AUDITORIUM PRESENTATION

AUDITORIUM PRESENTATION

Communicating Complex Concepts using Structured Digital Video

Agnes Ouellette, Director Client Services, Expresto Software Corp. Research Associate, Knowledge Media Design Institute, and the University of Toronto

ABSTRACT:

Digital video can be a valuable component of medical multimedia. Yet digital video typically consists of very short visual demonstrations that are embedded in web pages, PowerPoint presentations, or lengthy visual explanations that are published on CDs or distributed via streaming video. Short videos often have a single purpose, and are viewed and "discarded". Long videos are often viewed linearly from beginning to end, and then sometimes searched via fast forward or fast rewind to find specific pieces of information that need to be reviewed.

It is often easier to have someone show you how to do something rather than to read text explanations on the web, CD-ROM, or paper. Showing someone how to do something using authored and recorded digital video would be ideal. Yet if the demonstration or explanation is lengthy, we need to go beyond the paradigm of lengthy linear videos. It would be ideal if the presentation could be created much like a traditional textual document, by starting with an outline, creating sections and subsections, and filling in the details. The resulting presentation should then be viewable from beginning to end, or viewable in small sections and subsections according to a table of contents which reflects the structure of the video document.

Our presentation will demonstrate a technology (Baecker, et al., 1996; Baecker and Posner, 1999; http://www.expresto.com) designed to facilitate the creation and use of structured, navigable, searchable digital videos. These live on web sites and can be viewed over the Internet using streaming video or downloaded video segments. We will show and explain two examples using this new paradigm in explanation technology. One is a step-by-step instructional presentation on how to assemble, fit, and learn to use a walking aid called the WalkFree "hands-free crutch" (http://www.iwalk-free.com/). The other example will illustrate uses of the process in technology and system prototyping, as well as in communicating how technological or medical artifacts may be used through the presentation of a "day in a life" scenario.

Baecker, R.M. and Posner, I., Children as Digital Motion Picture Authors. In Druin, A. (Ed.), The Design of Children's Technology, Morgan Kaufmann, 1999, 169-200.

Baecker, R.M., Rosenthal, A., Friedlander, N., Smith, E., and Cohen, A., A Multimedia System for Authoring Motion Pictures, Proceedings of ACM Multimedia'96, November 1996, 31-42.

Dr. Ron Baecker founded Expresto in May 1998. Expresto builds on software

spun out of the University of Toronto Computer Science Department and Knowledge Media Design Institute (where Dr. Baecker occupies the Bell University Laboratories Chair in Human-Computer Interaction). The Expresto team is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:

Participants will be shown how digital video can be used to convey complex information and ideas while maintaining the structure and non-linear navigability of written text. We will show novel means for creating medical multimedia incorporating digital video, and how to enable this video to be navigable and searchable. We will summarize lessons learned in our explorations of this new paradigm for medical multimedia.

Agnes Ouellette - Director Client Services,
Expresto Software Corp. Research Associate and
Knowledge Media Design Institute,
Univ. of Toronto 56 Newton Ave
Hamilton, ON
L8S 1V9
Phone: (905)529-9262
Fax: (416)978-5184
Email: agnes@expresto.com
Website: www.expresto.com

CO-AUTHORS:
Ron Baecker - Bell Univ. Labs Chair in Human-Computer Interaction
10 Kings College Road Room 4306E
Knowledge Media Design Institute
University of Toronto
Toronto Ontario M5S 3G4
Phone: (416)978-6983
Fax: (416)978-5184
Email: rmb@dgp.toronto.edu
Website: www.kmdi.org