Multimedia Metacomputing

The concept of multimedia metacomputing involves the formation of a large scale loosely coupled multiprocessing environment capable of performing complex transformations on media objects. The transformations are provided in the form of operations integrated in special media processing components. The components are described by signatures that denote the runtime environments required for component deployment, the types of media objects the component operations accept and emit and a formal description of transformations they perform. The multiprocessing environment also connects a set of heterogeneous processing resources in which the components are dynamically deployed in order to carry out the transformations. The existing Internet infrastructure is used to connect storages of media processing components, available processing resources and the system controlling the transformation process. By such an environment, we try to realize the concept of delivering global media data without the need to generate specially adapted materialization of the media data in advance. An open “plugable” environment provides the possibilities for both vendors of media processing components as well as providers of processing resources to exploit the potential of the business model involved in offering and providing multimedia services using the existing Internet infrastructure.