Preliminary Work

At the technical level the SIVA Suite had been prototypically realised within the limits of preliminary work. The multimedia-based client/server architecture comprises innovative components simplifying management, playback and creation of

• non-linear (e.g. different courses, learning paths)
• interactive (e.g. quiz, list of contents, search function, clickable areas) and
• annotated (picture, text, video, audio) videos,

as well as facilitating download and cache management. 

The authoring environment is composed of

• project management,
• media processing,
• the scene graph and
• various annotation editors

Automated annotation tools (shot and scene recognition, original character recognition, object recognition etc.) that are based on machine-learning techniques, improve creation and utilization of instruction videos. 

There is a broad range of web and mobile players that enable the user to manipulate  the further course or to display additional, context-sensitive information if desired.

The different elements are controlled by an intermediate XML-based format that has been specifically optimised to play interactive non-linear videos and can be generically developed further. 

Hence the SIVA Suite combines innovative elements and state-of-the-art algorithms administration, creation und viewing of interactive Videos. 

At the non-technical level studies examining the effects of infographics and pictures (stillpictures as well as simulations) on knowledge transfer were conducted and interaction concepts for mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc.) were developed.

The applicability of the developed client/server system has already been evaluated successfully by small interactivesample projects in the field of E-Learning, training assistance and virtual tours. 

From a legal perspective, preliminary work concerning employee data protection, design requirements for video data storing systems as well as Privacy Enhancing Technologies has been conducted.