電子書視覺化劇情編輯製作環境—適合非程式設計師使用

Abstract

多媒體電子書在目前已扮演越來越重要的角色,由於個人電腦之運算能力快速的提昇以及多媒體技術大幅度的進步，使得多媒體在基礎教育中的運用及呈現更加的吸引人。然而製作一本多媒體的電子書,仍需要花很多的時間和心力,更需要熟悉程式設計的技術,才能完成。目前市面上大部分的商業多媒體編輯軟體，例如Authorware和Director，是為專業工程師所設計的，極不適合一般的使用者使用，例如學校的老師和學生。根據我們的研究，適合非程式設計師使用群的多媒體編輯工具,必須符合以下的需求：1)支援多種常用的多媒體物件。2)使用者不需要寫文字式的程式碼。3)支援基本的功能,例如動畫能力及互動能力。4)容易使用和學習。基於這些基本的需求，在我們的研究中,針對非程式設計師的使用群,設計並實作了一個電子書視覺化劇情編輯製作環境，使他們容易編輯多媒體的電子書。 在電子書視覺化劇情整合發展環境中，我們提出電子書的描述模型，使用多媒體再用元件(MRC)來表示最基本的單位(稱作演員)。多個MRC和描述他們彼此間展示的關係式，可表示演出的劇情。而多個演出的劇情可表示一個表演的埸景。多個埸景就可組合成一部電子書。為了支援我們所提出的電子書描述模型，一個電子書視覺化劇情編輯製作環境被設計和實作出來。此編輯製作環境包含了電子書的描述語言(EBDL），MRC的編輯工具，劇情的編輯工具和播放工具。為了將EBDL視覺化，來作視覺化的編輯劇情，我們也設計了一個視覺語言。藉著使用此視覺語言，使用者可用視覺化的操作方式，將所需要的表演劇情編出來，而不需額外再撰寫文字化的程式。此外，此系統提供動態加入新媒體元件的機制，使得能因應特別的展示需求加入特定的新元件(MRC)以增強本系統的功能。 包含本系統的部份功能的子系統已被開發成一個商業的電子書編輯工具。運用本系統我們也編輯了一些展示的範例，來展示本系統的應用能力。此外我們也將此系統與Authorware和Director做了一個定性的比較，根據比較的結果也顯示出本編輯製作環境比較適合非程式設計師的使用群去編輯互動式的多媒體電子書。

Multimedia electronic books play an important role in today’s elementary education area. The fast computing power of PC and the rapid growth of multimedia technologies have made the use of multimedia presentation and animation very attractive. However, creating a multimedia electronic book still requires a great deal of time, skill, and effort. We found that most of the current commercial authoring tools, for example Director and Authorware, are designed for the professional users and are not quite suitable for the non-programming user group such as the school teachers or elementary students to create multimedia electronic books. From our study, authoring tools for these non-programming user group must meet the following requirements: 1) supporting various common used composition media objects, 2) no textual programming needed for users, 3) supporting features such as animation capability and interaction capability, 4) easy use and learn. Based on these requirements, in this dissertation research, we design and implement a component-based visual scenario construction environment for non-programming user group to easily create a multimedia electronic book. In our proposed representation model for the electronic books, we use a multimedia reusable component (MRC) to represent a basic atomic element (called actor). Several MRCs with the description of their relationships are used to represent a scenario. Several scenarios can be defined and combined to represent a scene. While several scenes are used to compose a multimedia electronic book. To support the proposed representation model, a visual scenario construction environment is designed and implemented. The construction environment consists of an electronic book description language (EBDL), MRC authoring tool, scenario authoring tool, and playback system. A visual language is also designed to visualize the EBDL. Using the visual language, users can visually author required scenarios without textual programming. Furthermore, we also support dynamical importing mechanism for the construction environment to extend its functionality for specific requirements by adding specific MRCs. A subset of the construction environment has been used to develop a commercial authoring tool for multimedia presentation. Both practical applications and examples are created using the proposed authoring environment to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed construction environment. Also, a qualitative comparison of the proposed authoring environment with well-known existing tools, Authorware and Director, is made to show the unique features of the proposed environment. From this study, we found that the proposed construction environment is quite suitable for non-programming user group to create multimedia interactive electronic books. ABSTRACT-----------------------------------------------------III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS-----------------------------------------------V LIST OF CONTENTS----------------------------------------------VI LIST OF FIGURES-----------------------------------------------XI LIST OF TABLES----------------------------------------------XIII 1. INTRODUCTION-----------------------------------------1 1.1 RELATED WORKS----------------------------------------2 1.1.1 MMW--------------------------------------------------2 1.1.2 Madeus-----------------------------------------------4 1.1.3 On automatic generation of multimedia presentations--6 1.1.4 Authorware-------------------------------------------9 1.1.5 Director--------------------------------------------11 1.2 MOVITATION------------------------------------------14 1.2.1 Easy to author--------------------------------------15 1.2.2 Support powferful features such as animation capability and interaction capability---------------15 1.2.3 No need for users to write textual program----------16 1.2.4 Support various common used composition media objects ----------------------------------------------------16 1.3 GOAL OF THIS DISSERTATION RESEARCH------------------16 1.4 DISSERTATION OUTLINE--------------------------------18 2. ELECTRONIC BOOKS REPRESENTATION MODEL---------------20 2.1 AN OVERVIEW FOR DESIGNING AN AUTHORING ENVIRONMENT--20 2.1.1 The approach for temporal representation model------20 2.1.1.1 Timeline approach-----------------------------------20 2.1.1.2 Script languages------------------------------------21 2.1.1.3 Tree structure--------------------------------------22 2.1.1.4 Petri-net structure---------------------------------23 2.1.1.5 Constraint-based approach---------------------------24 2.1.2 The supported multimedia object---------------------25 2.1.3 Scenario control------------------------------------25 2.1.3.1 Spatial scenario------------------------------------26 2.1.3.2 Temporal scenario-----------------------------------26 2.1.3.3 Interactive scenario--------------------------------26 2.1.3.4 Logical scenario------------------------------------27 2.1.4 Playback system capability--------------------------27 2.1.5 The various perspective views for an auathoring environment-----------------------------------------28 2.2 ELECTRONIC BOOKS CHARACTERISTICS ANALYSIS-----------30 2.2.1 Organizational structure----------------------------30 2.2.2 Media Object----------------------------------------32 2.2.3 The essential operations----------------------------32 2.2.4 Presentation control--------------------------------32 2.2.5 Interactivity capability----------------------------33 2.3 ELECTRONIC BOOKS REPRESENTATION MODEL---------------33 2.3.1 Using MRCs------------------------------------------35 2.3.2 Actor, scenario, scene, and Ebook project-----------36 2.4 ELECTRONIC BOOK DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE(EBDL)----------37 2.4.1 EBDL characteristics--------------------------------38 2.4.2 The programming features----------------------------39 2.4.2.1 Variable types--------------------------------------39 2.4.2.2 Scenario control------------------------------------39 2.4.2.3 Scene control---------------------------------------40 2.4.2.4 Operator--------------------------------------------41 2.4.2.5 Event types and event control-----------------------41 2.4.2.6 Procedure description-------------------------------42 2.4.3 The illustration of EBDL program--------------------43 2.4.3.1 MRC declaration-------------------------------------43 2.4.3.2 Scenario description--------------------------------44 2.4.3.3 Scene description-----------------------------------44 2.4.3.4 Story project---------------------------------------46 2.4.3.5 Scene overview--------------------------------------47 3. VISUAL LANGUAGE DESIGN------------------------------48 3.1 WHAT IS THE VISUAL LANGUAGE-------------------------48 3.2 VISUAL PROGRAMMING ----------------------------------49 3.3 VISUAL LANGUAGE DESIGN------------------------------50 3.3.1 Icon design-----------------------------------------51 3.3.2 Icon pin design-------------------------------------52 3.3.3 Icon connection design------------------------------54 3.3.3.1 Connection between two icons------------------------54 3.3.3.2 Type checking for icon pins-------------------------55 3.3.4 Iconization of command------------------------------56 3.3.4.1 The data iconization--------------------------------56 3.3.4.2 The command iconization-----------------------------58 4. SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION--------------------60 4.1 THE TRANSLATION PROCESS OF THE REPRESENTATION FORM--63 4.2 MRC AUTHORING TOOL----------------------------------65 4.2.1 The functionality of MRC authoring tool-------------65 4.2.2 MRC authoring tool design---------------------------66 4.3 THE SCENARIO AUTHORING TOOL-------------------------69 4.3.1 The functionality of the scenario authoring tool----69 4.3.2 The scenario authoring tool design------------------69 4.4 PLAYBACK SYSTEM-------------------------------------73 4.5 DYNAMICALLY IMPORT MRC------------------------------76 4.5.1 The objective of the dynamically imported MRC-------76 4.5.2 The mechanism of dynamically import MRC-------------77 5. COMPARISON------------------------------------------81 5.1 COMPARISON CRITERIA---------------------------------81 5.2 HOW TO COMPARE--------------------------------------83 5.3 COMPARISON RESULTS----------------------------------84 6. CONCLUSION------------------------------------------93 6.1 SUMMARY OF THIS RESEARCH----------------------------93 6.2 CONTRIBUTIONS OF THIS RESEARCH----------------------96 6.3 FUTURE WORK-----------------------------------------96 [REFERENCE]--------------------------------------------------98 APPENDIX(I)--ELECTRONIC BOOK DESCRIPTION LANGUAGE SYNTAX----103 APPENDIX(II) --VISUAL LANGUAGE SPECIFICATION----------------109