This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on the Design, Specification, and Verification of Interactive Systems, DSV-IS 2001, held in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, in June 2001.The 12 revised full papers presented have gone through two rounds of reviewing, selection, and revision. The book offers topical sections on mobile interface design, context-sensitive interfaces, supervision and control systems, temporal and stochastic issues, and new perspectives.

Multimedia Internet Broadcasting: Quality, Technology and Interface studies one of the most exciting aspects of contemporary Internet use and research: the broadcasting of multimedia content. It draws together key research findings and directions from around the world, and explores issues such as:User experience and behaviourModelling and providing an infrastructure for broadcast eventsTechnical developments of underlying protocols, algorithms and systemsTrends associated with the use and regulation of the Internet around the worldDesigned to enable optimal Internet broadcast design and trigger new and developmental research, this book is particularly suited to research groups, students, practitioners and developers.This text is supported by a dedicated web resource and discussion list available at: http://mib.mdx.ac.uk

The wait for the year 2000 was marked by the fear of possible bugs that might have arisen at its beginning. One additional fear we had during this wait was whether - ganising this event would have generated a boon or another bug. The reasons for this fear originated in the awareness that the design of interactive systems is a fast moving area. The type of research work presented at this unique event has received limited support from funding agencies and industries making it more difficult to keep up with the rapid technological changes occurring in interaction technology. However, despite our fear, the workshop was successful because of the high-quality level of participation and discussion. Before discussing such results, let us step back and look at the evolution of DSV-IS (Design, Specification and Verification of Interactive Systems), an international wo- shop that has been organised every year since 1994. The first books that addressed this issue in a complete and thorough manner were the collection of contributions edited by Harrison and Thimbleby and the book written by Alan Dix, which focused on abstractions useful to highlight important concepts in the design of interactive systems. Since then, this area has attracted the interest of a wider number of research groups, and some workshops on related topics started to be organised. DSV-IS had its origins in this spreading and growing interest. The first workshop was held in a monastery located in the hills above Bocca di Magra (Italy).

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Open Hypermedia Systems, OHS-6, and the 2nd International Workshop on Structural Computing, SC-2, held at the 11th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia in San Antonio, Texas, USA in May/June 2000.
The 19 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. All current issues on open hypertext systems and structural computing are addressed.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the International Workshop on Vision Algorithms held in Corfu, Greece in September 1999 in conjunction with ICCV'99.
The 15 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions; each paper is complemented by a brief transcription of the discussion that followed its presentation. Also included are two invited contributions and two expert reviews as well as a panel discussion. The volume spans the whole range of algorithms for geometric vision. The authors and volume editors succeeded in providing added value beyond a mere collection of papers and made the volume a state-of-the-art survey of their field.

The AMDO 2000 workshop took place at the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB) on 7-9 September 2000, sponsored by the International Association for Pattern Recognition Technical Committee, the European Commission by - man Potential Program:High Level Scienti?c Conferences and the Mathematics andComputer Science DepartmentofUIB. Thesubject ofthe workshopwas- goingresearchinarticulatedmotiononthesequenceofimagesandsophisticated models for deformable objects. The goals of these areas are to understand and interpret object motion around complex objects that we can ?nd in sequences of images in the real world. These topics (geometry and physics of deformable models, motion analysis, articulated models and animation, visualization of - formable models, 3D recovery from motion, single or multiple human motion analysis and synthesis, applications of deformable models and motion analysis, etc. ) are interesting examples of how research can be used to solve more general problems. Another objective of this workshop was to relate ?elds using c- puter graphics, computer animation or applications in several disciplines c- bining synthetic and analytical images. In this regard it is of particular interest to encouragelinksbetweenresearchersinareasofcomputervisionandcomputer graphics who have common problems and frequently use similar techniques. The workshop included four sessions of presented papers and two tutorials. Invited speakers treating various aspects of the topics were: Y. Aloimonos from the Computer Vision Laboratory, Center for Automation Research, University of Maryland, USA, G. Medioni from the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent S- tems,UniversityofSouthernCalifornia,USA,andR. Boulic,Adjointscienti?que from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland. September 2000 H. -H. Nagel and F. J.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms, ESA 2000, held in Saarbrücken, Germany in September 2000. The 39 revised full papers presented together with two invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. Among the topics addressed are parallelism, distributed systems, approximation, combinatorial optimization, computational biology, computational geometry, external-memory algorithms, graph algorithms, network algorithms, online algorithms, data compression, symbolic computation, pattern matching, and randomized algorithms.

The Workshop on Approximation Algorithms for Combinatorial Optimization ProblemsAPPROX'2000 focuses on algorithmic and complexity aspects ar- ing in the development of e?cient approximate solutions to computationally di?cult problems. It aims, in particular, at fostering cooperation among - gorithmic and complexity researchers in the ?eld. The workshop, to be held at the Max-Planck-Institute for Computer Science in Saarbruc ] ken, Wermany, co-locates with ESA'2020 and WWE'2000. We would like to thank the local organizers at the Max-Planck-Institute (AG 8, Kurt Mehlhorn), for this opp- tunity. APPVOXis an annual meeting, with previousworkshopsin Aalborg and Berkeley. Previous proceedings appeared as LNCS 1464 and 1671. Topics of interest for APPROX'2000 are: design and analysis of appro- mation algorithms, inapproximability results, on-line problems, randomization techniques, average-case analysis, approximation classes, scheduling problems, routingand?owproblems, coloringandiartitioning, cutsandconnectivity, pa- ing and covering, geometric problems, network design, and various applications. The numberof submitted papersto APPROX'2000was68 fromwhich 23 paters were selected. This volume contains the selected papers plus papers by invited speakers. All papers published in the workshop proceedings nere selected by the program committee on the basis of referee reports. Each paper was reviewed vy at least three referees who judged the papers for originality, quality, and consistency with the topics of the conference."

This book constitutes the joint refereed proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Structural and Syntactic Pattern Recognition and the 3rd International Workshop on Statistical Techniques in Pattern Recognition, SSPR 2000 and SPR 2000, held in Alicante, Spain in August/September 2000. The 52 revised full papers presented together with five invited papers and 35 posters were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 130 submissions. The book offers topical sections on hybrid and combined methods, document image analysis, grammar and language methods, structural matching, graph-based methods, shape analysis, clustering and density estimation, object recognition, general methodology, and feature extraction and selection.

The first International Workshop on Interactive Distributed Multimedia Systems and Telecommunication Services (IDMS) was organized by Prof. K. Rothermel and Prof. W. Effelsberg, and took place in Stuttgart in 1992. It had the form of a national forum for discussion on multimedia issues related to communications. The succeeding event was "attached" as a workshop to the German Computer Science Conference (GI Jahrestagung) in 1994 in Hamburg, organized by Prof. W. Lamersdorf. The chairs of the third IDMS, E. Moeller and B. Butscher, enhanced the event to become a very successful international meeting in Berlin in March 1996. This short overview on the first three IDMS events is taken from the preface of the IDMS'97 proceedings (published by Springer as Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Volume 1309), written by Ralf Steinmetz and Lars Wolf. Both, Ralf Steinmetz as general chair and Lars Wolf as program chair of IDMS'97, organized an excellent international IDMS in Darmstadt. Since 1998, IDMS has moved from Germany to other European cities to emphasize the international character it had gained in the previous years. IDMS'98 was organized in Oslo by Vera Goebel and Thomas Plagemann at UniK - Center for Technology at Kjeller, University of Oslo. Michel Diaz, Phillipe Owezarski, and Patrick Senac successfully organized the sixth IDMS event, again outside Germany. IDMS'99 took place in Toulouse at ENSICA. IDMS 2000 continued the tradition and was hosted in Enschede, the Netherlands."

This book equips readers with the skills to design multimedia delivery systems. It provides an overview of current research in the area, giving readers a glimpse of what multimedia computers will be doing in the near future. Divided into 2 parts, it discusses how multimedia delivery systems are designed and constructed, and then covers the methods of realizing true multimedia computing. With its authoritative outlook and supplementary material available on authors website, this book will interest all those working in multimedia.

Ten years ago, the inaugural European Conference on Computer Vision was held in Antibes, France. Since then, ECCV has been held biennially under the auspices of the European Vision Society at venues around Europe. This year, the privilege of organizing ECCV 2000 falls to Ireland and it is a signal honour for us to host what has become one of the most important events in the calendar of the computer vision community. ECCV is a single-track conference comprising the highest quality, previously unpublished, contributed papers on new and original research in computer vision. This year, 266 papers were submitted and, following a rigorous double-blind review process, with each paper being reviewed by three referees, 116 papers were selected by the Programme Committee for presentation at the conference. The venue for ECCV 2000 is the University of Dublin, Trinity College. - unded in 1592, it is Ireland's oldest university and has a proud tradition of scholarship in the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences, alike. The Trinity campus, set in the heart of Dublin, is an oasis of tranquility and its beautiful squares, elegant buildings, and tree-lined playing- elds provide the perfect setting for any conference.

The papers in this volume were selected for presentation at the 6th Annual International Computing and Combinatorics Conference (COCOON2000), in Sydney, Australia from July 26 - 28, 2000. The topics cover many areas in t- oretical computer science and combinatorial optimization. There were 81 high quality papers submitted to COCOON2000. Each paper was reviewed by at least three program committee members, and the 44 papers were selected. It is expected that most of them will appear in a more complete form in scientic journals. In addition to the selected papers, the volume also contains the papers from two invited keynote speeches by Christos Papad- itriou and Richard Brent. This year the Hao Wang Award was given to honor the paper judged by the programcommittee to have the greatest merit. The recipient is \Approximating Uniform TriangularMeshes in Polygons"byFranz Aurenhammer, NaokiKatoh, Hiromichi Kojima, Makoto Ohsaki, and Yinfeng Xu. The rst Best Young - searcher paper award was given to William Duckworth for his paper \Maximum Induced Matchings of Random Cubic Graphs." We wish to thank all who have made this meeting possible: the authors for submitting papers, the program committee members and the external referees, sponsors, the local organizers, ACM SIGACT for handling electronic subm- sions, Springer-Verlagfor their support, and Debbie Hatherellfor her assistance.

Das englisch-deutsche Buch Beyond the Borders stellt Ideen, Projekte und Positionen von KA1/4nstlern und Gestaltern vor, die die Grenzen ihrer eigenen gestalterischen Bereiche A1/4berschreiten und Neues entdecken. Ein GroAteil der BeitrAge wurde, unter Verwendung der unterschiedlichsten Techniken, von den KA1/4nstlern und Designern exklusiv fA1/4r dieses Projekt konzipiert und gestaltet, u. a. von der englischen Designgruppe Tomato, dem Macher des Benetton-Magazins Tibor Kalman, dem Chairman von Vitra Rolf Fehlbaum, dem amerikanischen Designer- und Musikerpaar Scott & Laurie Makela, dem Chef von NORTH-Design aus London Sean Perkins, dem Intermedia-Professor Peter Rea, dem Frankfurter Video- und ComputerkA1/4nstler Michael Saup sowie dem Typografie-Guru Edward Fella von der Calarts in Los Angeles.
The English-German book Beyond the Borders presents the ideas, projects, and opinions of artists and designers who cross the boundaries of their own creative disciplines and make new discoveries. Many of the contributions were conceived and designed exclusively for this project, whereby a variety of different techniques were employed. The contributors include: Tomato, the English group of designers; Tibor Kalman, the designer of the Benetton magazine; Rolf Fehlbaum, the chairman of Vitra, a Swiss furniture company; Scott and Laurie Makela, the American designers and musicians; Sean Perkins, the manager of NORTH Design in London; Peter Rea, the professor of intermedia; Michael Saup, the video and computer artist from Frankfurt; and Edward Fella, the typography guru from Calarts in Los Angeles.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the use of human visual perception for data understanding is essential in many fields of science. This book contains the papers presented at VisSym 00, the Second Joint Visualization Symposium organized by the Eurographics and the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Visualization and Graphics (TCVG). It reports on 27 new algorithms, techniques and applications in the area of data visualization. The topics are scientific data visualization and information visualization. It gives practitioners and visualization researchers an overview of the state of the art and of future directions of data visualization."

Min Chen, Arie E. Kaufman and Roni Yage/ Volume graphics is concerned with graphics scenes defined in volume data types, where a model is specified by a mass of points instead of a collection of surfaces. The underlying mathematical definition of such a model is a set of scalar fields, which define the geometrical and physical properties of every point in three dimensional space. As true 3D representations, volume data types possess more descriptive power than surface data types, and are morphologically closer to many high-level modelling schemes in traditional surface graphics such as parametric surfaces, implicit surfaces and volume sweeping. The past decade has witnessed significant advances in volume visualisation, driven mainly by applications such as medical imaging and scientific computation. The work in this field has produced a number of volume rendering methods that enable 3D information in a volumetric dataset to be selectively rendered into 2D images. With modern computer hardware, such a process can easily be performed on an ordinary workstation. More importantly, volume-based rendering offers a consistent solution to the primary deficiencies of the traditional surface-based rendering, which include its inability to encapsulate the internal description of a model, and the difficulties in rendering amorphous phenomena. The emergence of volume-based techniques has not only broadened the extent of graphics applications, but also brought computer graphics closer to other scientific and engineering disciplines, including image processing, computer vision, finite element analysis and rapid prototyping.

"Digital Media Tools" is a clearly focused and highly accessible introduction to the major software tools used for creating digital graphics, web animation and web pages, suitable for course use or self-study. Its unique approach provides substantial chapter-by-chapter coverage of each of the industry-leading applications and uses practical and engaging exercises to help you gain a clear understanding of each tool and feature. Based on the authors' extensive experience in both using and teaching these tools, this book provides a comprehensive insight into both the technology and the theory underpinning its use in everyday practice.

The third edition of this very successful textbook has been completely revised to provide fully up to date coverage of the latest (CS3) versions of Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator and Dreamweaver, along with new coverage of Bridge and chapters devoted to interface features and shared concepts. Fully updated and extended with numerous new illustrations and examples, learning features and web resources (available on the brand new companion site), this book is a complete introduction to this vital range of software tools.

Also by Nigel and Jenny Chapman:

"Web Design" is a core text for undergraduate and masters courses that provides a complete introduction to every aspect of the building of web pages and web sites. It provides a deep and thorough introduction to web technology, markup, stylesheets, web graphics, web animation and embedded video, client-side scripting, web applications, usability, accessibility, page design and site design. Full coverage of HTTP, XHTML, CSS, Javascript and the DOM is provided, and the use of web standards is emphasizedthroughout. At all times, the focus remains on good practice, underpinned by sound principles. Supported by exercises, assignments and summaries, it is ideal for course use or self-study, and represents a complete overview of web design.

Also available: "Digital Multimedia," a core text for undergraduate and masters courses in multimedia, covering the basic principles of each media type - text, graphics, audio, animation and video. A perfect companion to "Digital Media Tools,"

1 - Kamera-Setup.- 1.1 Grundlegende Kameraeinstellungen.- 1.1.1 Empfehlungen.- 1.2 Bildaufloesung.- 1.3 Bildkomprimierung.- 1.4 Aufloesung und Komprimierung eintesten.- 1.5 Scharfung.- 1.6 Farbraum.- 1.7 Digitalzoom.- 1.8 Sucher.- 1.9 Monitor.- 1.10 Belichtung.- 1.10.1 Belichtungsmessung.- 1.10.2 Belichtungsprogramme.- 1.10.3 Belichtungsvarianten.- 1.10.4 Belichtungskorrektur.- 1.11 Autofokus.- 1.11.1Sensorwahl.- 1.11.2 Statischer und dynamischer Autofokus.- 1.11.3 Ausloese- und Scharfeprioritat.- 1.11.4.Manuelle Scharfeinstellung.- 1.12 Empfindlichkeit.- 1.13 Weissabgleich.- 1.13.1 Lichtfarben.- 1.13.2 Automatischer Weissabgleich.- 1.13.3 Manueller Weissabgleich.- 1.14 Datum und Uhrzeit.- 1.15 Dateneinbelichtung.- 1.16 Fernsehsignal.- 1.17 Tonsignale.- 1.18 Optimiertes Kamera-Setup kurz gefasst.- 1.18.1 Standardsituationen.- 1.18.2 Hoechste Anspruche.- 1.18.3 Available-Light-Situationen.- 1.18.4 Nah- und Makroaufnahmen.- 1.18.5 Schnelle Fotografie.- 2 - Belichtung.- 2.1 Belichtungsmessung.- 2.1.1 Charakteristik der Belichtungsmessung.- 2.2 Belichtungsprogramme.- 2.2.1 Programmautomatik.- 2.2.2 Programmshift.- 2.2.3 Motivprogramme.- 2.2.4 Zeitautomatik.- 2.2.5 Blendenautomatik.- 2.2.6 Manuelle Belichtungseinstellung.- 2.3 Belichtungseingriffe.- 2.3.1 Belichtungskorrektur.- 2.3.2 Ersatzmessung.- 2.3.3 Kontrastmessung.- 2.3.4 Belichtungsreihe.- 3 - Praxis der digitalen Fotografie.- 3.1 Vorzuge.- 3.2 Anmerkungen.- 3.3 Aufnahmevorbereitungen.- 3.3.1 Energieversorgung.- 3.3.2 Speichermedien.- 3.3.3 Kamera-Setup.- 3.3.4 Belichtungsmessung.- 3.3.5 Nutzliches fur die Kameratasche.- 3.3.6 Kameratasche packen.- 3.4 Fotos gestalten.- 3.4.1 Der Goldene Schnitt.- 3.5 Gestalten mit der Brennweite.- 3.5.1 Weitwinkelbrennweite.- 3.5.2 Normalbrennweite.- 3.5.3 Telebrennweite.- 3.5.4 Scharfentiefe.- 3.5.5 Brennweitenwirkung.- 3.6 Licht in der Fotografie.- 3.6.1 Tageslicht.- 3.6.2 Aufhellen.- 3.6.3 Available Light.- 3.6.4 Kunstlicht.- 3.6.5 Mischlicht.- 3.6.6 Langzeitbelichtung.- 4 - Blitzlichtfotografie.- 4.1 Blitzlicht.- 4.2 Grundlagen.- 4.2.1 Blitzleistung.- 4.2.2 Abstandsgesetz.- 4.2.3 Blitzsynchronisation.- 4.2.4 Blitzreichweite.- 4.3 Blitztechniken.- 4.3.1 Vorblitz.- 4.3.2 Aufhellblitz.- 4.3.3 Vollblitz.- 4.3.4 Kurzzeitsynchronisation.- 4.3.5 Langzeitsynchronisation.- 4.3.6 Blitz-Belichtungskorrektur.- 4.3.7 Ultrakurzzeitfotografie.- 4.3.8 Drahtlose Blitzsteuerung.- 4.4 Blitzautomatiken.- 4.4.1 Blitzen mit Programmautomatik.- 4.4.2 Blitzen mit Zeit- oder Blendenautomatik.- 4.4.3 Manuelles Blitzen.- 4.5 Besseres Blitzlicht.- 4.5.1 Indirekter Blitz.- 4.5.2 Entfesselter Blitz 1.- 4.5.3 Entfesselter Blitz 2.- 4.5.4 Blitzreflektor.- 4.5.5 Servoblitz.- 5 - Motive und Themen.- 5.1 Handwerkliches.- 5.2 Visuelle Notizen.- 5.3 Landschaftsfotografie.- 5.4 Architekturfotografie.- 5.5 Nah-und Makrofotografie.- 5.6 Menschenbilder.- 5.7 Reise und Reportage.- 5.8 Infrarotfotografie.- 5.9 Ultraviolettfotografie.- 5.10 Experimente.- 5.11 Panoramafotografie.- 6 - Studiofotografie.- 6.1 Sachaufnahme.- 6.2 Stilleben.- 6.3 Reproduktion.- 6.4 Lichtquellen im Studio.- 6.4.1 Tageslicht.- 6.4.2 Blitzlicht.- 6.4.3 Kaltlichtleuchte.- 6.4.4 Kunstlichtleuchte.- 6.4.5 Portables Studioblitzgerat.- 6.4.6 Studioblitz.- 6.4.7 Studioblitzgerat zunden.- 6.5 Einrichten des Studios.- 6.5.1 Tipps zum Raum.- 6.5.2 Aufheller und Neger.- 6.5.3 Hintergrund.- 6.5.4 Aufnahmetisch.- 6.6 Lichtfuhrung.- 6.6.1 Lichtposition.- 6.6.2 Lichtcharakteristik.- 6.6.3 Licht einrichten.- 6.6.4 Lichtfuhrung im Nahbereich.- 6.6.5 Hellfeldbeleuchtung.- 6.6.6 Dunkelfeldbeleuchtung.- 6.6.7 Lichtzelt.- 6.6.8 Polarisiertes Licht.- 6.7 Ausrustungsvorschlag.- 6.8 Setup fur Sachaufnahmen.- 7 - Fotos digitalisieren.- 7.1 Analoge Vorlagen digitalisieren.- 7.2 Digitalisieren mit der Kamera.- 7.2.1 Aufsichtvorlagen digitalisieren.- 7.2.2 Durchsichtvorlagen digitalisieren.- 7.3 Filmscanner.- 7.4 Flachbettscanner.- 7.5 Trommelscanner.- 7.6 Scan-Service via Photo CD.- 7.7 Hinweise zum Digitalisieren.

Multimedia '99 covers technological and scientific areas of media production, processing and delivery. 24 contributions from research laboratories and universities worldwide give a broad perspective on multimedia research with a special focus on media convergence. The topics treated in this volume: image and sound content analysis and processing, paradigms and metaphors for multimedia authoring and display, applications such as education or entertainment, and multimedia content authentication and security.

The range of issues considered in graph drawing includes algorithms, graph theory, geometry, topology, order theory, graphic languages, perception, app- cations, and practical systems. Much research is motivated by applications to systems for viewing and interacting with graphs. The interaction between th- retical advances and implemented solutions is an important part of the graph drawing eld. The annually organized graph drawing symposium is a forum for researchers, practitioners, developers, and users working on all aspects of graph visualization and representations. The preceding symposia were held in M- treal (GD 98), Rome (GD 97), Berkeley (GD 96), Passau (GD 95), Princeton (GD 94), and Paris (GD 93). The Seventh International Symposium on Graph Drawing GD 99 was or- nized at Sti r n Castle, in the vicinity of Prague, Czech Republic. This baroque castle recently restored as a hotel and conference center provided a secluded place for the participants, who made good use of the working atmosphere of the conference. In total the symposium had 83 registered participants from 16 countries."

Understanding Virtual Design Studios examines the issues involved in setting up and running a virtual design studio. Rather than focusing on the technology or how to apply it, the reader is presented with an interdisciplinary framework for understanding, organising, running and improving virtual design studios both in professional and educational practice. The authors assess the potential benefits, such as improved creativity and collaboration, and highlight the areas in which our understanding needs to improve:
How people collaborate in an environment where interaction is mediated by shared computer resources
How to organise and manage a distributed workspace efficiently
How people represent and communicate design ideas in an electronic form
Of interest to both design professionals and researchers interested in computer-mediated collaboration, this volume will also be of interest to anyone who needs a clear picture of what this new technology can do for them.

This book constitutes the strictly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Automated Deduction in Geometry, ADG'98, held in Beijing, China in August 1998. The 14 revised papers presented were selected from the papers accepted for the workshop after careful reviewing. The papers address all current issues in the area, in particular automated geometry theorem proving, automated geometry problem solving, plane Euclidean reasoning, Clifford algebraic methods for geometric reasoning, decomposing algebraic varieties, applciations in computer vision, mechanical CAGD, etc.

The 1999 International Workshop on Interactive Distributed Multimedia Sys tems and Telecommunication Services (IDMS) in Toulouse is the sixth in a se ries that started in 1992. The previous workshops were held in Stuttgart in 1992, Hamburg in 1994, Berlin in 1996, Darmstadt in 1997, and Oslo in 1998. The area of interest of IDMS ranges from basic system technologies, such as networking and operating system support, to all kinds of teleservices and distributed multimedia applications. Technical solutions for telecommunications and distributed multimedia systems are merging and quality-of-service (QoS) will play a key role in both areas. However, the range from basic system tech nologies to distributed mutlimedia applications and teleservices is still very broad and we have to understand the implications of multimedia applications and their requirements for middleware and networks. We are challenged to develop new and more fitting solutions for all distributed multimedia systems and telecom munication services to meet the requirements of the future information society."

Multimedia information systems is a rapidly growing area of research and development, attracting increasing interest from a variety of application fields including business, entertainment, manufacturing, education, CAD, CAE, medicine, etc. Due to the diverse nature of the information dealt with and the increased functionality (e.g., user interaction), the capabilities and system requirements of multimedia information systems dramatically exceed those of conventional databases and database management systems.
This book presents an integrated approach to interactive multimedia documents. After summarizing the prerequisites and background information, the author develops an IMD model taking into account interaction and spatiotemporal composition. Based on this model, the author develops an integrated framework covering most of the steps during the life cycle of an IMD, namely data modeling, authoring, verification and querying, execution and rendering, and indexing.

In 1998, SC24, the subcommittee of ISO/IEC JTC 1 concerned with computer graphics and image processing, completed work on a new standard for multimedia presentation; the PREMO standard (Presentation Environment for Multimedia Objects) is published under the official reference ISO/IEC 14478. PREMO essentially provides a middleware specification for multimedia programming - more generally it also serves as a reference model for distributed multimedia. This book does not attempt to replace the official standard but provides a readable version of the basic concepts, presents some features of the PREMO objects in detail, highlights the reasons for specific design decisions, and gives simple examples and motivation claryfying the underlying concepts. A particularly helpful feature is that the authors provide detailed specifications of the PREMO objects in Java. Mainly for students and professionals who need to improve their understanding of the issues involved in distributed multimedia.