Multi-level scripting for responsive multimedia

Stefan Agamanolis and V. Michael Bove, Jr.
MIT Media Laboratory
IEEE MultiMedia, Winter 1997

Responsive multimedia refers to a melding of media forms that has the ability to react in some way to audience identity, circumstances, equipment, and actions. Cutting-edge responsive multimedia works often involve a collaboration among many people of varying expertise and require innovation at many levels, from the incorporation of a new sensor or display technology to the structuring of media objects and their behaviors. Tools should therefore be designed to support the multi-level nature of such projects, in terms of both authoring and user-base. In this article we present a scripting environment designed with this goal in mind and our experiences using it to develop several major multimedia prototypes ranging from interactive stories to live communication systems. Keywords: scripting languages, responsive multimedia, multi-level authoring