This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Workshop on Multimedia Content Analysis and Mining, MCAM 2007, held in Weihai, China in June/July 2007.

The 46 revised papers presented together with 13 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 139 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics, including all aspects of multimedia in entertainment, commerce, science, medicine, and public safety. Fields addressed are multimedia analysis and applications, multimedia search and mining, p2p streaming, and security.

RenderMan has long been associated with top-end film production and is an essential tool for creating many of the effects and images in recent animated films (such as Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles). RenderMan is widely available and, with the demand for higher quality images, is now used by computer-based artists at all levels of the graphics industry.

Intended to provide a straightforward and easy introduction to the basic techniques involved, this book provides an excellent grounding, enabling readers to confidently move to more advanced texts. This second edition includes a new chapter on global illumination, and, with plenty of illustrations and hands-on examples, Ian Stephenson: gives an overview of RenderMan, explains how scenes are described, illustrates (among other things) how to create surfaces; colour; lighting; shadows; and depth of field, using RIB and the C API, introduces the techniques involved in creating shaders, applying textures and using global illumination.

Adaptive Hypermedia has emerged as an important area of both academic and deployed research. It encompasses a broad range of research that will enable personalized, adaptive hypermedia systems to play an even more e?ective role in people's lives. The Web has enabled the widespread use of many person- ized systems, such as recommenders, personalized ?lters and retrieval systems, e-learning systems and various forms of collaborative systems. Such systems have been widely deployed in diverse domains such as e-Commerce, e-Health, e-Government, digital libraries, personalized travel planning as well as tourist and cultural heritage services. They are particularly promising for users with special needs. The exciting possibilities of such deployed adaptive hypermedia systems rely on research progress in a broad range of areas such as: user pro- ing and modeling; acquisition, updating and management of user models; group modeling and community-based pro?ling;recommender systems and recomm- dation strategies; data mining for personalization; the Semantic Web; adaptive multimedia content authoring and delivery; ubiquitous computing environments and Smart Spaces; personalization for the plethora of mobile devices, such as PDAs, mobile phones and other hand-held devices; and pragmatics such as p- vacy, trust and security. Empirical studies of adaptive hypermedia and Web systems are also critical to informing future directions. The AdaptiveHypermediaconferenceshavebecomethe majorforumsforthe scienti?c exchange and presentation of research results on adaptive hypermedia and adaptive Web-based systems.

From first installation to advanced image manipulation techniques, Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition explains how anyone can utilizeGIMP: a free, open source image manipulation program. You will learn how to install GIMP on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X platforms. Once you've installed the application, you'll learn about the interface and configuration options, and then jump into a quick and simple project to familiarize yourself.

With fourcolor graphics and screenshots throughout, you'll learn how to prepare camera images for display on web pagesincluding processes like rescaling, cropping, and balancing color. Utilizing layers, paths, and masks are also covered in extensive detail. Of course, you will also learn how to draw lines and shapes; utilize patterns and gradients; and even create your own brushes, patterns, and gradients.

GIMP expert and author Akkana Peck teaches you how to touch up digital photographs, smudging away blemishes, fixing redeye, and stitching panoramic images. You'll learn how to tap into the powerful filters, effects, and plugins that are available for GIMP and automate tasks using scripts. The entire book is approached in a projectbased manner, and as you progress, numerous projects will help strengthen your newly acquired abilities. What you'll learn Install GIMP on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. Explore the interface and configuration options. Prepare your camera images for use on the Web, including rescaling, cropping, and balancing color. Learn basic techniques such as drawing lines and shapes, utilizing patterns, and making use of gradients. Master advanced techniques such as layers, paths, and masks. Create your own brushes, patterns, and gradients. Discover tricks for fixing blemishes, removing redeye, and stitching together panoramic images. Who this book is for

This book is for graphics designers, digital photographers, and hobbyists. It's is aimed at those who need to utilize a full-featured image manipulation program but don't have hundreds of dollars to pay for Photoshop. GIMP is also the preferred image manipulation application for the open source advocate. GIMP is available on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

The 13th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia was held in Brisbane, Australia in September 2007. This was the first time that VSMM was sited in Australia. The Australian conference theme reflected the country's cultural heritage, both recent and past - Exchange and Experience in Space and Place. Of the many papers submitted under this theme we were able to identify three core sub-themes: Virtual Heritage, Applied Technologies and Virtual Environments. With a truly international flavor, these sub-themes covered the diverse areas of heritage site and artifact reconstruction and analysis, Australian Aboriginal cultural heritage, training, notions of spirituality, human - computer interaction in virtual environments, 3D modelling, remote collaboration and virtual agents. This made for rich, varied and lively conference session debates. Ninety-seven papers were submitted. Of these, 56 were accepted for inclusion in the general conference proceedings. Of these, 18 were further reviewed and selected for this Springer publication. The authors of these papers were invited to revise their papers following feedback from the conference before inclusion in this volume. Many people contributed to the conference. We first wish to thank the Virtual Systems and Multimedia Society, who provided strong support to the whole process of the preparation of the conference. In particular, we would like to express our thanks to Takeo Ojika, Mario Santana Quintero and Hal Thwaites for their generous support and guidance.

The modern world has made available a wealth of new possibilities for interacting with computers, through advanced Web applications, while on the go with handheld smart telephones or using electronic tabletops or wall-sized displays. Developers of modern interactive systems face great problems: how to design applications which will work well with newly available technologies, and how to efficiently and correctly implement such designs. Design, Specification and Verification of Interactive Systems 2008 was the 15th of a series of annual workshops devoted to helping designers and implementers of interactive systems unleash the power of modern interaction devices and techniques. DSV-IS 2008 was held at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, during July 16-18, 2008. This book collects the best papers submitted to the workshop. There were 17 full papers, 10 late-breaking and experience report papers, and two demonstrations. Keynote presentations were provided by Judy Brown of Carleton University and Randy Ellis of Queen's University. The first day of the workshop addressed the problems of user interface evaluation and specification, with particular emphasis on the use of task models to provide hi- level approaches for capturing the intended functionality of a user interface. Day two continued this theme, examining techniques for modeling user interfaces, particularly for mobile and ubiquitous applications. Presenters also discussed advanced implem- tation techniques for interactive systems. Finally, day three considered how to arc- tect interactive systems, and returned to the themes of evaluation and specification.

Since the time when interactive television emerged as a medium for the home environment, ithasbeenpermanentlyevolving.Changingrequirementsanduser behavior, e.g., the demand for being mobile and have access to information and entertainmentanywhereandanytime, arechallenginginteractiveTV.Newkinds of interactive services have to be conceived for the increasing mobile, ubiquitous requirements of the di?erent user groups. In these changing environments, a better understanding of emerging contexts and their implications is essential. This gave birth to the idea for the theme of the EuroITV 2008 Conference: "Changing Television Environments." EuroITV 2008, the 6th edition of the - ropean Conference on Interactive Television, was organized and hosted by the HCI and Usability Unit, ICT&S Center, University of Salzburg, Austria. The EuroITV Conference Series started at Brighton University in 2003 and 2004. It was followed by Aalborg University in 2005, Athens University of Economics and Business in 2006 and by CWI (Centrum Voor Wiskunde en Informatica) in Amsterdam 2007. We would like to thank all former Chairs for making this greatconference series happen andfor providing us with the opportunity to host EuroITV 2008.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Adaptive Multimedia Retrieval, AMR 2006, held in Geneva, Switzerland in July 2006. The papers cover ontology-based retrieval and annotation, ranking and similarity measurements, music information retrieval, visual modeling, adaptive retrieval, structuring multimedia, as well as user integration and profiling.

An increasing number of artists and programmers in visual effects and broadcast production now use mental ray, a high performance rendering engine for generating photorealistic images. This book details the aesthetics of rendering with mental ray. It describes the varieties of shader programming from the point of view of increasing perceptual complexity: from color to the output of the final image. It includes many example shaders, including the simplest shader possible in each category that can serve as a starting point for further customization.

TheInternationalConferenceonScienti?candStatisticalDatabaseManagement (SSDBM)isanestablishedforumfortheexchangeofthelatestresearchresultson concepts, tools, andtechniquesforscienti?candstatisticaldatabaseapplications. The2008meetingmarkedthe20thtimethatscienti?cdomainexperts, databases researchers, practitioners, and developers came together to share their new - sightsand to discuss ina stimulating environmentfuture researchdirections. This volume contains the proceedings of the 20th SSDBM Conference, held in Hong Kong, China, July 9-11,2008.The conference included 3 keynote talks, 28 long and 7 short papers in 9 sessions, and 8 posters and demonstrations in a single session. Distinguishedmembersofthe communitydeliveredthethree keynotes, which wereabout the past, present, and future managementof scienti?c and statistical data. Alex Szalay, an expert in large-scalescienti?c data management, discussed "New Challenges in Petascale Scienti?c Databases," managing huge scienti?c data repositories, with a focus on particular examples taken from astronomy. Nick Koudas, a leader in semi-structured text management, talked about "- ventures in the Blogosphere," a huge network of textual data (including blogs, social networks, wikis), and BlogScope, a system that collects and analyzes such data. Finally, Per Svensson, a pioneer in database systems development for s- enti?c applications, provided a historical review on "The Evolution of Vertical Database Architectures" from the perspective and performance needs of a s- enti?c or statistical large-scale data analyst user. The Program Committee, consisting of 37 members, accepted 43 papers (28 long,7short, and8posters/demos)fromatotalof84submissions.Thereviewing process was managed by the EasyChair Conference System, an excellent free conference management system, developed by Andrei Voronkov.

Der etablierte Workshop "Bildverarbeitung fur die Medizin" und seine erfolgreichen Veranstaltungen: Ziel ist auch 2007 wieder die Darstellung aktueller Forschungsergebnisse und die Vertiefung der Gesprache zwischen Wissenschaftlern, Industrie und Anwendern. Die Beitrage - einige in engl. Sprache - behandeln alle Bereiche der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung, u.a. Bildgebung, CAD, Segmentierung, Bildanalyse, Therapieplanung und klinische Anwendung.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment, TIDSE 2006, held in Darmstadt, Germany in December 2006. It contains 37 papers that cover a broad spectrum, from conceptual ideas, theories, and technological questions, to best practice examples in the different storytelling application domains, with a focus on entertainment and games.

OpenGL Graphics Through Applications is a practical introduction to Computer Graphics with an emphasis on understanding through practice. Throughout the book, theory is followed by implementation using C / C++ and complete programs are provided on the Springer website.

A procedural approach has been taken to algorithmic development while taking an object oriented approach when building artefacts from simple objects. The book covers a range of topics including: (1) image processing, (2) artefact construction, (3) introductory animation, (4) texturing, (5) curves surfaces and patterns.

Robert Whitrow has taught computing courses from first year undergraduate to postgraduate MSc at a range of different institutions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Multimedia Modeling Conference, MMM 2007, held in Kyoto, Japan, in January 2007. The 23 revised full papers and 24 revised poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 130 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections that include material on media understanding, creative media, visual content representation, and video codecs, as well as media retrieval, audio and music.

This book includes selected papers of the VISAPP and GRAPP International Conferences 2006, held in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, February 25-28, 2006.

The 27 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 314 submissions. The topics include geometry and modeling, rendering, animation and simulation, interactive environments, image formation and processing, image analysis, image understanding, motion, tracking and stereo vision.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia, PCM 2007, held in Hong Kong, China, in December 2007.

The 73 revised full papers and 21 revised poster presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 247 submissions. The papers are organized in topical session on image classification and retrieval, the AVS china national standard - technology, applications and products, human face and action recognition, H.264 video coding, video analysis and retrieval, media security and DRM, audio, speech and sound processing, digital watermarking, multimedia information systems for biomedical research, media delivery, video communication and systems, video compression and processing, face and 3D model analysis, multimedia applications, image indexing, identification and processing, as well as multimedia processing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia and Mobile Networks and Services, MMNS 2007, held in San Jose, USA, October 31 - November 2, 2007 in the course of the 3nd International Week on Management of Networks and Services, Manweek 2007.

The 14 revised full papers and 5 revised short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 46 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on services and user experience, wireless and cellular networks, monitoring and control, multicast and IPTV as well as resource management.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Graphics Recognition, GREC 2005, held in Hong Kong, China, August 2005. The book presents 37 revised full papers together with a panel discussion report, organized in topical sections on engineering drawings vectorization and recognition, symbol recognition, graphic image analysis, structural document analysis, sketching and online graphics recognition, curves and shape processing, and graphics recognition contest results.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 15th Scandinavian Conference on Image Analysis, SCIA 2007, held in Aalborg, Denmark in June 2007.

The 66 revised full papers and 33 revised poster papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 228 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on computer vision, 2D and 3D reconstruction, classification and segmentation, medical and biological applications, appearance and shape modeling, face detection, tracking and recognition, motion analysis, feature extraction and object recognition.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects, AMDO 2006, held in Port d'Andratx, Mallorca, Spain, in July 2006. Presents 53 carefully selected and revised full papers on topics including geometric and physical deformable models, motion analysis, articulated models and animation, modelling and visualisation of deformable models, deformable models applications, motion analysis applications, single or multiple human motion analysis and synthesis, and more.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2007, held in Shanghai, China, in September 2007, under the auspices of IFIP.

The 48 revised full papers and 16 poster papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on augmented, virtual and mixed reality, computer games, image processing, mesh and modeling, digital storytelling and interactive systems, sound, music and creative environments, video processing, rendering, computer animation and networks, game based interfaces, as well as robots and cyber pets.

Here are the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-Based Systems, AH 2006, held in Dublin, Ireland, June 2006. The book presents 22 revised full papers and 19 revised short papers together with abstracts of 3 keynotes, 12 poster papers, and 14 doctoral consortium posters. Topics include pioneering theories, techniques, and innovative technologies to provide dynamic personalization, adaptation, and contextualization of hypermedia resources and services.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Next Generation Information Technologies and Systems, NGITS 2006, held in Kibbutz Shefayim, Israel, July 2006. The book presents 28 revised full papers and four revised short papers together with three invited papers. Topical sections include information integration, next generation applications, information systems development, security and privacy, semi-structured data, frameworks, models and taxonomies, simulation and incremental computing, and more.

This book constitutes the post-proceedings of the Third International Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval Symposium, CMMR 2005. The 24 revised full papers address a broad variety of topics, organized in topical sections on sound synthesis; music perception and cognition; interactive music: interface, interaction, gestures and sensors, music composition; music retrieval; music performance, music analysis, music representation; as well as interdisciplinarity and computer music.

This is the second of a two-volume set that constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Symposium on Human Interface 2007, held in Beijing, China in July 2007. It covers communication and collaboration, knowledge, learning and education, mobile interaction, interacting with the world wide web and electronic services, business management and industrial applications, as well as environment, transportation and safety.