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.

Die 15. GI/ITG-Fachtagung "Kommunikation in Verteilten Systemen (KiVS 2007)" befasst sich mit einer grossen Vielfalt innovativer und zukunftsorientierter Fragen: Overlay- und Peer to Peer-Netze, Sensornetze, mobile Ad Hoc-Netze, Web Services. Die KiVS 2007 dient der Standortbestimmung aktueller Entwicklungen, der Prasentation laufender Forschungsarbeiten und der Diskussion zukunftstrachtiger Ansatze fur die Kommunikation in verteilten Systemen."

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.

As a Flash 8 designer, you have discovered the power of the video tools in the application. The new filters and effects and ActionScript classes allow you to create a variety of stunning visual effects in Flash. What you probably havent discovered is how easy it is empower your video hundreds of times more by combining the many effects and tools in After Effects 7 Professional with Flash!

This book, the first to explore the potential power and creativity boost that can be unleashed when After Effects and Flash are used together, is designed to get you up to speed with working in these two applications while hitting you with some creative innovation. You will discover how effectively you can use After Effects to create video and animation effects that were either extremely difficult or impossible to achieve in Flash.

By the end of this book, you will have created a variety of projects ranging from text effects, masks, and alpha channel video to 3D effects and audio visualization. All are designed to show you the potential available to you with these two powerhouse applications, and, more importantly, to expand the arsenal of creative motion graphics tools at your disposal. Summary of contents: Chapter 1: From Concept to Final Product in After Effects Chapter 2: From Final Product to Upload in Flash Professional 8 Chapter 3: Motion Graphics and the Preset Text Effects Chapter 4: Creating Alpha Channel Video for Flash Chapter 5: Creating Text Animations for Flash Chapter 6: Creating Special Effects Chapter 7: Playing with Text Chapter 8: Meet the Parents Chapter 9: The Video Behind the Mask Chapter 10: Track Mattes Are Your Friend Chapter 11: Adding a Third Dimension Chapter 12: Audio, the Red-Headed Kid in a Family of Blondes

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 7th Pacific Rim Conference on Multimedia, PCM 2006, held in Hangzhou, China in November 2006.

The 116 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 755 submissions. The papers cover a wide range of topics, including all aspects of multimedia, both technical and artistic perspectives and both theoretical and practical issues. Fields addressed are multimedia processing and retrieval, multimedia system support and networking, multimedia security, as well as multimedia tools, end-systems and applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Workshop on Multimedia Content Representation, Classification and Security, MRCS 2006, held in Istanbul, Turkey in September 2006.

The 100 revised papers presented together with 4 invited lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from more than 190 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on biometric recognition, multimedia content security, steganography, watermarking, authentication, classification for biometric recognition, digital watermarking, content analysis and representation, 3D object retrieval and classification, representation, analysis and retrieval in cultural heritage, content representation, indexing and retrieval, content analysis and classification, feature extraction and classification, multimodal signal processing, 3D video and free viewpoint video, multimedia content transmission and classification, video and image processing, as well as video analysis and representation.

This provides an in-depth look at the new OpenGL ES (The Standard for Embedded Accelerated 3D Graphics) and shows what these new embedded systems graphics libraries can provide for 3D graphics and games developers. It teaches fundamental 3D mobile graphics programming with standard APIs and covers the basic and advanced application program interfaces behind the major wireless and mobile devices supporting 3D graphics applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Discrete Geometry for Computer Imagery, DGCI 2006, held in Szeged, Hungary in October 2006. The 28 revised full papers and 27 revised poster papers presented together with two invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 99 submissions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Smart Graphics, SG 2006, held in Vancouver, Canada, July 2006. The book presents 19 revised full papers and 8 revised short papers. The papers are organized in topical sections on intelligent text processing, perceptive systems, smart visualization, visual features, sketching and graphical abstraction, intelligent image and film composing, as well as smart interaction.

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 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 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.

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 is the refereed proceedings of the 24th Computer Graphics International Conference, CGI 2006. The 38 revised full papers and 37 revised short papers presented were carefully reviewed. The papers are organized in topical sections on rendering and texture, efficient modeling and deformation, digital geometry processing, shape matching and shape analysis, face, virtual reality, motion and image, as well as CAGD.

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.

In den letzten Jahren hat sich der Workshop "Bildverarbeitung fur die Medizin" durch erfolgreiche Veranstaltungen etabliert. Ziel ist auch 2006 wieder die Darstellung aktueller Forschungsergebnisse und die Vertiefung der Gesprache zwischen Wissenschaftlern, Industrie und Anwendern. Die Beitrage dieses Bandes - einige in englischer Sprache - behandeln alle Bereiche der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung, insbesondere Algorithmen, Soft- und Hardwaresysteme sowie deren klinische Anwendungen. "

Expert Flash developer and author De Donatis reveals everything needed to master Flash components, revealing how the architecture works, how to create effective component-based applications, and how to create custom components from what's already provided.

Refereed post-proceedings of the First International Workshop on Data Management in Grids, in Trondheim, Norway. The 11 papers in this book address current research activities in relation to data management in dynamic, heterogeneous and cross-organizational environments, or grids. They show expertise in the management of very large, widely distributed databases. Conversely, Grids offer a novel and exciting field of research for database scientists in application domains and for fundamental research.

Das Buch ist eine praktische EinfA1/4hrung in das Hochleistungsrechnen auf Linux-Clustern. In vier Teilen (Grundlagen, Technik, Programmierung, Praxis) wird ausfA1/4hrlich erklArt, wie man einen Haufen (Cluster) preiswerter Standard-PCs in einen Parallelcomputer verwandelt und diesen dann zur LAsung rechenintensiver Probleme einsetzt. Insbesondere enthAlt das Buch eine fundierte EinfA1/4hrung in MPI, dem grundlegenden Programmiermodell fA1/4r Cluster-Computer. Dabei werden anhand konkreter Beispiele die wichtigsten Paradigmen paralleler Programmierung prAsentiert. Vorgestellt werden auAerdem Entwicklungswerkzeuge, die Fehlersuche in parallelen Programmen und nA1/4tzliche Bibliotheken.

From November 30 to December 2, 2005, INTETAIN 2005 was held in beautiful Madonna di Campiglio, on the majestic mountains of the Province of Trento, Italy.The ideato holdthe?rstinternationalconferencethat wouldhaveas topic Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment seemed to be timely. In thepreviouscoupleofyearstherehadbeenothermorespeci?c ormoregeneric events where some of the relevant themes had made it to the front stage. With INTETAIN we were aiming at establishing a conference where intelligent computational technologies are at the basis of any interactive application for entertainment. As intelligent computational technologies we mean adaptive media pres- tations, recommendation systems in media scalable crossmedia, a?ective user interfaces, intelligent speech interfaces, tele-presence in entertainment, colla- rative user models and group behavior, collaborative and virtual environments, crossdomain user models, animation and virtual characters, holographic int- faces, augmented, virtual and mixed reality, computer graphics and multimedia, pervasive multimedia, creative language environments, computational humor, and so on. We also believe that there is an important role for novel underlying inter- tive device technologies, for example, mobile devices, home entertainment c- ters, haptic devices, wallscreendisplays, holographicdisplays, distributed smart sensors, immersive screens and wearable devices. Interactive applications for entertainment include, but are certainly not l- ited to, intelligent interactive games, intelligent music systems, interactive c- ema, edutainment, interactive art, interactive museum guides, city and tourism explorer assistants, shopping assistants, interactive real TV, interactive social networks, interactive storytelling, personal diaries, websites and blogs, and c- prehensive assisting environments for special groups (challenged, children, the elderly)."

The mental ray series of handbooks is conceived to provide concise and up to date general and technical information about the commercially available rendering software mental ray. The series addresses the needs of professional and non-professional users of the software as well as of software developers who intend to integrate the stand-alone version of mental ray or the mental ray component software into applications that require interactive photorealistic and high image quality programmable rendering. In addition, the series provides comprehensive information to students and researchers in computer graphics. mental ray is a valuable tool for teaching and demonstrating the fundamental concepts of photorealistic and programmable rendering as well as a benchmark and catalyst for further research. The rendering software mental ray and many of its unique underlying concepts are the result of ongoing research and development at the company mental images since its incorporation in 1986. Leading vendors of 3D digital content creation and 3D CAD and product design software have made mental ray their rendering software of choice for all purposes of high end visualization and image synthesis ranging from digital special effects and 3D animation for motion picture, video ?lm, and games production to 3D mechanical and architectural CAD and to industrial product design and automotive styling.

We are delighted to welcome readers to the proceedings of the 6th Pacific-Rim Conference on Multimedia (PCM). The first PCM was held in Sydney, Australia, in 2000. Since then, it has been hosted successfully by Beijing, China, in 2001, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2002, Singapore in 2003, and Tokyo, Japan, in 2004, and finally Jeju, one of the most beautiful and fantastic islands in Korea. This year, we accepted 181 papers out of 570 submissions including regular and special session papers. The acceptance rate of 32% indicates our commitment to ensuring a very high-quality conference. This would not be possible without the full support of the excellent Technical Committee and anonymous reviewers that provided timely and insightful reviews. We would therefore like to thank the Program Committee and all reviewers. The program of this year reflects the current interests of the PCM s. The accepted papers cover a range of topics, including, all aspects of multimedia, both technical and artistic perspectives and both theoretical and practical issues. The PCM 2005 program covers tutorial sessions and plenary lectures as well as regular presentations in three tracks of oral sessions and a poster session in a single track. We have tried to expand the scope of PCM to the artistic papers which need not to be strictly technical."

We are delighted to welcome readers to the proceedings of the 6th Pacific-Rim Conference on Multimedia (PCM). The first PCM was held in Sydney, Australia, in 2000. Since then, it has been hosted successfully by Beijing, China, in 2001, Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 2002, Singapore in 2003, and Tokyo, Japan, in 2004, and finally Jeju, one of the most beautiful and fantastic islands in Korea. This year, we accepted 181 papers out of 570 submissions including regular and special session papers. The acceptance rate of 32% indicates our commitment to ensuring a very high-quality conference. This would not be possible without the full support of the excellent Technical Committee and anonymous reviewers that provided timely and insightful reviews. We would therefore like to thank the Program Committee and all reviewers. The program of this year reflects the current interests of the PCM s. The accepted papers cover a range of topics, including, all aspects of multimedia, both technical and artistic perspectives and both theoretical and practical issues. The PCM 2005 program covers tutorial sessions and plenary lectures as well as regular presentations in three tracks of oral sessions and a poster session in a single track. We have tried to expand the scope of PCM to the artistic papers which need not to be strictly technical."

We are delighted to present the proceedings of the 8th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia Networks and Services (MMNS 2005). The MMNS 2005 conference was held in Barcelona, Spain on October 24-26, 2005. As in previous years, the conference brought together an international audience of researchers and scientists from industry and academia who are researching and developing state-of-the-art management systems, while creating a public venue for results dissemination and intellectual collaboration. This year marked a challenging chapter in the advancement of management systems for the wider management research community, with the growing complexities of the "so-called" multimedia over Internet, the proliferation of alternative wireless networks (WLL, WiFi and WiMAX) and 3G mobile services, intelligent and high-speed networks scalable multimedia services and the convergence of computing and communications for data, voice and video delivery. Contributions from the research community met this challenge with 65 paper submissions; 33 high-quality papers were subsequently selected to form the MMNS 2005 technical program. The diverse topics in this year's program included wireless networking technologies, wireless network applications, quality of services, multimedia, Web applications, overlay network management, and bandwidth management.