Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

Mobile messaging is evolving beyond text by taking a development path from SMS to EMS to MMS. The Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) allows the sending of messages comprising a combination of text, sounds, images and video to MMS capable handsets.

A multimedia message can be a photo or picture postcard annotated with text and/or an audio clip, a synchronized playback of audio, text, photo or, in the near future, a video emulating a free-running presentation or a video clip. It can also simply be a drawing combined with text.

MMS makes it possible for mobile users to send these multimedia messages from MMS-enabled handsets to other mobile users and to e-mail users. It also makes it possible for mobile users to receive multimedia messages from other mobile users, e-mail users and from multimedia enabled applications. MMS opens up a world of opportunities, allowing users to access content from the world's leading providers, using cutting-edge handsets and an advanced multimedia platform. MMS crosses all boundaries and is predicted to be a major boost to the GPRS market. MMS builds on the successful message-push paradigm of SMS and enhances communication possibilities for mobile users by integrating the new standards from 3GPP and the WAP forum.

Project Idea

Imagine a collection of stored audio media clips on a company server. These clips could be stored in a range of proprietary formats such as Real Audio, Windows Media format, Wav etc. Now imagine that people using newer MMS capable phones wanted to view the latest news snippit on their phone.... Therefore the task here is to create a transcoding service which will translate from one of these standard PC formats into the newer format so that mobile users can retrieve the media.

MMS Links

mobile mms
Multimedia Messaging
Download the Nokia Developer Suite for MMS. Nokia External Application Interface (EAIF)

Needless to say MMS Transcoding is one of the hottest subject in the mobile communications industry today and yet one of the most misunderstood. MMS Transcoding answers the questions that arise when we scratch beneath the surface of MMS ideology and get down to the nuts and bolts practicality of the technology.

Other possible research areas are

  • •What happens when a message is sent from a phone to a TV set top box?
  • •What audio and visual file types are supported and by whom?
  • •How will an MMS system transcode a large, fixed line internet originated, high resolution image so that it fits on a MMS phone screen?
  • •How long will such a conversion take in a real time network environment?
  • •How will MMS technology successfully support countless MMS phones each with their own unique parameters such as screen size, resolution, refresh rate, memory capacity etc?