Abstract

Over the last ten years, the computer has extended its functionalities from a business tool used by computer literates to a multimedia display that provides information, entertainment and communication to all people. This evolution calls for new interaction technologies. Indeed, the stationary interaction of the keyboard and the mouse limits the usability of the computer. Both the mouse and the keyboard were introduced to write documents or to execute commands, but what tools were created to permit a dynamic navigational system through a movie or real-time editing of a song ? Such an enhanced manipulation of media content requires another human-computer interactive approach. Few of the current methodologies of interaction have considered the possibilities of real time editing of moving image content or musical scores. Our contribution to more user-centric interactive systems is the Cinematic Presence System (CPS). The CPS is a non-tangible user interface that stresses the notion of Free Body Hypermedia Interaction (FBHI--Mohamed Hachem and Jean-Claude Bustros), which frees the user from following certain steps, wearing certain tools, or enduring any control over his/her senses while interacting with a multimedia display. CPS consists of a multimedia display that reacts to the user's movements. A user's interaction with the display allows the media content to be navigated and extracted in a non-linear fashion. Furthermore, this user-system interaction will promote a renewed, expanded cinema experience, where the user can interact dynamically with the image, the environment, and the screen.