Mashups refer to integrating content from disparate sources to create new data for supporting new functionality. By hybridization of information, reusing and remixing available content through associations and recombination, new services can be provided to the users. Although data mashups are not new, mashups of multimedia content is still in its infancy. We propose a new language - Multimedia Mash up Markup Language (M3L) - that enables flexible access and easy combination of multimedia content. We first describe state-of-the-art in mashups before presenting our proposed language, while emphasizing its distinct features compared with state-of-the-art. We also propose extending Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) to support logic for data manipulation necessary for handling result set processing.

An apparatus and method for combining multimedia data are provided. The method includes obtaining first multimedia content from a first source, obtaining second multimedia content from a second source, selectively combining the first multimedia content with the second multimedia content, and outputting the selectively combined multimedia content. According to implementations of the invention, selected portions and/or fragments of multimedia content may be mashed up rather than the entirety of the multimedia content from either or both sources. Also, the mashup of the multimedia content may be varied and adapted based on the characteristics of the device performing the mashup as well as the characteristics of the available transport mechanism. Finally, implementations of the invention provide for flexible transformation and precise synchronization among multimedia elements.

This paper describes the Extensible MPEG-4 Textual format (XMT), a framework for representing MPEG-4 scene description using a textual syntax. The XMT allows the content authors to exchange their content with other authors, tools or service providers, and facilitates interoperability with both the X3D, developed by the Web3D consortium, and the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SM1L) from the W3C consortium.