Specification of Temporal Constraints in Multimedia Documents using HyTime

SUMMARY Multimedia documents also include time dependent media like audio and video. In contrast to traditional text documents temporal constraints have to be determined that tell a presentation application when and for how long certain parts of the document have to be presented. The paper shows how temporal constraints may be specified with HyTime. An analysis of different approaches covering the specification of temporal constraints resulted in a catalogue of relevant issues. They are explained in the context of an abstract document model. Then it is shown how each issue may be specified with HyTime introducing and explaining all necessary constructs and principles. Several HyTime encoded example scenarios illustrate the actual usage of HyTime building blocks.