The Java based application engine defined in the Systems part (Part 1) of the MPEG-4 standard is called MPEG-J. MPEG-J, which stands for MPEG-Java, is designed to be used with the parametric, scene description based, presentation engine defined by the same standard. It facilitates programmatic control as opposed to the parametric control provided by the presentation engine by defining a set of Java APIs to access and control the underlying MPEG-4 terminal. An MPEG-J application (MPEGlet) which uses these APIs can be used in the content as an MPEG-J elementary stream similar to audio and video streams. A delivery mechanism is defined in MPEG-J to carry the Java byte code and Java objects that makes an MPEG-J application. Complex algorithmic control can be embedded in such an application to include behavior based on time-varying terminal conditions. The lifecycle and scope of an MPEG-J application is defined in the standard along with a strict security model. Content creation in MPEG-J involves a paradigm shift as it blurs the boundaries between media content and computer programs. As the MPEG-J application can leverage the power of Java, the application scenarios are limited only by the ingenuity of the content creator.

Date Published: 22 March 2001
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4209, Multimedia Systems and Applications III, (22 March 2001); doi: 10.1117/12.420831

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4209:
Multimedia Systems and Applications III
Andrew G. Tescher; Bhaskaran Vasudev; V. Michael Bove Jr., Editor(s)