd menu and an interactive film where you chose what happens.

there are contraints for these some bigger than others. if its a video your internet can be a constraint for exaple you have download limits so limeted to how many videos you watch and the quality you watch it at, if download is slow hte buffering will be slow and can take the video long to buffer than the amount of play time it has. dvd is better for watching videos because you dont have a download limet,dvd files come in flv, mpeg, avi, wmv, mov.

The spiderwick chronicals

this is another site that uses png 32. this site gives you good visual feedback it contains graphics inside buttons which is made to move on the over state. some of the options highlight in blue to show there something.

narnia webs site

The web site has been put toghether useing a background covered in png 32s. using this method you can cut out part of the image you want and make the rest of the rectangle apear transparent. the images have been over laped to give a more 3d look, when you click on each individual character they give you audio feedback.

Visual treatment in interactivemedia

Visual treatment in interactivemedia
· Visual cue

- Use of colour for indication

- Metaphors

- Highlighting text

- Attracting Attention

- Prioritising

- Aesthetic Appeal

· Accessibility

- Use of colour etc.

· Screen Design

- Amount of information presented

- Grouping and prioritising of information

·Balance

- White Space

- Grey Space

- Black Space

.Use of Images and Composition

- Rule of thirds

- Lead lines

- Focal point

- Depth of field

- Use of colour

· Colour Theory

- Primary colours

- Contrasting colours

- Complementary colours

- Colours in common

- Colour wheel


Visual cues
A visual cue is the change of appearance. There are two types of visual cues: graphical cues and textual cues. A graphical cue can be the shading in the text entry field. A textual cue includes messages that provide information.
Different colours can indicate different things. For example take the traffic lights red means stop, yellow means get ready and green means go. Take the colour red some people would say it means anger some would say it means love, colours can have different meaning for different people depending on the situation.
Visual cues include metaphors, a metaphor is a way of describing something it’s a figure of speech which compares something with out using like or as.
Work with information, for example the news they prioritise what’s most important they will show reports with more importance first. Your work needs to be visually appealing to keep people interested.

Bibliography:
http://docs.hp.com/en/B1171-90148/ch04s02.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor


Accessibility

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web. Accessibility means that disabled people can understand, navigate and interact with the web. Web accessibility is important in aspects of life like education, work and health care. To make your web site accessible you need to take into account colour, if you use a colour font that is camouflaged by the back ground the sites not going to be very accessible to a vision impaired person.

http://www.havenworks.com/

Like the haven works website, this has poor accessibility. A vision impaired person mite not be able to read the text on this site because of the masses of text that’s not in paragraphs, also the amount of different coloured boxes may appear as a mass of colour, this site don’t have a menu on the left hand side the menu is all over the page.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/
This site may be more user friendly there’s not masses of colour like in the havenworks website; also there are small paragraphs of information. This site is easier to navigate with the menu bar being on the left hand side.

Screen Design

The screen design covers the amount of information and how you prioritise information also how the information on the page is balanced. It also covers the use of colour because you cant use a background colour that is going to camouflage the text.


Balance

Balance covers black space, white space and grey space.
Black space is the area use for graphics if you look at the bbc news site you will see a logo that would be the black space. The grey space is the area of text and the white space the amount of back ground with nothing on it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Use of Images and Composition
Composition means, putting together and apply to art work. This consists of the rule of thirds, lead lines, focal points, depth of field and use of colour.

Visual treatment in interactivemedia
· Visual cues- Use of colour for indication- Metaphors- Highlighting text- Attracting Attention- Prioritising- Aesthetic Appeal
· Accessibility- Use of colour etc.
· Screen Design- Amount of information presented- Grouping and prioritising of information
· Balance- White Space- Grey Space- Black Space
· Use of Images and Composition- Rule of thirds- Lead lines- Focal point- Depth of field- Use of colour
· Colour Theory- Primary colours- Contrasting colours- Complementary colours- Colours in common- Colour wheel










Visual cues
A visual cue is the change of appearance. There are two types of visual cues: graphical cues and textual cues. A graphical cue can be the shading in the text entry field. A textual cue includes messages that provide information.
Different colours can indicate different things. For example take the traffic lights red means stop, yellow means get ready and green means go. Take the colour red some people would say it means anger some would say it means love, colours can have different meaning for different people depending on the situation.
Visual cues include metaphors, a metaphor is a way of describing something it’s a figure of speech which compares something with out using like or as.
Work with information, for example the news they prioritise what’s most important they will show reports with more importance first. Your work needs to be visually appealing to keep people interested.

Bibliography:
http://docs.hp.com/en/B1171-90148/ch04s02.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor


Accessibility

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web. Accessibility means that disabled people can understand, navigate and interact with the web. Web accessibility is important in aspects of life like education, work and health care. To make your web site accessible you need to take into account colour, if you use a colour font that is camouflaged by the back ground the sites not going to be very accessible to a vision impaired person.

Like the haven works website, this has poor accessibility. A vision impaired person mite not be able to read the text on this site because of the masses of text that’s not in paragraphs, also the amount of different coloured boxes may appear as a mass of colour, this site don’t have a menu on the left hand side the menu is all over the page.
This site may be more user friendly there’s not masses of colour like in the havenworks website; also there are small paragraphs of information. This site is easier to navigate with the menu bar being on the left hand side.

Screen Design

The screen design covers the amount of information and how you prioritise information also how the information on the page is balanced. It also covers the use of colour because you cant use a background colour that is going to camouflage the text.


Balance

Balance covers black space, white space and grey space.
Black space is the area use for graphics if you look at the bbc news site you will see a logo that would be the black space. The grey space is the area of text and the white space the amount of back ground with nothing on it.

Use of Images and Composition
Composition means, putting together and apply to art work. This consists of the rule of thirds, lead lines, focal points, depth of field and use of colour.


The rule of thirds is a guide line followed by many artists this is use to get a balanced composition

Colour Theory
This consists off primary colours which are blue , red , yellow. Then there are contrasting colours which are colour which stand out from each other.
Opposite colours are called complimentary.


Blue complements (red + yellow) = orange
Red complements (blue + yellow) = green
Yellow complements (red + blue) = purple
then there are colours in common which are the colours next to each other on the colour wheel for example red and orange are colours in comon like the light and dark blue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrasting_colours


The rule of thirds is a guide line followed by many artists this is use to get a balanced composition

Colour Theory
This consists off primary colours which are blue , red , yellow. Then there are contrasting colours which are colour which stand out from each other.
Opposite colours are called complimentary.


Blue complements (red + yellow) = orange
Red complements (blue + yellow) = green
Yellow complements (red + blue) = purple
then there are colours in common which are the colours next to each other on the colour wheel for example red and orange are colours in comon like the light and dark blue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrasting_colours

The legal and ethical constraints of interactive media

Legal constraints

· computer misuse act
· data protection act
· obscene publication act
· intellectual properties
· race relations act
· disability
· Checking intellectual property rights- Copyright- Design rights- Moral and paternal rights- Trademarks- Patents
· Obtaining permissions
· Accessibility
· Contracts- Types of contract- Subcontracting- Outsourcing- Working to a brief- Penalties
Ethical constraints
· Authorship and ownership issues
· Representation- Race- Gender- Age
· Blasphemy
· Appropriateness to audience

These are some of the constraints you need to understand and use in interactive media.

The computer misuse act
The computer misuse act involves securing computer material against unauthorised access, or modification. So basically you are not allowed to modify/change another person’s work without their say so.
You are committing an offence if you use your computer to perform any function to secure access to any program or data held in a computer without permission, unauthorised access to computer, software or data (hacking). Including the copyright of programs that is illegal.
Also accessing someone’s, computer with the intending to changing or deleting it, including planting viruses.
The computer misuse act was introduced to stop viruses, copyright, hacking, using a computer data for blackmail or fraud and the illegal changing or deleting of computer data. I you are caught performing any of the act you can be fined or get 5 years imprisonment.

Data protection act

The data protection act applies to the handling, storage of data and personal information to make sure it’s confined.
Data can only be used for the certain purpose which it was collected for. Data must not be shown to someone without the consent of the person the data is about, unless its to legally to stop or protect against crime. Personal information is not allowed to be kept longer then is needed. This offence can lead to a fine or imprisonment.

Obscene publications act

This law makes it an offence to show any content intending to corrupt or deprave anyone who is likely to read, see or hear something containing extreme sexual activity such as bestiality necrophilia, rape or torture. This offence can lead to 6 months imprisonment for downloading and 3years imprisonment for downloading and containing.

intellectual properties

intellectual properties is rights to protect creative work such as books, movies, music, paintings, photographs and software and gives the copyright holder the rights of reproduction of work over a certain period of time.

Race relations act

The race relations act makes it illegal to discriminate someone because of the colour, nationality or national origin. You can not make racist jokes or treat someone different because of their nationality or beliefs. For example if your making a web site that’s to be broad casted all over the world you can’t just use one language their should be a language option so its accessible to all nationalities, and not contain any images that may be offensive.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/DiscriminationAtWork/DG_10026667

Disability discrimination act

The disability discrimination act is there to stop people from being less favoured because of a disability they have, and to stop failure to make reasonable adjustments for example if a shop has steps in front of their door they have to do something to make their shop accessible to a wheelchair user. Or for someone with vision impairment, if you make a web site, you have to do something to make all areas of that site accessible to them, like make text big and clearer to read, and not blend in with the back ground colour, or have something you can use to magnify the web site enough for them to be able to read what is on the site.



Checking intellectual property rights

Intellectual property rights’ involves copyright and industrial property. For example word and art are covered by copyright and industrial property and inventions are covered by trade marks and design rights, a trade mark can be a word, symbol or even a recipe. This protects work ideas and designs linked to copyright, which automatically happens but you need to be able to prove that the work design was your own idea and not an idea you have copied. Copyright lasts 70 years after the owner’s death.

http://dio.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/standards/copyguide.html

Obtaining permissions
You can use copyrighted material providing you have the owner’s permission.

Accessibility
Accessibility means people with a disability can access the web most specifically they can understand and navigate and interact with the web. Web accessibility depends on things like type, content, sound and complexity of a site.
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php


Contracts

A contract is an exchange of promise between to of more people to do or not to do something, which is enforceable in the court of law. The main feature of a contract is that one person makes and offer/arrangement that the other person accepts. A subcontractor is a business that signs a contract to perform part of the obligations of another contract. Outsourcing is a subcontracting process such as product design. Outsourcing I a decision often made tin interest to lowering a firm or making better use of time, energy and cost. When given a brief you will read through what you are to produce, and in interactive media, for example you’re making a video, you will need to make contracts for each person involved in your video. Once you have had your contract signed by the people in this video, you have to work to the brief and what you have stated you are going to produce, and how or where it’s going to be shown. If a contract is broken you will receive a penalty which is a sentence the final rule of a judge the sentence will involve fines or imprisonment.


Authorship and ownership issues

Authorship and ownership issues are like copyright, there’s no flexibility in what authorship/ownership means. Owning author ship over any work such as, writing, music or art gives this person copyright to and the right to distribution and production of their work.

colour...

This web page has lots of tiny areas of black space which is the graphics(the photographs) and the logo. this web page is cluttered with grey space with is the text, there is not really much white space which is the background, which makes this site not balanced there is properly 70% grey space 20% black space and 10% white space. although the use of colour is balance because they use red which are hot colours and blues which are cold colours. this effects how user friendly the web page is.

comparison of sites

havenworks vs bbc

haven works website has to much writing that's not in paragraphs where as the BBC site has little paragraphs of text making the information on the BBC site easier to take in.

haven works don't have a menu on the left hand side like the BBC does, the havenworks menu is all over the page so navigating form page to page is easier on the BBC website. the BBC website only really uses colour on the header where there is a consistent logo on the top left corner, the haven works site is like a circus with all its different colours, so you can concentrate on a certain area of the BBC site but you can concentrate on the havenworks site because there is to much colour and text and there too much going on, you're constantly being distracted by something else going on ' on the page. this shows that the BBC web site has more usability.

find two sites that are bad' task 2

this is rated as one of the top 10 worst web sites.

The bright background can be hard on the eyes and you're attention is being pulled in all directions, the menu is being camouflaged because each menu option is has a different font and a different background colour. also like on the other site i looked at, they have not taken into account disabled people, to vision impaired people this may just appear as a mass of colour. there are five animated flags at the top of this site that made me believe this site was available in those languages but after i tried clicking them i found out they were not.

find two webs sites that are bad' task

This web site has been rated one of the top 10 worst web sites. havenworks.com

I totally agree that its a rubbish web site. this website is far to busy, you're attention is being drawn to everything at once which is camouflage the site. threes to many bright colours that draw you're attention from one part of the site to another which makes it difficult to concentrate one particular part of the site. there is just masses of writing that's not even in paragraphs which makes it that much harder to keep concentration whilst reading. they have not really made there site accessible to disabled people, to a vision impaired person this site may just appear as a mass of mixed colours. after a while you get tired from looking at this site and your eyes hurt from straining to see whats what on this site.

notes from group presatations

intellectual properties

includes protecting work,ideas,designs. linked to copy right which happens automatically but need need to be able to prove u have owner rights.copy right lasts 70 years after owners death.
trademarks can be words,symbols even recipes.

computer miss use act

apllies to the handling of-storage of data.personal information-make sure its confined
penalty: fine and 5 year jail.

data protection act

6 months jail for downloading
3 years jail for downloading an containing

obscene publication act
rape, beastiality corrupt, basically you can use any thing corrupt and thing that will offend someone