MHEG:AN EMERGING STANDARD FOR THE INTERCHANGE OF MULTIMEDIA AND HYPERMEDIA OBJECTS

摘要

This Paper aims at presenting major issues on multimedia and hypermedia information obiects standardization.The purpose of such a standardization is first discussed,by examining what are the interchange needs generated by the explosion of multimedia communication and by the dissemination of multimedia applications in vafious fields(education,information,business office systems,etc…).When interchange and interoperability among heterogeneous systems are required,standardization becomes a major issuet as long as it provides the Users with appropriate structures taking into account their current development and equipment environments.The level of complexity that should be addressed by a standard for the interchange of multimedia and hypermedia information is discussed,leading to a《layered》structure which separates a generic object layer from upper layers dealing with specific applicationsand structured documents,and lower layers dealing with monomedia contentdata.The representation and encoding of such Multimedia and ypermedia Information Obiects,for the special needs of real time,interactive and communicating applications,is the purpose of an ISO/IEC group(ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG12/MHEG),the work of which is presented by this paper.The scope of the MHEG standard is first explained,then an overview of the hierarchy of Objects Classes is provided,with some considerations on the relationships between MHEG and its using applicationsThe work of MHEG is to be considered as part of the overall context of standardization activities in the field of multimedia and hypermedia systems in general,a field which is briefly outlined before the conclusion.