On automatic generation of multimedia presentations

We propose a mechanism and system for the automatic generation of interactive multimedia presentations from their specifications. A presentation specification contains three parts: the resources, the temporal information, and the spatial information. We use an ICON programming technique, and a graphical user interface allows the presentation designer to quickly specify what he/she wants. Our system takes these requirements and relies on inference rules written in Prolog to generate interactive presentations. These inference rules are based on interval temporal logic and important issues in multimedia presentations,1 such as the hardware limitations of an ordinary personal computer and the properties of a multimedia resource. Our prototype system runs under MS Windows. The early experience of using the system shows that it is feasible to use logic inference rules to assist the design of good multimedia presentations. (C) Elsevier Science Inc. 1997