Interactive multi-user multimedia environments on the Internet: an overview of DAMSEL and its implementation

The paper presents an overview of DAMSEL and it´s implementation. DAMSEL comprises an embeddable dynamic multimedia specification language, and a software architecture suitable for multi user interactive multimedia environments. The goal of DAMSEL is to explore language constructs and execution environments for next generation interactive multimedia applications. The constructs of DAMSEL include primitives for event driven temporal specification-supporting causation and inhibition. Specifications allow behavioral parameters to be chosen, enabling very powerful temporal relations to be defined. Other constructs support the modification, and analysis of multimedia data, and high level abstractions for connections to user interfaces. Further, DAMSEL constructs support conditional and constraint logics, enabling more complex specifications than currently possible. DAMSEL is being implemented using a java implementation of the CORBA standard