Interactive media is an 'umbrella' term used to describe an extremely wide-ranging group of diverse products. In its simplest form interactive media can mean any media which requires user input, and includes web-based media. However to differentiate we use the term interactive media to refer to non-web-based products. It is synonymous with the old-school term 'multimedia' (which seems to have fallen out of use). It is often created for use in large public spaces eg. museums, galleries, outdoors or indoors.
Interactive media applications are custom-built runtime software applications which play back on computer hardware. Many different tools can be used to create interactive media, including Adobe Flash, Unity, MaxMSP and Processing, but JEMdigital specialise in the use of the grandfather of all interactive software tools: Adobe Director, a professional application with a 20-year legacy, used to build robust industrial-strength software for any environment and need.
The easiest way to understand the scope of interactive media is to consider real-world examples: a touchscreen 'wayfinder' system for a museum is an example of a simple interactive media application - users can simply touch a screen to browse information. Another application may involve creating large-scale projections where users are 'chromakeyed' in real time into a fictional scene eg. a rainforest. A further example application may be a console-style real-time 3D environment where users can explore, investigate and interact with objects. A final example would be an application which can track people passing through a space and follow them around with an overhead roboscan light!
The possibilities are unbounded...
