My problem is that I don't know exactly where to send this.
If you feel that you know somebody who fit better as a reader for this,
feel free to forward it.
Anyway...
I have this idea which I didn't found from anywhere I looked, so I guess
it's my job to bring it up.
The HTML language has the possibility for in-lined image. It is very useful for
e.g. imagemaps. But what about video? Wouldn't it make one hell of an
user interface to be able to click on a video image and then get the relevant
document?
The basic idea is simple. Video information is 3D in comparison to imagemap
which is 2D. So we only need to return x,y, and t coordinates in stead of x and y
in the imagemap case.
As a first stage, no big modifications to browser would be needed. A simple
"play inline video" button would be sufficient, which would start an
external mpeg player, which on its half would return the information
back to the browser, which then forms the request and hands it to the server.
Syntax on HTML (exmaple):
<A HREF="/htbin/videomap/abc/"><VIDEO SRC="abc.mpeg" ISMAP></A>
request:
similar to imagemap, except the extra 't' parameter (might be the number of
frame, compare to the physical x/y coordinates on the imagemap).
I am willing to actively participate on the development of this feature,
that is, for the next 6 months.
Let me emphasize, that some system of this kind will _inevitably_ be reality
rather soon - why let HTML get degraded? And technically, it is feasible
(I mean the browser/server modifications and additions).
Sincerely,
Juha Oinonen
joinonen@cs.joensuu.fi