XML Again

18th December, 2006

idat204

A bit of explanation that is probably well overdue for my XML project. The main concept behind this piece is the idea that where other forms of information have become XML orientated, XHTML, XCSS etc, a new JPEG format will follow.

This new format will take the existing compression technology of the Joint Photographic Experts Group and add more than just metadata, but rather a whole section of the file in a compatible XML/text form. Inside this there can be a standardised method of defining the contents of the image (similar to the way in which RSS is based on XML), which will require new programs or tools within existing programs to save to this format.

The image can be broken up into any number of rectangles containing a portion of the image, and also a title and description of the contents of the rectangle. The rectangles are not within a fixed grid but rather have a starting XY coordinate and finishing XY coordinate. There is nothing to say that rectangles cannot overlap, and of course this should be the way, since pictures and photos will rarely be clearly broken into sections.

Tools could be developed to auto-tag sections of photos, for example detecting sections of an image and creating rectangles ready to be written about, or even adding generic information about them itself.

Other Stuff

http://www.kirupa.com/web/mysql_xml_php.htm – A useful way of applying XML I found while researching.

XML

12th December, 2006

As the simulacrum work reaches its finalisation point, and all I would be able to do is sit and wait, my attention turns to the XML work and HCI essay (both of which have been very slowly warming up for the past couple of weeks). Between driving and setting the final 20 second simulacrum scene up for rendering, this morning has been dedicated to creating an XML search script in actionscript (Flash yet again…).

View the XML project as it comes along.
To get results, try the search terms ‘silver’ and ‘blue’ for now, but anything else if its there can be searched for.

Finishing the Simulacrum Project

And finally, the last 20 second section of my simulacrum video is complete. Saving it as Quicktime initially created a 1.3GB file, however this was before I set it to compress with mpeg4, giving me a nice 118MB 100% quality file. Still nothing near the size I would reasonably put online though. : (

Simulacrum Online Workbook

Java i++

9th November, 2006

Its nice sometimes how the various different modules overlap in a timely manner. Seems my recently completed Langston’s Ant java application has become quite relevant to the idat203 critical contexts piece, which yes I am still adding to even now.

Langston’s Ant

Is to be replaced this week (tomorrow) by game of life.

HCI

Looking into the lovely 4000 word essay… Firstly I need to decide on the problem that my HCI orientated interface needs to solve.

XML

Here starts the second (of four) part of the idat204 module with Professor Vladimir Geroimenko who certainly knows his XML and Semantic Web. Looks like we’ll be having to make an application for the semantic web.