Spatiotemporal Specification & Verification of Multimedia Scenarios

A Multimedia Application (MAP) consists of a set of media objects ordered in the spatial and temporal domains. In this paper we present an authoring & verification methodology for MAP documents development. We capitalize on a solid theoretical model for spatiotemporal compositions. The tool may be used both for prototyping and verification of multimedia presentations or spatiotemporal compositions in general. Regarding the authoring phase, emphasis was put on the flexible definition of spatial and temporal relationships of the participating entities. The verification procedures are supported by multiple tools allowing designers to preview their applications, in various ways: spatial layouts of the application window, temporal layouts, indicating the temporal duration and relationships among the participating objects and animation of the application.