Data Management and Internet Computing for Image/Pattern Analysis focuses on the data management issues and Internet computing aspect of image processing and pattern recognition research. The book presents a comprehensive overview of the state of the art, providing detailed case studies that emphasize how image and pattern (IAP) data are distributed and exchanged on sequential and parallel machines, and how the data communication patterns in low- and higher-level IAP computing differ from general numerical computation, what problems they cause and what opportunities they provide. The studies also describe how the images and matrices should be stored, accessed and distributed on different types of machines connected to the Internet, and how Internet resource sharing and data transmission change traditional IAP computing. Data Management and Internet Computing for Image/Pattern Analysis is divided into three parts: the first part describes several software approaches to IAP computing, citing several representative data communication patterns and related algorithms; the second part introduces hardware and Internet resource sharing in which a wide range of computer architectures are described and memory management issues are discussed; and the third part presents applications ranging from image coding, restoration and progressive transmission. Data Management and Internet Computing for Image/Pattern Analysis is an excellent reference for researchers and may be used as a text for advanced courses in image processing and pattern recognition.

DSSSL (Document Style Semantics and Specification Language) is an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 10179: 1996) published in the year 1996. DSSSL is a standard of the SGML family (Standard Generalized Markup Language, ISO 8879:1986), whose aim is to establish a processing model for SGML documents. For a good understanding of the SGML standard, many books exist including Author's guide[BryanI988] and The SGML handbook[GoldfarbI990]. A DSSSL document is an SGML document, written with the same rules that guide any SGML document. The structure of a DSSSL document is explained in Chapter 2. DSSSL is based, in part, on scheme, a standard functional programming language. The DSSSL subset of scheme along with the procedures supported by DSSSL are explained in Chapter 3. The DSSSL standard starts with the supposition of a pre-existing SGML document, and offers a series of processes that can be performed on it: * Groves The first process that is performed on an SGML document in DSSSL is always the analysis of the document and the creation of a grove. The DSSSL standard shares many common characteristics with another standard of the SGML family, HyTime (ISO/IEC 10744). These standards were developed in parallel, and their developers designed a common data model, the grove, that would support the processing needs of each standard.

Semantic Video Object Segmentation for Content-Based Multimedia Applications provides a thorough review of state-of-the-art techniques as well as describing several novel ideas and algorithms for semantic object extraction from image sequences. Semantic object extraction is an essential element in content-based multimedia services, such as the newly developed MPEG4 and MPEG7 standards. An interactive system called SIVOG (Smart Interactive Video Object Generation) is presented, which converts user's semantic input into a form that can be conveniently integrated with low-level video processing. Thus, high-level semantic information and low-level video features are integrated seamlessly into a smart segmentation system. A region and temporal adaptive algorithm was further proposed to improve the efficiency of the SIVOG system so that it is feasible to achieve nearly real-time video object segmentation with robust and accurate performances. Also included is an examination of the shape coding problem and the object segmentation problem simultaneously. Semantic Video Object Segmentation for Content-Based Multimedia Applications will be of great interest to research scientists and graduate-level students working in the area of content-based multimedia representation and applications and its related fields.

"Advances in computer technology and developments such as the Internet provide a constant momentum to design new techniques and algorithms to support computer graphics. Modelling, animation and rendering remain principal topics in the filed of computer graphics and continue to attract researchers around the world." This volume contains the papers presented at Computer Graphics International 2002, in July, at the University of Bradford, UK. These papers represent original research in computer graphics from around the world and cover areas such as: - Real-time computer animation - Image based rendering - Non photo-realistic rendering - Virtual reality - Avatars - Geometric and solid modelling - Computational geometry - Physically based modelling - Graphics hardware architecture - Data visualisation - Data compression The focus is on the commercial application and industrial use of computer graphics and digital media systems.

Kim Halskov Madsen Up until a few decades ago, business administration and science were the primary areas in which computers were applied, but terms like pervasive computing reflect that interactive computing power is becoming an embedded part of people's every day environment, not only office buildings and private homes but also art and cul At one of the frontiers of multimedia applications computers are used as tural events. part of experimental theatre, puppet theatre, musical performances, museums, entertainment, and learning. In some of these domains, people interact with the computers using a mouse, keyboard and a 17-inch monitor, but present-day inter faces take a variety of forms, including motion-capture technology and displays of up to several metres in height and width. The trend of applying computer technologies in the domain of art and culture has been one of the pivots of a Danish research project, Staging of Virtual Inhabited 3D Spaces. The results of the project are presented in a series of four volumes, of which this book is the last one. The three other publications are: Virtual Interaction: Interaction in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds; Virtual Space: The Spatiality of Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds; and 3D Applications: Applications with Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds.

The research in content-based indexing and retrieval of visual information such as images and video has become one of the most populated directions in the vast area of information technologies. Social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, FileMobile, and DailyMotion host and supply facilities for accessing a tremendous amount of professional and user generated data. The areas of societal activity, such as, video protection and security, also generate thousands and thousands of terabytes of visual content. This book presents the most recent results and important trends in visual information indexing and retrieval. It is intended for young researchers, as well as, professionals looking for an algorithmic solution to a problem.

This book covers the entire spectrum of multicasting on the Internet from link- to application-layer issues, including multicasting in broadcast and non-broadcast links, multicast routing, reliable and real-time multicast transport, group membership and total ordering in multicast groups. In-depth consideration is given to describing IP multicast routing protocols, such as, DVMRP, MOSPF, PIM and CBT, quality of service issues in network-layer using RSVP and ST-2, as well as the relationship between ATM and IP multicast. These discussions include coverage of key concepts using illustrative diagrams and various real-world applications. The protocols and the architecture of MBone are described, real-time multicast transport issues are addressed and various reliable multicast transport protocols are compared both conceptually and analytically. Also included is a discussion of video multicast and other cutting-edge research on multicast with an assessment of their potential impact on future internetworks.Multicasting on the Internet and Its Applications is an invaluable reference work for networking professionals and researchers, network software developers, information technology managers and graduate students.

Intelligent Image Databases: Towards Advanced Image Retrieval addresses the image feature selection issue in developing content-based image retrieval systems. The book first discusses the four important issues in developing a complete content-based image retrieval system, and then demonstrates that image feature selection has significant impact on the remaining issues of system design. Next, it presents an in-depth literature survey on typical image features explored by contemporary content-based image retrieval systems for image matching and retrieval purposes. The goal of the survey is to determine the characteristics and the effectiveness of individual features, so as to establish guidelines for future development of content-based image retrieval systems. Intelligent Image Databases: Towards Advanced Image Retrieval describes the Advanced Region-Based Image Retrieval System (ARBIRS) developed by the authors for color images of real-world scenes. They have selected image regions for building ARBIRS as the literature survey suggests that prominent image regions, along with their associated features, provide a higher probability for achieving a higher level content-based image retrieval system. A major challenge in building a region-based image retrieval system is that prominent regions are rather difficult to capture in an accurate and error-free condition, particularly those in images of real-world scenes. To meet this challenge, the book proposes an integrated approach to tackle the problem via feature capturing, feature indexing, and database query. Through comprehensive system evaluation, it is demonstrated how these systematically integrated efforts work effectively to accomplish advanced image retrieval. Intelligent Image Databases: Towards Advanced Image Retrieval serves as an excellent reference and may be used as a text for advanced courses on the topic.

Still Image Compression on Parallel Computer Architectures investigates the application of parallel-processing techniques to digital image compression. Digital image compression is used to reduce the number of bits required to store an image in computer memory and/or transmit it over a communication link. Over the past decade advancements in technology have spawned many applications of digital imaging, such as photo videotex, desktop publishing, graphics arts, color facsimile, newspaper wire phototransmission and medical imaging. For many other contemporary applications, such as distributed multimedia systems, rapid transmission of images is necessary. Dollar cost as well as time cost of transmission and storage tend to be directly proportional to the volume of data. Therefore, application of digital image compression techniques becomes necessary to minimize costs. A number of digital image compression algorithms have been developed and standardized. With the success of these algorithms, research effort is now directed towards improving implementation techniques. The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) and Motion Photographic Experts Group(MPEG) are international organizations which have developed digital image compression standards. Hardware (VLSI chips) which implement the JPEG image compression algorithm are available. Such hardware is specific to image compression only and cannot be used for other image processing applications. A flexible means of implementing digital image compression algorithms is still required. An obvious method of processing different imaging applications on general purpose hardware platforms is to develop software implementations. JPEG uses an 8 x 8 block of image samples as the basic element for compression. These blocks are processed sequentially. There is always the possibility of having similar blocks in a given image. If similar blocks in an image are located, then repeated compression of these blocks is not necessary. By locating similar blocks in the image, the speed of compression can be increased and the size of the compressed image can be reduced. Based on this concept an enhancement to the JPEG algorithm is proposed, called Bock Comparator Technique (BCT). Still Image Compression on Parallel Computer Architectures is designed for advanced students and practitioners of computer science. This comprehensive reference provides a foundation for understanding digital image compression techniques and parallel computer architectures.

This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 9th International Gesture Workshop, GW 2011, held in Athens, Greece, in May 2011. The 24 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 35 submissions. They are ordered in five sections named: human computer interaction; cognitive processes; notation systems and animation; gestures and signs: linguistic analysis and tools; and gestures and speech.

Exploring Digital Design takes a multi-disciplinary look at digital design research where digital design is embedded in a larger socio-cultural context. Working from socio-technical research areas such as Participatory Design (PD), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the book explores how humanities offer new insights into digital design, and discusses a variety of digital design research practices, methods, and theoretical approaches spanning established disciplinary borders. The aim of the book is to explore the diversity of contemporary digital design practices in which commonly shared aspects are interpreted and integrated into different disciplinary and interdisciplinary conversations. It is the conversations and explorations with humanities that further distinguish this book within digital design research. Illustrated with real examples from digital design research practices from a variety of research projects and from a broad range of contexts Exploring Digital Design offers a basis for understanding the disciplinary roots as well as the interdisciplinary dialogues in digital design research, providing theoretical, empirical, and methodological sources for understanding digital design research. The first half of the book Exploring Digital Design is authored as a multi-disciplinary approach to digital design research, and represents novel perspectives and analyses in this research. The contributors are Gunnar Liestol, Andrew Morrison and Christina Moertberg in addition to the editors. Although primarily written for researchers and graduate students, digital design practioners will also find the book useful. Overall, Exploring Digital Design provides an excellent introduction to, and resource for, research into digital design.

This volume constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Internationalization, Design and Global Development, IDGD 2011, held in Orlando, FL, USA, in July 2011 in the framework of the 14th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2011. The 71 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers accepted for presentation thoroughly cover the entire field of internationalization, design and global development and address the following major topics: Cultural and cross-cultural design, culture and usability, design, emotion, trust and aesthetics, cultural issues in business and industry, culture, communication and society.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th Industrial Conference on Data Mining, ICDM 2012, held in Berlin, Germany in July 2012. The 22 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 97 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on data mining in medicine and biology; data mining for energy industry; data mining in traffic and logistic; data mining in telecommunication; data mining in engineering; theory in data mining; theory in data mining: clustering; theory in data mining: association rule mining and decision rule mining.

The main objective of pervasive computing systems is to create environments where computers become invisible by being seamlessly integrated and connected into our everyday environment, where such embedded computers can then provide inf- mation and exercise intelligent control when needed, but without being obtrusive. Pervasive computing and intelligent multimedia technologies are becoming incre- ingly important to the modern way of living. However, many of their potential applications have not yet been fully realized. Intelligent multimedia allows dynamic selection, composition and presentation of the most appropriate multimedia content based on user preferences. A variety of applications of pervasive computing and - telligent multimedia are being developed for all walks of personal and business life. Pervasive computing (often synonymously called ubiquitous computing, palpable computing or ambient intelligence) is an emerging ?eld of research that brings in revolutionary paradigms for computing models in the 21st century. Pervasive c- puting is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous connected computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a convergence of advanced el- tronic - and particularly, wireless - technologies and the Internet. Recent advances in pervasive computers, networks, telecommunications and information technology, along with the proliferation of multimedia mobile devices - such as laptops, iPods, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular telephones - have further stimulated the development of intelligent pervasive multimedia applications. These key te- nologiesarecreatingamultimediarevolutionthatwillhavesigni?cantimpactacross a wide spectrum of consumer, business, healthcare and governmental domains.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Web-Based Learning, ICWL 2010, held in Shanghai, China, in December 2010. The 36 revised full papers and 8 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 192 submissions. They deal with topics such as e-learning platforms and tools, technology enhanced learning, Web-based learning for oriental languages, mobile/situated e-learning, learning resource deployment, organization and management, design, model and framework of e-learning systems, e-learning metadata and standards, collaborative learning and game-based learning, as well as practice and experience sharing, and pedagogical issues.

This two-volume set (CCIS 150 and CCIS 151) constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Multimedia Applications, UCMA 2011, held in Daejeon, Korea, in April 2011. The 86 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 570 submissions. Focusing on various aspects of advances in multimedia applications and ubiquitous computing with computational sciences, mathematics and information technology the papers present current research in the area of multimedia and ubiquitous environment including models and systems, new directions, novel applications associated with the utilization, and acceptance of ubiquitous computing devices and systems.

The very word "digital" has acquired a status that far exceeds its humble dictionary definition. Even the prefix digital, when associ ated with familiar sectors such as radio, television, photography and telecommunications, has reinvented these industries, and provided a unique opportunity to refresh them with new start-up companies, equipment, personnel, training and working practices - all of which are vital to modern national and international economies. The last century was a period in which new media stimulated new job opportunities, and in many cases created totally new sectors: video competed with film, CDs transformed LPs, and computer graphics threatened traditional graphic design sectors. Today, even the need for a physical medium is in question. The virtual digital domain allows the capture, processing, transmission, storage, retrieval and display of text, images, audio and animation without familiar materials such as paper, celluloid, magnetic tape and plastic. But moving from these media to the digital domain intro duces all sorts of problems, such as the conversion of analog archives, multimedia databases, content-based retrieval and the design of new content that exploits the benefits offered by digital systems. It is this issue of digital content creation that we address in this book. Authors from around the world were invited to comment on different aspects of digital content creation, and their contributions form the 23 chapters of this volume.

Multimedia Database Systems: Design and Implementation Strategies is a compendium of the state-of-the-art research and development work pertaining to the problems and issues in the design and development of multimedia database systems. The chapters in the book are developed from presentations given at previous meetings of the International Workshop on Multi-Media Data Base Management Systems (IW-MMDBMS), and address the following issues: development of adequate multimedia database models, design of multimedia database query and retrieval languages, design of indexing and organization techniques, development of efficient and reliable storage models, development of efficient and dependable retrieval and delivery strategies, and development of flexible, adaptive, and reliable presentation techniques.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 11th International Symposium on Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems, W2GIS 2012, held in Naples, Italy, in April 2012. The 13 full and 4 short papers presented in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 32 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections named: 3D and multimodal spatial interaction; positioning; spatial human-computer interaction; trajectory analysis; geo semantics; and sensor networks.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 34th European Conference on IR Research, ECIR 2012, held in Barcelona, Spain, in April 2012. The 37 full papers, 28 poster papers and 7 demonstrations presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 167 submissions. The contributions are organized in sections named: query representation; blogs and online-community search; semi-structured retrieval; evaluation; applications; retrieval models; image and video retrieval; text and content classification, categorisation, clustering; systems efficiency; industry track; and posters.

High-Speed Networking for Multimedia Applications presents the latest research on the architecture and protocols for high-speed networks, focusing on communication support for distributed multimedia applications. This includes the two major issues of ATM Networking and quality of service for multimedia applications. It is to be expected that most of the bandwidth in future high-speed networks will be taken up by multimedia applications, transmitting digital audio and video. Traditional networking protocols are not suitable for this as they do not provide guaranteed bandwidth, end-to-end delay or delay jitter, nor do they have addressing schemes or routing algorithms for multicast connections. High-Speed Networking for Multimedia Applications is a collection of high quality research papers which address these issues, providing interesting and innovative solutions. It is an essential reference for engineers and computer scientists working in this area. It is also a comprehensive text for graduate students of high-speed networking and multimedia applications.

Multimedia Information Systems brings together in one place important contributions and up-to-date research results in this fast moving area. Multimedia Information Systems serves as an excellent reference, providing insight into some of the most challenging research issues in the field.

The concept of content delivery (also known as content distribution) is be coming increasingly important due to rapidly growing demands for efficient distribution and fast access of information in the Internet. Content delivery is very broad and comprehensive in that the contents for distribution cover a wide range of types with significantly different characteristics and performance concerns, including HTML documents, images, multimedia streams, database tables, and dynamically generated contents. Moreover, to facilitate ubiqui tous information access, the network architectures and hardware devices also vary widely. They range from broadband wired/fixed networks to bandwid- constrained wireless/mobile networks, and from powerful workstations/PCs to personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular phones with limited processing and display capabilities. All these levels of diversity are introducing numerous challenges on content delivery technologies. It is desirable to deliver contents in their best quality based on the nature of the contents, network connections and client devices. This book aims at providing a snapshot of the state-of-the-art research and development activities on web content delivery and laying the foundations for future web applications. The book focuses on four main areas: (1) web con tent delivery; (2) dynamic web content; (3) streaming media delivery; and (4) ubiquitous web access. It consists of 17 chapters written by leading experts in the field. The book is designed for a professional audience including academic researchers and industrial practitioners who are interested in the most recent research and development activities on web content delivery."

This book brings together three great motifs of the network society: the seeking and using of information by individuals and groups; the creation and application of knowledge in organizations; and the fundamental transformation of these activities as they are enacted on the Internet and the World Wide Web. Of the three, the study of how individuals and groups seek information probably has the longest history, beginning with the early "information needs and uses" studies soon after the Second World War. The study of organizations as knowledge-based social systems is much more recent, and really gained momentum only within the last decade or so. The study of the World Wide Web as information and communication media is younger still, but has generated tremendous excitement, partly because it has the potential to reconfigure the ways in which people seek information and use knowledge, and partly because it offers new methods of analyzing and measuring how in fact such information and knowledge work gets done. As research endeavors, these streams overlap and share conceptual constructs, perspectives, and methods of analysis. Although these overlaps and shared concerns are sometimes apparent in the published research, there have been few attempts to connect these ideas explicitly and identify cross-disciplinary themes. This book is an attempt to fill this void. The three authors of this book possess contrasting backgrounds and thus adopt complementary vantage points to observe information seeking and knowledge work.

Researchers in data management have recently recognized the importance of a new class of data-intensive applications that requires managing data streams, i.e., data composed of continuous, real-time sequence of items. Streaming applications pose new and interesting challenges for data management systems. Such application domains require queries to be evaluated continuously as opposed to the one time evaluation of a query for traditional applications. Streaming data sets grow continuously and queries must be evaluated on such unbounded data sets. These, as well as other challenges, require a major rethink of almost all aspects of traditional database management systems to support streaming applications.

Stream Data Management comprises eight invited chapters by researchers active in stream data management. The collected chapters provide exposition of algorithms, languages, as well as systems proposed and implemented for managing streaming data.

Stream Data Management is designed to appeal to researchers or practitioners already involved in stream data management, as well as to those starting out in this area. This book is also suitable for graduate students in computer science interested in learning about stream data management.