PostScript (76 KB)
Word (12 KB)APIs for MPEG-4 Systems
Contribution M2133, 39th MPEG Meeting, Bristol, UK, April 1997
Overview
The focus of current MPEG-4 Systems work on standardization of a fixed binary format stream (BIFS) representation is a step in the right direction. Moreover, the specification of (either normative or informative) a set of useful API's may further serve to highlight and illustrate the potential advanced capabilities provided by MPEG-4 and the demands they may impose on resources. For example, the interaction between Decoding and Composition is typically hidden, however, in applications with user interactivity, and limited computational/memory resources, a clearer interface may be the key between being able to effectively provide certain functionalities versus not.
In this document, examples of a few basic as well as advanced functionalities are presented in the form of example API's. The API specification is draft and requires lot more work. However, it is introduced to illustrate sometimes simple as well as sometimes complex relationship between Decoding and Composition functions.