With the fast growth ofmultimedia information, content-based video anal- ysis, indexing and representation have attracted increasing attention in re- cent years. Many applications have emerged in these areas such as video- on-demand, distributed multimedia systems, digital video libraries, distance learning/education, entertainment, surveillance and geographical information systems. The need for content-based video indexing and retrieval was also rec- ognized by ISOIMPEG, and a new international standard called "Multimedia Content Description Interface" (or in short, MPEG-7)was initialized in 1998 and finalized in September 2001. In this context, a systematic and thorough review ofexisting approaches as well as the state-of-the-art techniques in video content analysis, indexing and representation areas are investigated and studied in this book. In addition, we will specifically elaborate on a system which analyzes, indexes and abstracts movie contents based on the integration ofmultiple media modalities. Content ofeach part ofthis book is briefly previewed below. In the first part, we segment a video sequence into a set ofcascaded shots, where a shot consistsofone or more continuouslyrecorded image frames. Both raw and compressedvideo data will beinvestigated. Moreover, consideringthat there are always non-story units in real TV programs such as commercials, a novel commercial break detection/extraction scheme is developed which ex- ploits both audio and visual cues to achieve robust results. Specifically, we first employ visual cues such as the video data statistics, the camera cut fre- quency, and the existenceofdelimiting black frames between commercials and programs, to obtain coarse-level detection results.

Coding and Modulation for Digital Television presents a comprehensive description of all error control coding and digital modulation techniques used in Digital Television (DTV). This book illustrates the relevant elements from the expansive theory of channel coding to how the transmission environment dictates the choice of error control coding and digital modulation schemes. These elements are presented in such a way that both the mathematical integrity' and understanding for engineers' are combined in a complete form and supported by a number of practical examples. In addition, the book contains descriptions of the existing standards and provides a valuable source of corresponding references. Coding and Modulation for Digital Television also features a description of the latest techniques, providing the reader with a glimpse of future digital broadcasting. These include the concepts of soft-in-soft-out decoding, turbo-coding and cross-correlated quadrature modulation, all of which will have a prominent future in improving efficiency of the next generation DTV systems. Coding and Modulation for Digital Television is essential reading for all undergraduate and postgraduate students, broadcasting and communication engineers, researchers, marketing managers, regulatory bodies, governmental organizations and standardization institutions of the digital television industry.

This is the first edited book that deals with the special topic of signals and images within Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). Signal-interpreting systems are becoming increasingly popular in medical, industrial, ecological, biotechnological and many other applications. Existing statistical and knowledge-based techniques lack robustness, accuracy and flexibility. New strategies are needed that can adapt to changing environmental conditions, signal variation, user needs and process requirements. Introducing CBR strategies into signal-interpreting systems can satisfy these requirements.

Based on the Job Definition Format (JDF) new workflow concepts are developed which will help create integrated workflows in the graphic arts industry. These developments create new business opportunities that will lead to a cost reduction but also will entail risks. Starting with a comprehensive explanation of the new standard, information is offered that enables business executives to make sound decisions on software investments in the graphic arts industry. Available architectures and products are highlighted and benefits are described. The steps relevant for the process integration are discussed.

In recent decades Multimedia processing has emerged as an important technology to generate content based on images, video, audio, graphics, and text. This book is a compilation of the latest trends and developments in the field of computational intelligence in multimedia processing. The edited book presents a large number of interesting applications to intelligent multimedia processing of various Computational Intelligence techniques including neural networks and fuzzy logic.

Ad-Hoc Networking Towards Seamless Communications is dedicated to an area that attracts growing interest in academia and industry and concentrates on wireless ad hoc networking paradigm. The persistent efforts to acquire the ability to establish dynamic wireless connections from anywhere to anyone with any device without prerequisite imbedded infrastructure move the communications boundaries towards ad-hoc networks. Recently, ad hoc networking has attracted growing interest due to advances in wireless communications, and developed framework for running IP based protocols. The expected degree of penetration of these networks will depend on the successful resolution of the key features.
Ad-hoc networks pose many complex and open problems for researchers. Ad-Hoc Networking Towards Seamless Communications reveals the state-of-the-art in wireless ad-hoc networking and discusses some of the key research topics that are expected to promote and accelerate the commercial applications of these networks (e.g., MAC, routing, QoS, cross-layer optimization issues, service discovery, mobility, handovers, security).

This book is the first in aseries on novellow power design architectures, methods and design practices. It results from of a large European project started in 1997, whose goal is to promote the further development and the faster and wider industrial use of advanced design methods for reducing the power consumption of electronic systems. Low power design became crucial with the wide spread of portable information and cornrnunication terminals, where a small battery has to last for a long period. High performance electronics, in addition, suffers from a permanent increase of the dissipated power per square millimetre of silicon, due to the increasing eIock-rates, which causes cooling and reliability problems or otherwise limits the performance. The European Union's Information Technologies Programme 'Esprit' did there fore launch a 'Pilot action for Low Power Design', wh ich eventually grew to 19 R&D projects and one coordination project, with an overall budget of 14 million Euro. It is meanwhile known as European Low Power Initiative for Electronic System Design (ESD-LPD) and will be completed by the end of 2001. It involves 30 major Euro pean companies and 20 well-known institutes. The R&D projects aims to develop or demonstrate new design methods for power reduction, while the coordination project takes care that the methods, experiences and results are properly documented and pub licised."

Everyday Innovators explores the active role of people, collectively and individually, in shaping the use of information and communication technologies. It examines issues around acquiring and using that knowledge of users, how we should conceptualise the role of users and understand the forms and limitations of their participation.

• To what extent should we think of users as being innovative and creative?
• To what extent is this routine or exceptional, confined to particular group of users or part of many people s experience of technologies?
• Where does the nature of the ICT or the particularities of its design impose constraints on the active role that users can play in their interaction with devices and services?
• Where do the horizons and orientations of the users influence or limit what they want and expect of their ICTs and how they use them?

This book enables a cross-fertilisation of perspectives from different disciplines and aims to provide new insights into the role of users, drawing out both applied and theoretical implications"

Principles of Visual Information Retrieval introduces the basic concepts and techniques in VIR and develops a foundation that can be used for further research and study.
Divided into 2 parts, the first part describes the fundamental principles. A chapter is devoted to each of the main features of VIR, such as colour, texture and shape-based search. There is coverage of search techniques for time-based image sequences or videos, and an overview of how to combine all the basic features described and integrate context into the search process.
The second part looks at advanced topics such as multimedia query, specification, visual learning and semantics, and offers state-of-the-art coverage that is not available in any other book on the market.
This book will be essential reading for researchers in VIR, and for final year undergraduate and postgraduate students on courses such as Multimedia Information Retrieval, Multimedia Databases, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS Becoming a pervasive paradigm In recent years the area of collaborative networks is being consolidated as a new discipline (Camarinha-Matos, Afsarmanesh, 2005) that encompasses and gives more structured support to a large diversity of collaboration forms. In terms of applications, besides the "traditional" sectors represented by the advanced supply chains, virtual enterprises, virtual organizations, virtual teams, and their breading environments, new forms of collaborative structures are emerging in all sectors of the society. Examples can be found in e-government, intelligent transportation systems, collaborative virtual laboratories, agribusiness, elderly care, silver economy, etc. In some cases those developments tend to adopt a terminology that is specific of that domain; often the involved actors in a given domain are not fully aware of the developments in the mainstream research on collaborative networks. For instance, the grid community adopted the term "virtual organization" but focused mainly on the resource sharing perspective, ignoring most of the other aspects involved in collaboration. The European enterprise interoperability community, which was initially focused on the intra-enterprise aspects, is moving towards inter-enterprise collaboration. Collaborative networks are thus becoming a pervasive paradigm giving basis to new socio-organizational structures.

Correcting the Great Mistake People often mistake one thing for another. That's human nature. However, one would expect the leaders in a particular ?eld of endeavour to have superior ab- ities to discriminate among the developments within that ?eld. That is why it is so perplexing that the technology elite - supposedly savvy folk such as software developers, marketers and businessmen - have continually mistaken Web-based graphics for something it is not. The ?rst great graphics technology for the Web, VRML, has been mistaken for something else since its inception. Viewed variously as a game system, a format for architectural walkthroughs, a platform for multi-user chat and an augmentation of reality, VRML may qualify as the least understood invention in the history of inf- mation technology. Perhaps it is so because when VRML was originally introduced it was touted as a tool for putting the shopping malls of the world online, at once prosaic and horrifyingly mundane to those of us who were developing it. Perhaps those ?rst two initials,"VR,"created expectations of sprawling, photorealistic f- tasy landscapes for exploration and play across the Web. Or perhaps the magnitude of the invention was simply too great to be understood at the time by the many, ironically even by those spending the money to underwrite its development. Regardless of the reasons, VRML suffered in the mainstream as it was twisted to meet unintended ends and stretched far beyond its limitations.

Both modern mathematical music theory and computer science are strongly influenced by the theory of categories and functors. One outcome of this research is the data format of denotators, which is based on set-valued presheaves over the category of modules and diaffine homomorphisms. The functorial approach of denotators deals with generalized points in the form of arrows and allows the construction of a universal concept architecture. This architecture is ideal for handling all aspects of music, especially for the analysis and composition of highly abstract musical works.

This book presents an introduction to the theory of module categories and the theory of denotators, as well as the design of a software system, called Rubato Composer, which is an implementation of the category-theoretic concept framework. The application is written in portable Java and relies on plug-in components, so-called rubettes, which may be combined in data flow networks for the generation and manipulation of denotators.

The Rubato Composer system is open to arbitrary extension and is freely available under the GPL license. It allows the developer to build specialized rubettes for tasks that are of interest to composers, who in turn combine them to create music. It equally serves music theorists, who use them to extract information from and manipulate musical structures. They may even develop new theories by experimenting with the many parameters that are at their disposal thanks to the increased flexibility of the functorial concept architecture.

Two contributed chapters by Guerino Mazzola and Florian Thalmann illustrate the application of the theory as well as the software in the development of compositional tools and the creation of a musical work with the help of the Rubato framework.

This Second Edition brings readers thoroughly up to date with the emerging field of text mining, the application of techniques of machine learning in conjunction with natural language processing, information extraction, and algebraic/mathematical approaches to computational information retrieval. The book explores a broad range of issues, ranging from the development of new learning approaches to the parallelization of existing algorithms. Authors highlight open research questions in document categorization, clustering, and trend detection. In addition, the book describes new application problems in areas such as email surveillance and anomaly detection.

3D Virtual Applications: Applications with Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds deals with the use of virtual inhabited 3D spaces in different domains of society. (Other volumes deal with interaction, production methodology and space.) From focusing on virtual reality (a reality into which users and objects from the real world should be moved) we are increasingly focusing on augmented reality (i.e. on moving computers out into the reality of real users, objects and activities). This book deals with the use of virtual inhabited 3D spaces in both contexts. Based on the structuring of the application domains, this book looks at the use of VR and augmented reality in the following major application domains:

- Production oriented applications - use of VR and augmented reality for control of complex production plants, for navigation support (ships, cars, aeroplanes) and for support of collaborative work processes

- Communication support applications - virtual spaces are used for supporting communication in learning environments and for support of organisational communication. Also virtual spaces are used for supporting the navigation of people in public spaces, i.e. as maps, planning tools

- Scientific applications - use of 3D models for medical research; use of dynamic models for representation of abstract concepts and ideas (data-mining applications); use of dynamic 3D models for simulating biological or social processes

- Artistic and cultural applications - the construction of stages representing concepts and/or emotions

This comprehensive book draws together experts to explore how knowledge technologies can be exploited to create new multimedia applications, and how multimedia technologies can provide new contexts for the use of knowledge technologies. Thorough coverage of all relevant topics is given. The step-by-step approach guides the reader from fundamental enabling technologies of ontologies, analysis and reasoning, through to applications which have hitherto had less attention.

Current middleware solutions, e.g., application servers and Web services, are very complex software products that are hard to tame because of intricacies of distributed systems. Their functionalities have mostly been developed and managed with the help of administration tools and corresponding configuration files, recently in XML. Though this constitutes flexibility for developing and administrating a distributed application, the conceptual model underlying the different configurations is only implicit.

To remedy such problems, Semantic Management of Middleware contributes an ontology-based approach to support the development and administration of middleware-based applications. The ontology is an explicit conceptual model with formal logic-based semantics. Its descriptions may therefore be queried, may foresight required actions, or may be checked to avoid inconsistent system configurations.

This book builds a rigorous approach towards giving the declarative descriptions of components and services a well-defined meaning by specifying ontological foundations and by showing how such foundations may be realized in practical, up-and-running systems.

This book reports the newest research and technical achievements on the following theme blocks: Design of mobile map services and its constraints, typology and usability of mobile map services, visualization solutions on small displays for time-critical tasks, mobile map users, interaction and adaptation in mobile environments and applications of map-based mobile services.

Parallel and distributed computing is one of the foremost technologies for shaping
future research and development activities in academia and industry. Hyperthreading in Intel processors, hypertransport links in next generation AMD processors, multicore silicon in today's high-end microprocessors, and emerging cluster and grid computing have moved parallel/distributed computing into the mainstream of computing.

New Horizons of Parallel and Distributed Computing is a collection of self-contained chapters written by pioneering researchers to provide solutions for newly emerging problems in this field. This volume will not only provide novel ideas, work in progress and state-of-the-art techniques in the field, but will also stimulate future research activities in the area of parallel and distributed computing with applications.

New Horizons of Parallel and Distributed Computing is intended for industry researchers and developers, as well as for academic researchers and advanced-level students in computer science and electrical engineering. A valuable reference work, it is also suitable as a textbook.

This book presents research results on data dissemination in mobile networks and peer-to-peer systems for mobile devices. The main focus is a novel resource-sharing mechanism for mobile devices that introduces a new paradigm of information-sharing cooperation among mobile devices not necessarily connected to the internet. The book is geared to the needs of researchers and practitioners in industry, and is also suitable for advanced-level students in computer science and electrical engineering.

This volume emphasizes the applications and implications of the Geospatial Web and the role of contextual knowledge in shaping the emerging network society. There is a clear focus on applied geospatial aspects. The book has contributions from a very active research community. Containing chapters from renowned researchers and practitioners, this volume will be invaluable to all interested in this field.

Motion-Free Super-Resolution is a compilation of very recent work on various methods of generating super-resolution (SR) images from a set of low-resolution images. The current literature on this topic deals primarily with the use of motion cues for the purpose of generating SR images. These cues have, it is shown, their advantages and disadvantages. In contrast, this book shows that cues other than motion can also be used for the same purpose, and addresses both the merits and demerits of these new techniques.

Motion-Free Super-Resolution supersedes much of the lead author 's previous edited volume, "Super-Resolution Imaging," and includes an up-to-date account of the latest research efforts in this fast-moving field. This sequel also features a style of presentation closer to that of a textbook, with an emphasis on teaching and explanation rather than scholarly presentation.

After the very successful ECC-Book on "E-conomy" this new report of the European Communication Council (ECC) analyzes from various perspectives the profound societal and economical change of the media economy, initiated by digitalization and networking. Against the background of the current media history, it highlights for example the role of the Internet hype as a pathfinder in a modified media society. The key question is concerned with how the medial future will be like. The report examines effects and new perspectives in the area of economy, society, and politics. The aspects of behavior, business models, legal and regulation questions, self-conception of society and media economy are mooted by international authors to enhance the reader's understanding of the medial future and to disclose options for action.

"Sense of Touch and its Rendering" presents a unique and interdisciplinary approach highlighting the field of haptic research from a neuropsychological as well as a technological point of view. This edited book is the outcome of the TOUCH-HapSys European research project and provides an important contribution towards a new generation of high-fidelity haptic display technologies. The book is structured in two parts: A. Fundamental Psychophysical and Neuropsychological Research and B. Technology and Applications. The two parts are not however separated, and the many connections and synergies between the two complementary domains of research are highlighted in the text. The eleven chapters discuss the recent advances in the study of human haptic (kinaesthetic, tactile, temperature) and multimodal (visual, auditory, haptic) perception mechanisms. Besides the theoretical advancement, the contributions survey the state of the art in the field, report a number of practical applications to real systems, and discuss possible future developments.

In the last decade, ontologies have received much attention within computer science and related disciplines, most often as the semantic web. Ontology Learning and Population from Text: Algorithms, Evaluation and Applications discusses ontologies for the semantic web, as well as knowledge management, information retrieval, text clustering and classification, as well as natural language processing.

Ontology Learning and Population from Text: Algorithms, Evaluation and Applications is structured for research scientists and practitioners in industry. This book is also suitable for graduate-level students in computer science.

Soft computing represents a collection of techniques, such as neural networks, evolutionary computation, fuzzy logic, and probabilistic reasoning. As - posed to conventional "hard" computing, these techniques tolerate impre- sion and uncertainty, similar to human beings. In the recent years, successful applications of these powerful methods have been published in many dis- plines in numerous journals, conferences, as well as the excellent books in this book series on Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing. This volume is dedicated to recent novel applications of soft computing in multimedia processing. The book is composed of 21 chapters written by experts in their respective fields, addressing various important and timely problems in multimedia computing such as content analysis, indexing and retrieval, recognition and compression, processing and filtering, etc. In the chapter authored by Guan, Muneesawang, Lay, Amin, and Lee, a radial basis function network with Laplacian mixture model is employed to perform image and video retrieval. D. Androutsos, P. Androutsos, Plataniotis, and Venetsanopoulos investigate color image indexing and retrieval within a small-world framework. Wu and Yap develop a framework of fuzzy relevance feedback to model the uncertainty of users' subjective perception in image retrieval.