Future Directions for the JMF
The JMF is a powerful and rapidly maturing API that provides a high-level and uniform structure for the handling of time-based media. All key structures and classes for capturing, playing, processing, receiving, and transmitting time-based media already exist in the API. Currently the API is undergoing a solidification phase—developers are exploring and adopting the API as suitable to a range of potential applications. Simultaneously, Sun is continuing its strong support for the API with the addition of further features (for example, new codecs and formats) and enhancements in the short term with specific goals for the longer term.
The next significant release of the JMF, 2.2, is expected shortly (perhaps around the time this book is released). JMF 2.2 is expected to incorporate a new RTP implementation, together with significant optimizations and fixes.
The JMF team at Sun has set supporting MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, the two most frequently requested codecs, as its highest priority. This support will hopefully be appearing in the next version of the JMF, but licensing and patent issues are likely to be the real decider of exactly when the support appears. In this regard, Sun has promised not only to continue to optimize and update the JMF, but also to add support for open-standard, industry-leading codecs.
The maturity, stability, and size of the JMF mean that it is unlikely to ever be incorporated into the core Java platform. However a closer integration with other optional packages (for example, Java 3D) is likely. In that sense, standards such as MPEG-4 might well act as drivers in that direction, stressing the coding of audio-visual objects and composite media that incorporates interactivity—for instance, combining 2D imagery and 3D synthetic objects with audio and video streams. Indeed Sun has stated that it believes MPEG-4 to be an important standard—one for which it will provide increased functionality in the future.
As an example of the directions that the JMF and related developments are headed, Sun is working closely with Nokia and other international telecommunication companies (including Motorola, Mitsubishi, Siemens, and NTT) on a multimedia API for J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition). J2ME is the small footprint (less demanding of memory and processor power) version of the Java platform suitable for the newer generation of mobile devices including phones, pagers, digital set-top boxes, car navigation systems, and personal digital assistants.
The J2ME Multimedia API is being designed under the Java Community Process as JSR (Java Specification Request) 135. The publicly available documentation on the JSR can be found at http://www.jcp.org/jsr/detail/135.prt. The intention of the API, as described in the JSR documentation, is to provide a high-level interface to sound and multimedia capabilities on a device running J2ME, which would thus enable versatile and scalable multimedia applications on these devices. The package's proposed name is javax.microedition.media. Although its primary focus is sound, it also is intended to incorporate the control of other time-based multimedia formats. Both the JMF and Java Sound are listed as starting points for the new API. This development, and the future of platform-independent handling of media through the JMF and its derivatives, is put in context by the fact that Nokia (the filers of the JRS) plans to ship 50 million Java-enabled phones by the end of 2002 and 100 million by the end of 2003.