The use of computing technology for entertainment purposes is not a recent p- nomenon. Video game consoles, home computers and other entertainment media have been used widely for more than three decades, and people of all ages are spe- ing an increasing amount of time and money on these technologies. More recent is the rise of a vibrant research community focusing on gaming and entertainment applications. Driven by the growth and the coming of age of the g- ing industry, and by its increasing recognition in the media and the minds of the broader public, the study of computer games, game development and experiences is attracting the interest of researchers from very diverse fields: social sciences, comp- ing, electrical engineering, design, etc. Research of this kind looks to extend the boundaries of gaming technologies. In a relentless drive for innovation, it looks to create and understand an ever increasing range of experiences, and examine how games can provide value for educational, therapeutic and other 'serious' purposes. These themes were reflected in the call for participation and eventually the papers accepted for presentation. The Fun n' Games conference was the second event of a bi-annual series of c- ferences. The first event of the series was held in Preston in 2006 organized by the University of Central Lancashire. Following the success of this event it was decided to run a follow up.

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.

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.

The14theditionoftheInternationalConferenceonDiscreteGeometryforC- puterImagerywasheldinLyon, France, April16-18,2008.DGCI2008attracted many researchers from all around the world. Indeed, 76 papers were submitted, from 24 di?erent countries (13 European and 11 non European), con?rming the international status of the conference. Once reviewed, 45 papers were accepted for publication in the present LNCS volume. In all, 23 papers were scheduled for oral presentation in single-track sessions, and 22 papers were presented as posters, with preliminary plenary sessions with very short presentations of these posters. Three invited speakers gave lectures on topics ranging from connected ?elds to the theoreticalfoundations of discrete geometry: Dinesh Manocha (U- versityofNorthCarolinaatChapelHill, USA), UllrichKo ]the(UniversityofH- delberg, Germany) and Jean-Pierre Reveilles (University of Auvergne, France). Building on the experience of the previous editions, this edition was the - casion to remodel the paper selection process in order to improve the overall quality of the conference. These changes were based on an update and red- nition of the topics covered by the conference, in such a way that most of the present-day works in discrete geometry naturally 't in one topic. The members ofthe ProgramCommittee werethen chosenfor their expertisein these di?erent topics.Theysupervisedthereviewingprocessofthepapersrelatedtotheirtop

The European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2008) was the third event of a series that started in 2006. The two first editions were organized by Pro- Learn (http://www.prolearn-project.org/), a European Network of Excellence. In 2008, several members of Kaleidoscope, the other European Network of Excellence (http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/pub/), joined as co-chair, committee members, reviewers and authors. These two networks are no longer funded, but our aim was to turn EC-TEL into a sustainable series of high-quality events and thereby to contribute to the scientific landscape of technology-enhanced learning. A new network, named STELLAR, will be launched in 2009, with members from both existing networks as well as new members and will support the future editions of this conference. The scope of EC-TEL 2008 covered the different fields of learning technologies: e- cation, psychology, computer science. The contributions in this volume address the - sign of innovative environments, computational models and architectures, results of empirical studies on socio-cognitive processes, field studies regarding the use of te- nologies in context, collaborative processes, pedagogical scenarios, reusable learning objects and emerging objects, groups and communities, learning networks, interaction analysis, metadata, personalization, collaboration scripts, learning adaptation, collabo- tive environments, resources, tangible tools, as well as learning management systems.

The Second Workshop of Blended Learning (WBL 2008), as part of the 7th Inter- tional Conference on Web-Based Learning (ICWL 2008), was held in Zhejiang N- mal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang, China during August 20-22, 2008. WBL 2008 provided an international forum for the dissemination of original results in the design, implementation, and evaluation of blended learning systems and related areas. In particular, the aim of WBL 2008 was to bring together researchers from academia as well as commercial developers from industry to explore ideas, exchange and share experiences, and further build the blended learning research network. The inspirations and new ideas were expected to emerge from intensive discussions during formal sessions and social activities. The main focus of WBL 2008 was on the most critical areas of blended learning, namely, 'e-Learning Platforms and Tools, ' 'Design, Model and Framework of e- Learning Systems, ' 'Practice and Experience Sharing, ' and 'Pedagogical Issues.' In total, the workshop selected 17 papers from authors of different countries for presen- tion and publication, a task which was not easy due to the high quality of the subm- ted papers. Using stringent selection criteria, submissions were rigorously reviewed based on their originality, significance, relevance, and clarity of presentation by an international Program Committee from Germany, Spain, UK, Italy, Ireland, Romania, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and Macao.

We welcome you to the Third Paci?c-Rim Symposium on Image and Video Technology (PSIVT 2009), sponsored by the National Institute of Informatics, MicrosoftResearch, and the Forumfor ImageInformaticsin Japan.PSIVT 2009 washeldinTokyo, Japan, duringJanuary13-16.Themainconferencecomprised eight major themes spanning the ?eld of image and video technology, namely, image sensors and multimedia hardware, graphics and visualization, image and video analysis, recognition and retrieval, multi-view imaging and processing, computer vision applications, video communications and networking, and m- timedia processing. To heighten interest and participation, PSIVT also included workshops, tutorials, demonstrations and invited talks, in addition to the tra- tional technical presentations. For the technical program of PSIVT 2009, a total of 247 paper submissions underwent a full review process. Each of these submissions was evaluated in a double-blind manner by a minimum of three reviewers. The review assignments were determined by a set of two to four Chairs for each of the eight themes. Final decisions were jointly made by the Theme Chairs, with some adjustments by the Program Chairs in an e?ort to balance the quality of papers among the themes and to emphasize novelty. Rejected papers with signi?cant discrepancies in review evaluations received consolidation reports explaining the decisio

FromJune14-17,2008, theCenterforAdvancedGamingandSimulation(AGS), UtrechtUniversity, incollaborationwiththeNLGDFestivalofGames, organized a Workshop on Motion in Games in Utrecht. Motion plays a crucial role in c- puter games. Characters move around, objects are manipulated or move due to physical constraints, entities are animated, and the camera moves through the scene. Even the motion of the player nowadays is used as input to games. - tion is currently studied in many di?erent areas of research, including graphics and animation, gametechnology, robotics, simulation, computer vision, and also physics, psychology, and urban studies. The goal of the Motion in Games wo- shop was to bring together researchers from this variety of ?elds to present the most recent results and to initiate collaboration. TheMIG 2008workshophostedover30internationallyrenownedresearchers who all presentedtheir ongoingworkon topicssuch ascrowdsimulation, motion capture, path planning and facial animation. This volume is a collection of the paperspresentedduringthe workshop.Since this volumewaspublishedafterthe workshop, the authors of the papers adapted their content in order to include anydiscussionsthattookplaceduringtheworkshopitself.All?nalcontributions were carefully checked by the workshop organizers. The Motion in Games workshop was a very successful event that has set the starting point for interdisciplinary collaborations and for novel research ideas following the interesting discussions that took place. We are very happy with the outcomeofthe workshopandthe excellentcontributionsby the participants, collected in this volume. August 2008 Arjan Egges Arno Kamphuis Mark Overmars SponsoringInstitutions This workshop was sponsored by the GATE 1 2 project and the NLGD Festival of G

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed joint post-workshop proceedings of three international workshops held in conjunction with the 10th Asia-Pacific Web Conference, APWeb 2008, in Shenyang, China, in April 2008 (see LNCS 4976).

The 15 revised full papers presented together with 4 invited papers and 4 keynote lectures were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. Topics addressed by the workshops are business intelligence and data mining (BIDM 2008), health data management (IWHDM 2008), and data engineering and Web technology research (DeWeb 2008). The papers focus on issues such as Web searching, Web services, database, data mining, bioinformatics, and business intelligence.

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 volume presents the proceedings of the 11th IFIP/IEEE International Conference on Management of Multimedia and Mobile Networks and Services (MMNS 2008), which was held on Samos, Greece during September 22-26 as part of the 4th International Week on Management of Networks and Services (Manweek 2008). As in the previous three years, the Manweek umbrella - lowed an international audience of researchers and scientists from industry and academia - who are researching and developing management systems - to share views and ideas and present their state-of-the-art results. The other events co-located with Manweek 2008 were the 19th IFIP/IEEE International Workshop on Distributed Systems: Operations and Management (DSOM 2008), the 8th IEEE Workshop on IP Operations and Management (IPOM2008), the Third IEEE International Workshop on Modeling Autonomic CommunicationsEnvironments(MACE2008),the4thIEEE/IFIPInternational Workshop on End-to-End Virtualization and Grid Management (EVGM 2008) andthe5thInternationalWorkshoponNext-GenerationNetworkingMiddleware (NGNM 2008). Under this umbrella, MMNS again proved itself as a top public venue for dissemination of results and intellectual collaboration with speci?c emphasis on the management of emerging mobile and wireless networks. The objective of the conference is to bring together researchers and scientists from academia and industry interested in state-of-the-artmanagementof convergedmultimedia networks and services across heterogeneous networking infrastructures.

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.

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.

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 refereed proceedings of the International RuleML Symposium on Rule Interchange and Applications, RuleML 2007, held in Orlando, Florida, October 25-26, 2007.

The 9 revised full papers presented together with 2 invited papers, 9 short papers and 3 demo papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 41 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on Business Process, Policy and IT Service Management and Modeling, Rule Languages and Interchange Standards, Business Rules, Rule Engines and Applications, RuleML-2007 Challenge, Rules, Reasoning, and Ontologies and Reaction Rules and Rule Applications.

With the widespread interest in digital entertainment and the advances in the tech- logies of computer graphics, multimedia and virtual reality technologies, a new area-- "Edutainment"--has been accepted as a union of education and computer entertainment. Edutainment is recognized as an effective way of learning through a medium, such as a computer, software, games or VR applications, that both educates and entertains. The Edutainment conference series was established and followed as a special event for the new interests in e-learning and digital entertainment. The main purpose of Edutainment conferences is the discussion, presentation, and information exchange of scientific and technological developments in the new community. The Edutainment conference series is a very interesting opportunity for researchers, engineers and graduate students who wish to communicate at these international annual events. The conference series includes plenary invited talks, workshops, tutorials, paper presen- tion tracks and panel discussions. The Edutainment conference series was initiated in Hangzhou, China in 2006. Following the success of the first event (Edutainment 2006 in Hangzhou, China) and the second one (Edutainment 2007 in Hong Kong, China), Edutainment 2008 was held June 25-27, 2007 in Nanjing, China. This year, we received 219 submissions from 26 different countries and regions, including United Arab Emirates, Canada, Thailand, New Zealand, Austria, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Cuba, Australia, Hong Kong (China), Pakistan, M- ico, Czech Republic, USA, Malaysia, Italy, Spain, France, UK, The Netherlands, Taiwan (China), Japan, South Korea, and China.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.