Temporal extensions to HTML

We have identified several problems with the current version of SMIL:

1. There are only two temporal composition relations: sequential and
parallel. They are useful, but not sufficient for complex
presentations.

2. SMIL provides only one attribute for specifying how different media
segments must be kept synchronized. In many cases, we need a flexible
way to specify that a lip-sync type of synchronization is needed
between media segments.

3. The layout of a SMIL document is static, so that even if we are
able to specify temporal composition of media objects, the objects
appear at fixed positions on the screen. This problem arises because
there is no real integration of time into the document description:
the temporal composition is separated from the spatial dimension.

We would like to contribute to the development of SMIL by proposing temporal
extensions to HTML based on three concepts:

   * hypertime links for temporal composition,
   * common time bases for close lip-sync synchronization between media
     objects,
   * dynamic layout that can be seen as an extension of media objects.

A short paper describing the extensions can be found in:

- close to US: http://www.gr.opengroup.org/~flr/twww/
- close to EU: http://drakkar.imag.fr/twww/

             Franck Rousseau                      Andrzej Duda

      Open Group Research Institute                LSR-IMAG,
             and LSR-IMAG,                      Grenoble, France
            Grenoble, France                  Andrzej.Duda@imag.fr
        f.rousseau@opengroup.org

-- 
Andrzej Duda				e-mail: Andrzej.Duda@imag.fr
phone: +33 4 7682 7268			fax: +33 4 7682 7287
snail: LSR-IMAG,			BP 72, 38402 St. Martin Cedex, France

Received on Thursday, 4 December 1997 07:59:24 UTC