All set for MP4

MP4: video, email, web newspapers, and music all in one? Photo: Rune Petter Ness

– but the content is still missing.

By Tore Oksholen

With the MP4 file format and an MP4 player you can download and play multimedia files. An MP4 file can consist of a sound file as well as several video files, along with additional information.

The MP4 technology already exists. But several more nuts have to be cracked before the format can be put into general use. One problem is finding a means whereby a file can be played at the same time as it is being downloaded. This technique is called ‘streaming’. A group of research fellows at NTNU are among the first in the world to have managed implementing streaming of MP4 files.
“The idea behind this technology is the same as in the existing products from Microsoft (WindowsMedia), Real, and Apple (Quicktime), but it opens up for an infinite number of other uses,” says Associate Professor Andrew Perkis. “The most important aspect of the technology is interactivity, the fact that different individuals can produce their own, personal content from the same file.”

However, even though MP4 exists, the content is still missing. This is what the group is working on at the moment. It’s all about complex processes, in which different parallel signals are interwoven in a way that has meaning for the recipient. The file format must also allow for two-way communication, so that the recipient can go in and manipulate compositions on screen.