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Ever since the beginning of humankind people have struggled to make daily life tasks easier and easier; the invention of the wheel, cotton gin, the printing press, automobile, telephone and personal computer are all amazing examples of this. Man has a natural wish to make life easier for him or herself.

1945 Vannevar Bush recommended ‘Memex’ a theoretical microfiche-based knowledge warehouse that allowed the linking of documents to form trails and sequence of documents. Then in 1965 Ted Nelson introduced word ‘hypertext’ and a project ‘Xanadu’ a mainly theoretical electronic warehouse of world literature that also supported cross linking, recombination of source material and various other features.

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In early 1970s the slide show concept was introduced to the computer, this concept allowed the personal computers to control various projectors, directing them in a manner that produced fast speed effects and dissolves. Soundtracks on analogue audio tapes would contain signals that triggered projectors to do what it was programmed to do.

In 1984 Apple launched two significant features, multimedia capabilities and a graphical user interface for its Macintosh products. Before introduction of these features, an incredible amount of work was required for the production of even the simplest multimedia products or presentations. Programmers had to know the details of manipulating graphics and deal with a various different sound drivers and MIDI synthesizers.

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HyperCard was introduced for Macintosh in 1987. This pioneering Macintosh multimedia program did something no personal computer application had done before. It gave nonprogrammers the ability to produce multimedia applications that integrated text, audio and graphics. The HyperCard provided the various design tools and automated the difficult task of programming, letting the user concentrate on the main task. Most authoring packages available today are extended from the same paradigm.

In the 1980s personal computers were designed to "cut" a graphic or audio portion and "paste" it into another graphic or audio file. Since the hardware and software developers have been scrambling to combine different forms of media into the personal computer. The most significant trend in personal computers before multimedia concept was only multitasking; the ability to run more than one program at same time and its clear why personal computer and multimedia are made for each other, because of its ability to run different media at same time. The main power behind multimedia is digital technology.

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Multimedia today represents the convergence of digital media and digital control - the personal computer as the main digital control system and the digital media being today's most advanced forms of video and audio transmission and storage.

Multimedia involves the applications of different communication channels to a communication exercise at a same time. When the different communication mediums are used in association with a personal computer: we call it computer multimedia.

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The core of the procedure of creating multimedia applications is that different types of information (including graphics, text, animation, video and sound) are able to be combined by a personal computer. Desktop multimedia occupies a place between traditional alternatives of low-priced but ineffective single media technologies, and the costly but impressive technologies relying on digital editing, and customized software.

Multimedia Assets
Successful multimedia applications depend on the effective use of different mediums.

Text
There are three main advantages associated with screen based text compared with normal paper based text:
The capability to update the screen, the ability to incorporate special effects and the reactive capability.

Audio
Interactive audio can add a special dimension of reality to multimedia systems. Until recently, audio-based domains such as linguistics, music, and languages have been virtually ignored. But audio is not always necessary for all multimedia applications and presentations.

Pictures
When using images, the designer should choose most economical and professional method to present them. At the planning stage designer should choose the most effective combination of software and hardware to be able to reproduce new images.

Video Images
Compact video recorders have made it very easy to capture real-time video images. Videos can be included into multimedia applications by using a video source connected to the computer. This technology is called interactive video. A more incorporated method converts video from analogue to digital format that can be easily edited by the desktop computer.

• Why Use Pictures and Videos?
• Why pictures are appropriate?
• Who is the audience?
• What is the task?
• Does multimedia improve user experience?
• Is there a need for user involvement and control?
• Can the information be used again?

The potential to include videos in computerized multimedia application is a strong point of multimedia technology. Words are nearly useless for delivering information and sometimes images are very to understand. Although words are perfect way to exchange between people who understand equally well, but when you are explaining to person who don’t have any understanding, then words and images alone are not enough. A word has a single meaning; videos, however, exceed language codes and people try to get their own meanings from pictures and videos.

The ability to utilize the correct communication tools for individual components of a communications problem, and to do so in an organized way, is really the important strength of a multimedia presentation.

Multimedia and Society
After the multimedia revolution, people will place orders at on-line and will select all the specifications by themselves. Manufacturers will gladly accept orders on the basis of on-demand production. This is a user-oriented market. The commodity will be user's brains, or online in the form of digital catalogues, thus being a virtual product. Multimedia has changed the way we watch movies, listen to music and even watch television or play video and computer games.

In recent years, multimedia have become an important part of our daily lives. Many aspects of life; home and business alike, have changed as a result of multimedia applications, like the ways in which we get entertained and the ways in which we do business. Our lifestyle has become technologically orientated, and multimedia has become a way of entertaining, communicating, learning, and doing business.

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Multimedia is rapidly becoming popular, especially among the people wanting to enjoy different thing while sitting at their own homes. We can see time square, watch movies, take virtual tours of colleges, and listen to music and many other things from the comfort of our home and most of the time we can do all of it for free.

References:

1. Tay Vaughan, 2001 Multimedia: Making It Work
2. Steve Heath, 1999 Multimedia and Communications Technol