Multimedia is the presentation of information by a computer using text, graphics, sound, animation and video. A multimedia presentation can be as simple as integrating text and graphics on a page, or as complex as animation or video with sound and interactive user participation. Games, computer-based training, and information systems such as tours of buildings are all examples of complex multimedia applications. We are all now familiar with such applications, but multimedia did not suddenly appear on computer systems overnight. It evolved over a period of several years from a time when computers were completely text-based and had only magnetic floppy or hard drives, to the present time where there are graphic based systems with DVD-ROM drives and high capacity optical drives as backing storage. |
