Flash and Flash Video

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What is Flash?

Flash CS3 Adobe Flash, formerly known as Futurewave Splash, was first introduced on the World Wide Web in 1996. It is an on-screen technology that delivers vector graphics and animation. When you view a graphic online such as a .gif or .jpg file, these are bit-mapped graphics. Each pixel (dot) of the graphic has some programming behind it - telling the computer what color, tone, intensity and location (x-y coordinates on your screen) of the graphic. The bigger the graphic, the bigger the file and the longer it takes to download. Vector graphics, on the otherhand, involve two points and a vector drawn between them. This allows an image to be stretched to any size without degredation of quality and without increasing the file size. Geometric shapes, lines and text are ideal for this technology - a lot of animation and information can be presented in a flash movie without long downloads.

Flash is used in CD-ROM presentations, Kiosks and on the World Wide Web.

Why do we use Flash on this site?

The primary use of Flash on this Web site is to present streaming video. The large adoption rate of Adobe Flash (estimated at 95% of computers) makes it an excellent way to present this information to a large audience.

Occasionally Flash may be used for photo slide shows or animation on the site. This use is generally limited because of accessibility concerns and increased use of AJAX technologies.

How do I use Flash?

Flash has become very common in the past few years and is often included in downloads of newer versions of Web browsers. You might already have Flash Player installed. To the upper right, there is a box that should tell you if you have Flash Player installed and what version of Flash you currently have installed. If you do not currently have Flash Player installed you can download it for free by clicking on the "Get Adobe Flash Player" button.