Vector Image Definition and Characteristics

1. Vector and Raster Image

In the world of graphic design, Vector images are usually differentiated with raster
images. The main difference between the two is the element that comprised both
image. Raster image is a pixel based image. This cause raster images to be
resolution dependent, and turned blurry when they are scaled up.

On the other hand, vector graphic is an graphic that results from a combination of
points and lines with mathematical formulas, thus forming a polygon depicting a
particular image object. The location of a vector image is called control points or
nodes, where the location of each point has a definite position based on the x and
y axis. In a vector art, each line or point can be added with various attributes, such
as shape, lines curves, thickness, color, and fill color.

This characteristic of vector image makes it perfect for many occasion. It is suitable
for illustrations that will be printed on a big banner, for example. It is also suitable
for your business needs, since it is really is to be adjusted for many platforms.

2. Vector File Formats

The format of vector graphic is called vector files. There are many kinds of vector
files, and sometimes it depends on the software that you use, such as:

 CDR (format from Corel Draw)

 AI (format from Adobe Illustration)
 SVG
 EPS
 PDF
Read also: Changing Color of Image in Illustrator

3. Characteristics of Vector Images

By using these characteristics below, you can identify a vector graphic easily. The
characteristics of vector graphics are:

1. Vector images are formed from a combination of individual objects

consisting of points, lines and colors.
2. Image size does not affect the quality of the displayed image, because it
does not depend on image resolution.
3. Has a relatively small size for the image file
4. It is scalable so it won’t break when the image is enlarged
 5. The resulting image display is less real and natural, so it cannot be used
to produce realistic photo images.
6. When displayed to the monitor screen requires a longer process.

4. Pros of Vector Images

Vector images can have some advantages than other image format, such as:

 The storage space used by drawing objects is more efficient.

 Can be printed at high resolution using a printer.
 Images can be resized to any size without fear of deterioration.
 Vector images are easier to edit.

5. Disadvantages of Vector Graphics

Although vector graphics appear to have many advantages, this file format is not
necessarily perfect. This type of format can also have disadvantages. One example
is that If the image is converted to a bitmap, it cannot generate the main vector any
more and loses all of its vector characteristics.

Types of Vector Based Software

 CorelDRAW
 Zoner Draw
 Canvas 8
 Adobe Illustrator
 Xara X1
 Creature House Expression
Read also: Best Image Editing Softwares to Use for Newbie

When to Use Vector Art?

In the world of graphic design, vector graphics are a big part in most printed or
published materials, such as logo. Logos should always have a vector format so
those smooth lines and shapes produce the best quality for printed materials. You
can use your vector logo blown up on a huge billboard or made smaller for small
accessories by using vector format.

Those are the things you should know about vector graphics. Vector graphics are
often compared to raster graphics. As a type of graphic, vector graphics have
advantages in the form of resolution. There are many software that you can use to
process vector image files and each software also has different vector formats.
If you need high quality photos for your business, try professional product image
editing services Dropicts. We are ready to help you to fix your photos. Just go to
our website for more information.

Components of a MIDI System

Synthesizer:

 It is a sound generator (various pitch, loudness, tone colour).

 A good (musician's) synthesizer often has a microprocessor, keyboard, control
panels, memory, etc.

Sequencer:

 It can be a stand-alone unit or a software program for a personal computer. (It

used to be a storage server for MIDI data. Nowadays it is more a software music
editor on the computer.
 It has one or more MIDI INs and MIDI OUTs.

Track:

 Track in sequencer is used to organize the recordings.

 Tracks can be turned on or off on recording or playing back.

Channel:

 MIDI channels are used to separate information in a MIDI system.

 There are 16 MIDI channels in one cable.
 Channel numbers are coded into each MIDI message.

Timbre:

 The quality of the sound, e.g., flute sound, cello sound, etc.
 Multitimbral - capable of playing many different sounds at the same time (e.g.,
piano, brass, drums, etc.)

Pitch:

 musical note that the instrument plays

Voice:

 Voice is the portion of the synthesizer that produces sound.

  Synthesizers can have many (12, 20, 24, 36, etc.) voices.
 Each voice works independently and simultaneously to produce sounds of
different timbre and pitch.

Patch:

 the control settings that define a particular timbre.

Desirable Features & Hardware for a Multimedia System

 Very High Processing Power - needed to deal with large data processing and real time delivery
of media. Special hardware commonplace.
 Multimedia Capable File System - needed to deliver real-time media -- e.g. Video/Audio
Streaming. Special Hardware/Software needed e.g RAID technology.
 Data Representations/File Formats that support multimedia - Data representations/file
formats should be easy to handle yet allow for compression/decompression in real-time.
 Efficient and High I/O - input and output to the file subsystem needs to be efficient and fast.
Needs to allow for real-time recording as well as playback of data. e.g. Direct to Disk recording
systems.
 Special Operating System - to allow access to file system and process data efficiently and
quickly. Needs to support direct transfers to disk, real-time scheduling, fast interrupt processing,
I/O streaming etc.
 Storage and Memory - large storage units (of the order of 50 -100 Gb or more) and large
memory (50 -100 Mb or more). Large Caches also required and frequently of Level 2 and 3
hierarchy for efficient management.
 Network Support - Client-server systems common as distributed systems common.
 Software Tools - user friendly tools needed to handle media, design and develop applications,
deliver media.

Challenges for Multimedia Systems

Supporting multimedia applications over a computer network renders the application distributed.
This will involve many special computing techniques -- discussed later.
Multimedia systems may have to render a variety of media at the same instant -- a distinction
from normal applications. There is a temporal relationship between many forms of media
(e.g. Video and Audio. There 2 are forms of problems here

1. Sequencing within the media -- playing frames in correct order/time frame in video
2. Synchronisation -- inter-media scheduling (e.g. Video and Audio). Lip synchronisation is
clearly important for humans to watch playback of video and audio and even animation and
audio. Ever tried watching an out of (lip) sync film for a long time?
The key issues multimedia systems need to deal with here are:
 How to represent and store temporal information.
 How to strictly maintain the temporal relationships on play back/retrieval
 What process are involved in the above.
Data has to represented digitally so many initial source of data needs to be digitize -- translated
from analog source to digital representation. The will involve scanning (graphics, still images),
sampling (audio/video) although digital cameras now exist for direct scene to digital capture of
images and video.
The data is large several Mb easily for audio and video -- therefore storage, transfer (bandwidth)
and processing overheads are high. Data compression techniques are very common.


Dialog mode applications

End

to

end Delay (EED) should not exceed 150

200 ms

Face

to

face application needs EED of 50ms (including

compression and decompression).


Retrieval mode applications

Fast

forward and rewind data retrieval

with simultaneous

display (e.g. fast search for information in a multimedia

database).

Random access

to single images and audio frames, access

time should be less than 0.5sec


Decompression of images, video, audio

should not be

linked to other data units

allows random access and editing


Requirements for both dialog and retrieval mode
applications

Support for scalable video in different systems.

Support for various audio and video rates.

Synchronization of audio
-
video streams (lip synchronization)

Economy of solutions
•
Compression in software implies cheaper, slower and low
quality solution.
•
Compression in hardware implies expensive, faster and high
quality solution.

Compatibility
•
e.g. tutoring systems available on CD should run on different
platforms.
characteristics,of media including audience size, interactiveness, synchrony, ease of use,
and interface symmetry.

Media characteristics
Accessibility

Costs

Teaching functions

Interactivity

Descriptions of open and distance learning media

Print

Face-to-face

Audio

Radio

Video

Television

Computers

Practice exercise

The Legoâ block version of communicating for learning without

visual cues

The paper and pencil version of communicating for learning without

visual cues

1. Overview

These materials support a discussion on the topic of the various media used in open and

distance learning.

1.1 Source materials for this topic

Bates, T. Technology, open learning, and distance education. London: Routledge, 1995.

Collis, B. Tele-learning in a digital world: the future of distance learning. London:

International Thomson Computer Press, 1996.

4-2 Use and Integration of Media in Open and Distance Learning

International Extension College. Electronic media in distance education. Course 6, M.A.

in Distance Education. Cambridge: IEC, 1995.

Khan, B. (ed.) Web-based instruction. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Educational Technology

Publications, 1997.
Mason, R. Using communications media in open and flexible learning. London: Kogan

Page, 1994.

2. Media characteristics

The media that are available for use in open and distance learning can be described in terms

of a number of characteristics. Among the more important characteristics are:

· accessibility;

· costs;

· teaching functions; and

· interactivity.

2.1 Accessibility

The first questions to ask in any open and distance learning programme are:

· Who is the target group?

· Will there be open access to the course?

In particular, it is important to ask where the learner is expected to learn. There are several

possibilities:

· at home;

· at work;

· at a local public education centre; or

· at a regional learning centre.

To some extent, access will depend on what technology is already available for other

purposes. For example:

· if every learner already has their own computer for work purposes, it might also be used

for the open and distance learning course; or

· if the teaching is to be home-based, then the limited technology available in most homes

must be taken into account.

Open access, home-based learning will be limited in many countries to relatively few

technologies:

· print and radio in the poorest countries;

· print, radio, audio cassettes, and possibly television in more wealthy countries; and
Use and Integration of Media in Open and Distance Learning 4-3

· print, video cassettes, telephone, and computer in the wealthiest countries.

Some technologies may be relatively common but unavailable to all members of the target

group. Even in the wealthiest countries there are always a small number of people who do

not have television, or access to a telephone.

It may be a mistake to make some media or technologies ‘optional’, in the sense that

learners can pass examinations or do assignments without using a particular technology, just

because some potential learners will not have access to the technology. Experience suggests

that course designers will avoid using these media for essential material, and learners will

stop using the technology as well.

Example: For an example of an institution that makes media use

compulsory, see the case study for the Open Access College in

Australia.

2.2 Costs

It is important to distinguish among

· capital and recurrent or operating expenditure;

· central (or production) and local (or delivery) capital costs; and

· fixed costs and variable costs.

Costs can be distinguished using the following examples.

· The cost of putting equipment into local centres or workstations can far exceed central

capital costs in organisations with multiple study centres.

· The major cost of using technologies for teaching is in production and hence recurrent

rather than capital; in general, the recurrent costs of producing good quality technologybased materials
tend to be underestimated.

· Since production is the main cost, and hence is fixed for any course, for most

technologies currently used in national distance teaching and open learning institutions,

fixed costs usually far exceed variable costs; consequently the economies of scale apply

to ‘traditional’ open and distance learning courses: the more learners, the more costeffective
technologies become.
· Some of the newer interactive technologies such as computer conferencing and

audiographics reduce fixed costs but have high variable costs, thereby making them

suitable for courses with relatively small learner numbers.

These cost issues are covered in more detail in Topic 8 (Managing Media Integration).

2.3 Teaching functions

It is much easier to discriminate between media on the basis of access or cost than it is on

the basis of teaching effectiveness.

4-4 Use and Integration of Media in Open and Distance Learning

Media are flexible in that each medium can be used in a wide variety of ways. Differences

within a medium may be greater than between media; for example, the differences between

two television programmes may be greater than the differences between a face-to-face

lecture and a lecture on a radio programme.

Nevertheless, intrinsic differences between media are being identified that have implications

for teaching and learning. Specifically, media differ

· in the extent to which they can represent different kinds of knowledge, for example,

concrete or abstract; and

· in the extent to which they can help develop different skills, due to the control

characteristics of the medium and its representational features.

Course and instructional designers need to identify clearly

· the content of a course;

· how best to present knowledge in a particular subject area; and

· what kinds of learning — comprehension, analysis, application, problem-solving — are

required.

2.4 Interactivity

Interactivity — the ability for the learner to respond in some way to the teaching material

and obtain comment or feedback on the response — considerably increases learning

effectiveness. There are two kinds of interactivity:

· social interactivity: learners’ interaction with teachers and with each other via the

medium; and
 · learning material interactivity: learners’ interaction with the medium; the level and the

immediacy of feedback the medium itself provides; the extent to which the medium will

accommodate the learners’ own input and direction.

Media such as print and broadcasting that provide one-way interaction, need to be

supplemented by media that provide with two-way interaction with tutors, that is, social

interactivity, via the following media:

· telephone;

· correspondence;

· computer communication; or

· face-to-face tutorials.

An important feature of this two-way interaction is the extent to which it is under the

learner’s control, allowing learners to interact easily with tutors and other learners.

The following table categorises different media used in open and distance learning according

to whether they offer one-way or two-way interaction.

Multimedia Systems with features or characteristics

 Difficulty Level : Basic
 Last Updated : 03 Aug, 2021
What are Multimedia Systems:
A multimedia system is responsible for developing a multimedia application. A
multimedia application is a bundle of different kinds of data. A multimedia
computer system is one that can create, integrate, store, retrieve delete two or
more types of media materials in digital form, such as audio, image, video, and
text information.
Following are some major characteristics or features of a Multimedia
System:
Very High Processing Power:
To deal with large amount of data, very high processing power is used.
File System:
File system must be efficient to meet the requirements of continuous media.
These media files requires very high-disk bandwidth rates. Disks usually have
low transfer rates and high latency rates. To satisfy the requirements for
multimedia data, disk schedulers must reduce the latency time to ensure high
bandwidth.
File formats that support multimedia:
Multimedia data consists of a variety of media formats or file representation
including ,JPEG, MPEG, AVI, MID, WAV, DOC, GIF,PNG, etc. AVI files can
contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous
audio-with-video playback. Like the DVD video format, AVI files support multiple
streaming audio and video. Because of restrictions on the conversion from one
format to the other, the use of the data in a specific format has been limited as
well.
Input/Output:
In multimedia applications, the input and output should be continuous and fast.
Real-time recording as well as playback of data are common in most of the
multimedia applications which need efficient I/O.
Operating System:
The operating system must provide a fast response time for interactive
applications. High throughput for batch applications, and real-time scheduling,
Storage and Memory:
Multimedia systems require storage for large capacity objects such as video,
audio, animation and images. Depending on the compression scheme and
reliability video and audio require large amount of memory.
Network Support:
It includes internet, intranet, LAN, WAN, ATM, Mobile telephony and others. In
recent years, there has been a tremendous growth of multimedia applications
on the internet like streaming video, IP telephony, interactive games,
teleconferencing, virtual world, distance learning and so on. These multimedia
networking applications are referred as continuous-media applications and
require high communication latency. Communication Latency is the time it takes
for a data packet to be received by the remote computer.
Software Tools:
For the development of multimedia applications, the various software tools like
programming languages, graphics software’s, multimedia editing software’s
scripting languages: authoring tools, design software’s etc are required. In
addition to these the device drivers are required for interfacing the multimedia
peripherals.

Characteristics of a Multimedia System

A Multimedia system has four basic characteristics:
•
Multimedia systems must be
computer controlled
.
•
Multimedia systems are
integrated
.
•
The information they handle must be represented
digitally
.
•
The interface to the final presentation of media is usually
interactive
Challenges for Multimedia Systems
Supporting multimedia applications over a computer network renders the application
distributed
. This will involve many special computing techniques -- discussed later.Multimedia systems
may have to render a variety of media at the same instant - adistinction from normal
applications. There is a temporal relationship between many forms of media (

e.g.
Video and Audio. There 2 are forms of problems here
•
Sequencing within the media --
playing frames in correct order/timeframe in video

•
Synchronisation
-- inter-media scheduling (
e.g.
Video and Audio). Lipsynchronisation is clearly important for humans to watch playback of
videoand audio and even animation and audio. Ever tried watching an out of (lip)sync film for a
long time?The key issues multimedia systems need to deal with here are:
•
How to represent and store temporal information.
•
How to strictly maintain the temporal relationships on play back/retrieval
•
What process are involved in the above.Data has to represented
digitally
so many initial source of data needs to be
digitise
-- translated from analog source to digital representation. The will involve scanning(graphics,
still images), sampling (audio/video) although digital cameras now exist for direct scene to
digital capture of images and video.The data is
large
several Mb easily for audio and video -- therefore storage, transfer (bandwidth) and processing
overheads are high. Data compression techniques very common.