A spatial/temporal relation computing technology for multimedia presentation designs

Relations among temporal intervals can be used to assist the automatic generation of multimedia presentations. In this paper, we analyze the domains of interval temporal relations. A set of algorithms is proposed to derive reasonable relations between intervals. Possible conflicts in the user specification are firstly detected and eliminated. Our mechanism then constructs partial order relations among temporal intervals before the presentation time chart is built. The algorithm is extended for objects in an arbitrary n-dimensional space. Thus, presentation layouts in a 2-D space, or Virtual Reality object representations in a 3-D space can be constructed. We use our algorithms to design a reasoning system that generates the schedule and layout of multimedia presentations. The main contributions of this paper are in its theoretical analysis of interval relation composition and a systematic approach for automation. We hope that, with our analysis and algorithms, the knowledge underlying temporal interval relations can be used in many computer applications, especially those in multimedia computing.