Rate-Quality Optimized Video Coding discusses the matter of optimizing (or negotiating) the data rate of compressed digital video and its quality, which has been a relatively neglected topic in either side of image/video coding and tele-traffic management. Video rate management becomes a technically challenging task since it is required to maintain a certain video quality regardless of the availability of transmission or storage media. This is caused by the broadband nature of digital video and inherent algorithmic features of mainstream video compression schemes, e.g. H.261, H.263 and MPEG series. In order to maximize the media utilization and to enhance video quality, the data rate of compressed video should be regulated within a budget of available media resources while maintaining the video quality as high as possible. In Part I (Chapters 1 to 4) the non-stationarity of digital video is discussed. Since the non-stationary nature is also inherited from algorithmic properties of international video coding standards, which are a combination of statistical coding techniques, the video rate management techniques of these standards are explored. Although there is a series of known video rate control techniques, such as picture rate variation, frame dropping, etc., these techniques do not view the matter as an optimization between rate and quality. From the view of rate-quality optimization, the quantizer is the sole means of controling rate and quality. Thus, quantizers and quantizer control techniques are analyzed, based on the relationship of rate and quality. In Part II (Chapters 5 and 6), as a coherent approach to non-stationary video, established but still thriving nonlinear techniques are applied to video rate-quality optimization such as artificial neural networks including radical basis function networks, and fuzzy logic-based schemes. Conventional linear techniques are also described before the nonlinear techniques are explored. By using these nonlinear techniques, it is shown how they influence and tackle the rate-quality optimization problem. Finally, in Chapter 7 rate-quality optimization issues are reviewed in emerging video communication applications such as video transcoding and mobile video. This chapter discusses some new issues and prospects of rate and quality control in those technology areas. Rate-Quality Optimized Video Coding is an excellent reference and can be used for advanced courses on the topic.

Processing: Creative Coding and Generative Art in Processing 2 is a fun and creative approach to learning programming. Using the easy to learn Processing programming language, you will quickly learn how to draw with code, and from there move to animating in 2D and 3D. These basics will then open up a whole world of graphics and computer entertainment. If you've been curious about coding, but the thought of it also makes you nervous, this book is for you; if you consider yourself a creative person, maybe worried programming is too non-creative, this book is also for you; if you want to learn about the latest Processing 2.0 language release and also start making beautiful code art, this book is also definitely for you. You will learn how to develop interactive simulations, create beautiful visualizations, and even code image-manipulation applications. All this is taught using hands-on creative coding projects. Processing 2.0 is the latest release of the open-source Processing language, and includes exciting new features, such as OpenGL 2 support for enhanced 3D graphics performance. Processing: Creative Coding and Generative Art in Processing 2 is designed for independent learning and also as a primary text for an introductory computing class. Based on research funded by the National Science Foundation, this book brings together some of the most engaging and successful approaches from the digital arts and computer science classrooms. Teaches you how to program using a fun and creative approach. Covers the latest release of the Processing 2.0 language. Presents a research based approach to learning computing.

This is nothing less than a totally essential reference for engineers and researchers in any field of work that involves the use of compressed imagery. Beginning with a thorough and up-to-date overview of the fundamentals of image compression, the authors move on to provide a complete description of the JPEG2000 standard. They then devote space to the implementation and exploitation of that standard. The final section describes other key image compression systems. This work has specific applications for those involved in the development of software and hardware solutions for multimedia, internet, and medical imaging applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Web Reasoning and Rule Systems, RR 2012, held in Vienna, Austria, in September 2012. The 27 revised research papers, presented together with 2 invited talks and 5 research summaries were carefully reviewed and selected from 42 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections on technical communications, algorithms, design aspects of rule markup, design of ontology languages, engineering of engines, translators, and other tools, standardization efforts, such as the Rules Interchange Format activity at W3C, and applications.

Usability has become increasingly important as an essential part of the design and development of software and systems for all sectors of society, business, industry, government and education, as well as a topic of research. Today, we can safely say that, in many parts of the world, information technology and communications is or is becoming a central force in revolutionising the way that we all live and how our societies function. IFIP's mission states clearly that it "encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of information technology for the benefit of all people". The question that must be considered now is how much attention has been given to the usability of the IT-based systems that we use in our work and daily lives. There is much evidence to indicate that the real interests and needs of people have not yet been embraced in a substantial way by IT decision makers and when developing and implementing the IT systems that shape our lives, both as private individuals and at work. But some headway has been made. Three years ago, the IFIP Technical Committee on Human Computer Interaction (IFIP TC13) gave the subject of usability its top priority for future work in advancing HCI within the international community. This Usability Stream of the IFIP World Computer Congress is a result of this initiative. It provides a showcase on usability involving some practical business solutions and experiences, and some research findings.

Just a few years ago, virtual reality was regarded as more a toy than a tool. Today, however, it is becoming the enabling technology for man-machine communications. The rapid development of graphics hardware and soft ware makes its application possible. Besides building walkthroughs and landscape fly-overs with very realistic visual effects, we can recognize the trend toward industrial applications. This is because of the emerging need for tools for rapid product development. Especially in the aeronautical and automotive industries, companies have began to investigate and develop virtual reality tools for their own needs in co-operation with research or ganizations. In co-operation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD), the Computer Graphics Center (ZGDV) in Darmstadt established the German working group on virtual reality in 1993 as a forum for infor mation exchange between industry and research. German researchers, system developers, and industrial users have met several times in Darm stadt at the Computer Graphics Center. In these meetings they discussed the essential issues inherent in applying virtual reality to industrial appli cations and exchanged their latest research results and experiences.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, TPDL 2012 - the successor of the ECDL (European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries) - held in Paphos, Cyprus, in September 2012. The 23 full papers, 19 short papers, 15 posters and 8 demonstrations presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 139 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on user behavior, mobiles and place, heritage and sustainability, preservation, linked data, analysing and enriching documents, content and metadata quality, folksonomy and ontology, information retrieval, organising collections, as well as extracting and indexing.

This book and its companion volume, LNCS 7282 and 7283, constitute the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference, EuroHaptics 2012, held in Tampere, Finland, in June 2012. The 99 papers (56 full papers, 32 short papers, and 11 demo papers) presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 153 submissions. Part I contains the full papers whereas Part II contains the short papers and the demo papers.

Co-editors of the volume are:

Federico "Alvarez," Alessandro "Bassi," Michele "Bezzi," Laurent "Ciavaglia," Frances "Cleary," Petros "Daras," Hermann "De Meer," Panagiotis "Demestichas," John "Domingue," Theo G. "Kanter," Stamatis "Karnouskos," Srdjan "Kr"" ""o," Laurent "Lefevre," Jasper "Lentjes," Man-Sze "Li," Paul "Malone," Antonio "Manzalini," Volkmar "Lotz," Henning "Muller," Karsten "Oberle," Noel E. "O'Connor," Nick "Papanikolaou," Dana "Petcu," Rahim "Rahmani," Danny" Raz," Gael "Richards," Elio "Salvadori," Susana "Sargento," Hans "Schaffers," Joan" Serrat," Burkhard "Stiller," Antonio F. "Skarmeta," Kurt "Tutschku," Theodore "Zahariadis"

The Internet is the most vital scientific, technical, economic and societal set of infrastructures in existence and in operation today serving 2.5 billion users. Continuing its developments would secure much of the upcoming innovation and prosperity and it would underpin the sustainable growth in economic values and volumes needed in the future. Future Internet infrastructures research is therefore a must.

The Future Internet Assembly (FIA) is a successful conference that brings together participants of over 150 research projects from several distinct yet interrelated areas in the European Union Framework Programme 7 (FP7). The research projects are grouped as follows: the network of the future as infrastructure connecting and orchestrating the future Internet of people, computers, devices, content, clouds and things; cloud computing, Internet of Services and advanced software engineering; the public-private partnership projects on Future Internet; Future Internet Research and Experimentation (FIRE).

The 26 full papers included in this volume were selected from 45 submissions. They are organized in topical sections named: software driven networks, virtualization, programmability and autonomic management; computing and networking clouds; internet of things; and enabling technologies and economic incentives."

This book is a collection of invited papers that were presented at the Ninth IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, September 5-8, 1998, Boston, MA. These papers are meant to provide a global view of the emerging third-generation wireless networks in the wake of the third millennium. Following the tradition of the PIMRC conferences, the papers are selected to strike a balance between the diverse interests of academia and industry by addressing issues of interest to the designers, manufacturers, and service providers involved in the wireless networking industry. The tradition of publishing a collection of the invited papers presented at the PIMRC started in PIMRC'97, Helsinki, Finland. There are two benefits to this tradition (1) it provides a shorter version of the proceedings of the conference that is more focused on a specific theme (2) the papers are comprehensive and are subject of a more careful review process to improve the contents as well as the presentation of the material, making it more appealing for archival as a reference book. The production costs of the book is subsidized by the conference and the editors have donated the royalty income of the book to the conference.

Wireless systems for mobile communication is one of the most rapidly expanding fields in digital telecommunications. Such hot topics as wireless Internet, mobile access to multimedia services and wireless convergence systems are likely to affect the whole of the information society and will pose intellectual challenges to researchers in the foreseeable future. Transmission techniques like WCDMA, user-oriented protocols like WAP and communication structures like LEO are just a few tools that seem to usher in the era of unlimited resource availability. Personal Wireless Communications addresses these issues, with 17 regular papers and 4 invited papers by leading researchers in the area of wireless communications. The volume comprises the proceedings of the Working Conference on Personal Wireless Communications (PWC'2000), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Gdansk, Poland in September 2000.The contributions cover a wide range of topics, from 3G cellular systems to wireless Internet and WAP design to wireless LAN and ATM; from speech coding and antenna design to teletraffic modelling and protocol evaluation. The book is thus essential reading for theoreticians and engineers interested in the current progress in wireless systems, as well as for IT students and researchers.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Haptic and Audio Interaction Design, HAID 2012, held in Lund, Sweden, in August 2012. The 15 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on haptics and audio in navigation, supporting experiences and activities, object and interface, test and evaluation.

Intelligence in Networks is a concept, the meaning of which is highly related to the time-period when it is used. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it was mainly related to the teleservice repertoire 'an sich'. In the 1990s, it is more related to efficient flexibility in the introduction of new teleservices and teleservice repertoire. This state-of-the-art text sets out to identify and study issues related to solutions for increasing intelligence in networks. As examples, intelligence networks (IN), telecommunication information networking architecture (TINA) and mobile agents and active networks are different solutions for improving the grade of network intelligence. The areas under discussion include research and development within various closely related fields such as: * Teleservices, service architecture and service creation; * Middleware and specification languages; * Mobile agents, active networks, plug-and-play issues; and * Quality of service and performance.GBP/LISTGBP Intelligence in Networks contains the proceedings of SMARTNET'99, the fifth in a series of conferences on intelligence in networks sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), at the Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand in November 1999.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Sino-foreign-interchange Workshop on Intelligence Science and Intelligent Data Engineering, IScIDE 2011, held in Xi'an, China, in October 2011. The 97 papers presented were carefully peer-reviewed and selected from 389 submissions. The IScIDE papers in this volume are organized in topical sections on machine learning and computational intelligence; pattern recognition; computer vision and image processing; graphics and computer visualization; knowledge discovering, data mining, web mining; multimedia processing and application.

A re-working of C.D. Chaffee's previously published The Rewiring of America (Academia, 1988), this professional book describes the fiber optics revolution. There have been many changes in the fiber optics field since the book's first publication. These include advances in optical networking; the additional bandwidth created by the Internet and associated data services; liberalization of the global telecommunications industry; and the rewiring of the world's oceans with fiber optics. Building the Global Fiber Optics Superhighway details all these developments. C.D. Chaffee writes: 'One thing is clear: as our networks become primarily data-driven, they need to be built differently, to be able to handle data first, but also voice. It is a different way of looking at the world.'

The advances in the generation and processing of multimedia data (e. g. documents, images, video, audio, animations, etc. ) have had an immense impact on multimedia applications and, as a result, multimedia has permeated almost every aspect of our daily lives. This development has also brought with it a whole host of issues and ch- lenges which were either not as apparent before or were non-existent. Today, digital media is relied upon as primary news and information resource, as evidence in a court of law, as part of medical records or as financial documents. However, there is still lack of authoritative mechanisms to verify the origin and veracity of media data. - deed, multimedia content has become an extremely valuable asset, and it is being both disseminated and consumed on a larger scale than ever before, but the issues conce- ing how the content owners and publishers should control the distribution of and - cess to their content have not been satisfactorily resolved yet. There are various other issues related to use of multimedia that require further analysis and research. For example, it is a known fact that some criminal organi- tions communicate with its members by posting information embedded media to p- lic forums and web-sites to evade surveillance by law enforcement. Conventional multimedia processing approaches do not provide sufficiently effective means for - fending against such communication.

The 2002 IFIP Workshop on Internet Technologies, Applications, and Societal Impact (WITASI 2002), held in Wroclaw, Poland, October 10-11, 2002, presents different research aspects of the Internet, both technical and societal. The workshop aims at getting together scientists and practitioners from different research areas to work together on Internet development and reflect on Internet consequences to the economy and society. The papers presented in these proceedings describe state-of-the-art research in such areas of Internet applications as languages, mobility, multimedia, quality of service, voice over IP, and wireless access. A total of 40 papers were submitted to WITASI 2002 out of which 18 papers were selected for presentation at the workshop and inclusion in the proceedings. The workshop also includes 4 invited papers. WIT ASI 2002 was sponsored by IFIP -the International Federation for Information Processing. It was organized by Working Group WG 6.4 on Internet Applications Engineering of the Technical Committee TC 6 on Communication Systems. Locally, WITASI 2002 was organized by the Institute of Control and Systems Engineering, Wroclaw University of Technology.

Audio Signal Processing for Next-Generation Multimedia Communication Systems presents cutting-edge digital signal processing theory and implementation techniques for problems including speech acquisition and enhancement using microphone arrays, new adaptive filtering algorithms, multichannel acoustic echo cancellation, sound source tracking and separation, audio coding, and realistic sound stage reproduction. This book's focus is almost exclusively on the processing, transmission, and presentation of audio and acoustic signals in multimedia communications for telecollaboration where immersive acoustics will play a great role in the near future.

Multimedia surveillance systems is an emerging field that includes signal and image processing, communications, and computer vision. Multimedia Video-Based Surveillance Systems: Requirements, Issues and Solutions, combines the most recent research results from these areas for use by engineers and end-users involved in the design of surveillance systems in the fields of transportation and services. The book covers emerging surveillance requirements, including new digital sensors for real-time acquisition of surveillance data, low-level image processing algorithms, and event detection methods. It also discusses problems related to knowledge representation in surveillance systems, wireless and wired multimedia networks, and a new generation of surveillance communication tools. Timely information is presented on digital watermarking, broadband multimedia transmission, legal use of surveillance systems, performance evaluation criteria, and other new and emerging topics, along with applications for transports and pedestrian monitoring. The information contained in Multimedia Video-Based Surveillance Systems: Requirements, Issues and Solutions, bridges the distance between present practice and research findings, and the book is an indispensable reference tool for professional engineers.

Database Semantics: Semantic Issues in Multimedia Systems reflects the state of the art of emerging research on the meaning of multimedia information, as presented during IFIP's Eighth Data Semantics Working Conference (DS-8), organized by its Working Group 2.6 on Databases, and held at Rotorua, New Zealand, in January 1999. DS-8 was planned as an active forum for researchers and practitioners focusing on those issues that involve the semantics of the information represented, stored, and manipulated by multimedia systems. Depending on the topic and state of research, issues may be covered either deeply theoretically or quite practically, or even both. These proceedings contain twenty-one papers carefully selected by an International Programme Committee and organized in six thematic areas: * Video Data Modelling and Use; * Image Databases; * Applications of Multimedia Systems; * Multimedia Modeling in General; * Multimedia Information Retrieval; * Semantics and Metadata.For almost every area, important topics and issues include: * data modeling and query languages for media such as audio, video, and images; * methodological aspects of multimedia database design; * intelligent multimedia information retrieval; * knowledge discovery and data mining in multimedia information; * multimedia user interfaces. Three visionary keynote addresses, by famous experts Ramesh Jain, Hermann Maurer and Masao Sakauchi, set the stage for discussion and future directions for the field. The collection of papers that resulted now offers a glimpse of the excitement and enthusiasm from DS-8. Database Semantics: Semantic Issues in Multimedia Systems is suitable as a secondary text for a graduate-level course on database systems, multimedia systems, or information retrieval systems and as a reference for practitioners and researchers in industry.

Multimedia data comprising of images, audio and video is becoming increasingly common. The decreasing costs of consumer electronic devices such as digital cameras and digital camcorders, along with the ease of transportation facilitated by the Internet, has lead to a phenomenal rise in the amount of multimedia data generated and distributed. Given that this trend of increased use of multimedia data is likely to accelerate, there is an urgent need for providing a clear means of capturing, storing, indexing, retrieving, analyzing and summarizing such data. Content-based access to multimedia data is of primary importance since it is the natural way by which human beings interact with such information. To facilitate the content-based access of multimedia information, the first step is to derive feature measures from these data so that a feature space representation of the data content can be formed. This can subsequently allow for mapping the feature space to the symbol space (semantics) either automatically or through human intervention. Thus, signal to symbol mapping, useful for any practical system, can be successfully achieved. Perspectives on Content-Based Multimedia Systems provides a comprehensive set of techniques to tackle these important issues. This book offers detailed solutions to a wide range of practical problems in building real systems by providing specifics of three systems built by the authors. While providing a systems focus, it also equips the reader with a keen understanding of the fundamental issues, including a formalism for content-based multimedia database systems, multimedia feature extraction, object-based techniques, signature-based techniques and fuzzy retrieval techniques. The performance evaluation issues of practical systems is also explained. This book brings together essential elements of building a content-based multimedia database system in a way that makes them accessible to practitioners in computer science and electrical engineering. It can also serve as a textbook for graduate-level courses.

Information and communication technologies can provide new paradigms in healthcare provision. In particular, new Pervasive Healthcare technologies can revolutionise the dynamics of healthcare, enabling people to remain at home for longer, at lower costs to health and welfare organisations.

This book reveals how pervasive healthcare technologies can be designed in conjunction with users and carers, as well as exploring the application of novel methods and technologies.

This book provides a theoretical and practical explanation of the latest advancements in information retrieval and their application to existing systems. It takes a system approach, discussing all aspects of an Information Retrieval System. The major difference between this book and the first edition is the addition to this text of descriptions of the automated indexing of multimedia documents, as items in information retrieval are now considered to be a combination of text along with graphics, audio, image and video data types. The growth of the Internet and the availability of enormous volumes of data in digital form have necessitated intense interest in techniques to assist the user in locating data. The importance of the Internet and its associated hypertext linked structure are put into perspective as a new type of information retrieval data structure. The total system approach also includes discussion of the human interface and the importance of information visualization for identification of relevant information.With the availability of large quantities of multi-media on the Internet (audio, video, images), Information Retrieval Systems need to address multi-modal retrieval. The primary use of this book is as a college text on Information Retrieval Systems. But in addition to the theoretical aspects, the book maintains a theme of practicality that puts into perspective the importance and utilization of the theory in systems that are being used by anyone on the Internet. The student will gain an understanding of what is achievable using existing technologies and deficient areas that warrant additional research. The text provides coverage of all of the major aspects of information retrieval and has sufficient detail to allow students to implement a simple Information Retrieval System.

Advanced Signal Processing for Communication Systems consists of 20 contributions from researchers and experts. The first group of chapters deals with the audio and video processing for communications applications, including topics ranging from multimedia content delivery over the Internet, through the speech processing and recognition to recognition of non-speech sounds that can be attributed to the surrounding environment. The book also includes sections on applications of error control coding, information theory, and digital signal processing for communication systems like modulation, software-defined radio, and channel estimation. Advanced Signal Processing for Communication Systems is written for researchers working on communication systems and signal processing, as well as telecommunications industry professionals.

Semantic Models for Multimedia Database Searching and Browsing begins with the introduction of multimedia information applications, the need for the development of the multimedia database management systems (MDBMSs), and the important issues and challenges of multimedia systems. The temporal relations, the spatial relations, the spatio-temporal relations, and several semantic models for multimedia information systems are also introduced. In addition, this book discusses recent advances in multimedia database searching and multimedia database browsing. More specifically, issues such as image/video segmentation, motion detection, object tracking, object recognition, knowledge-based event modeling, content-based retrieval, and key frame selections are presented for the first time in a single book. Two case studies consisting of two semantic models are included in the book to illustrate how to use semantic models to design multimedia information systems. Semantic Models for Multimedia Database Searching and Browsing is an excellent reference and can be used in advanced level courses for researchers, scientists, industry professionals, software engineers, students, and general readers who are interested in the issues, challenges, and ideas underlying the current practice of multimedia presentation, multimedia database searching, and multimedia browsing in multimedia information systems.