We consider the use of object, scripting and WWW technologies in the context of distributed interactive multimedia. First we briefly describe the application domain and its relationship with WWW, then we discuss the questions that arise from trying to utilize of these technologies in this context. Finally we present a hypothetical scenario using MHEG as the interpreted presentation encoding format. The applications are characterized by the ability to provide the users interactive access to real-time audio and video information in addition to more traditional data.
Special attention has to be paid to the distribution of the processing.
The benefits on the server side are easier to envision as the environment there is closer to a conventional computing environment. The dynamics of the presentation can be looked at two different levels. To provide dynamic structure, scripts to be executed at service request time are required. The WWW technology does not currently support real-time audio or video streams, so other protocols may have to be used. The capability of being able to change a script quickly does not necessarily require an interpreted language.