Specifying temporal behavior in hypermedia documents

Abstract

We have designed and implemented a system for creating, editing, and displaying hypermedia dOcuments. This system uses an improved document model with two major feat ures. First, it allows authors to specify temporal synchronization constraints among events of interest within media segments. Second, it allows asynchronous material, such as user interaction, links, or programs, to be combined with richly coordinated synchronous material in a single hypermedia document. The system incorporates a linear programming algorithm to solve the temporal constraints. This process automatically constructs a schedule for displaying a document and may involve stretching or shrinking media segments. Because synchronization constraints record the author’s intentions and because the system creates schedules automatically, both creating documents and maintaining them thr~ughout their life cycles should be easier.