Welcome to the proceedings of the 5th Paci?c Rim Conference on Multimedia (PCM 2004) held in Tokyo Waterfront City, Japan, November 30-December 3, 2004. Following the success of the preceding conferences, PCM 2000 in Sydney, PCM 2001 in Beijing, PCM 2002 in Hsinchu, and PCM 2003 in Singapore, the ?fth PCM brought together the researchers, developers, practitioners, and educators in the ?eld of multimedia. Theoretical breakthroughs and practical systems were presented at this conference, thanks to the support of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Region 10 and IEEE Japan Council, ACM SIGMM, IEICE and ITE. PCM2004featuredacomprehensiveprogramincludingkeynotetalks, regular paperpresentations, posters, demos, andspecialsessions.Wereceived385papers andthenumberofsubmissionswasthelargestamongrecentPCMs.Amongsuch a large number of submissions, we accepted only 94 oral presentations and 176 poster presentations. Seven special sessions were also organized by world-leading researchers. We kindly acknowledge the great support provided in the reviewing of submissions by the program committee members, as well as the additional reviewers who generously gave their time. The many useful comments provided by the reviewing process must have been very valuable for the authors' work. Thisconferencewouldneverhavehappenedwithoutthehelpofmanypeople. We greatly appreciate the support of our strong organizing committee chairs and advisory chairs. Among the chairs, special thanks go to Dr. Ichiro Ide and Dr. Takeshi Naemura who smoothly handled publication of the proceedings with Springer. Dr. Kazuya Kodama did a fabulous job as our Web master.

Welcome to the proceedings of the 5th Paci?c Rim Conference on Multimedia (PCM 2004) held in Tokyo Waterfront City, Japan, November 30-December 3, 2004. Following the success of the preceding conferences, PCM 2000 in Sydney, PCM 2001 in Beijing, PCM 2002 in Hsinchu, and PCM 2003 in Singapore, the ?fth PCM brought together the researchers, developers, practitioners, and educators in the ?eld of multimedia. Theoretical breakthroughs and practical systems were presented at this conference, thanks to the support of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Region 10 and IEEE Japan Council, ACM SIGMM, IEICE and ITE. PCM2004featuredacomprehensiveprogramincludingkeynotetalks, regular paperpresentations, posters, demos, andspecialsessions.Wereceived385papers andthenumberofsubmissionswasthelargestamongrecentPCMs.Amongsuch a large number of submissions, we accepted only 94 oral presentations and 176 poster presentations. Seven special sessions were also organized by world-leading researchers. We kindly acknowledge the great support provided in the reviewing of submissions by the program committee members, as well as the additional reviewers who generously gave their time. The many useful comments provided by the reviewing process must have been very valuable for the authors' work. Thisconferencewouldneverhavehappenedwithoutthehelpofmanypeople. We greatly appreciate the support of our strong organizing committee chairs and advisory chairs. Among the chairs, special thanks go to Dr. Ichiro Ide and Dr. Takeshi Naemura who smoothly handled publication of the proceedings with Springer. Dr. Kazuya Kodama did a fabulous job as our Web master.

Welcome to the proceedings of the 5th Paci?c Rim Conference on Multimedia (PCM 2004) held in Tokyo Waterfront City, Japan, November 30 December 3, 2004. Following the success of the preceding conferences, PCM 2000 in Sydney, PCM 2001 in Beijing, PCM 2002 in Hsinchu, and PCM 2003 in Singapore, the ?fth PCM brought together the researchers, developers, practitioners, and educators in the ?eld of multimedia. Theoretical breakthroughs and practical systems were presented at this conference, thanks to the support of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Region 10 and IEEE Japan Council, ACM SIGMM, IEICE and ITE. PCM2004featuredacomprehensiveprogramincludingkeynotetalks, regular paperpresentations, posters, demos, andspecialsessions.Wereceived385papers andthenumberofsubmissionswasthelargestamongrecentPCMs.Amongsuch a large number of submissions, we accepted only 94 oral presentations and 176 poster presentations. Seven special sessions were also organized by world-leading researchers. We kindly acknowledge the great support provided in the reviewing of submissions by the program committee members, as well as the additional reviewers who generously gave their time. The many useful comments provided by the reviewing process must have been very valuable for the authors work. Thisconferencewouldneverhavehappenedwithoutthehelpofmanypeople. We greatly appreciate the support of our strong organizing committee chairs and advisory chairs. Among the chairs, special thanks go to Dr. Ichiro Ide and Dr. Takeshi Naemura who smoothly handled publication of the proceedings with Springer. Dr. Kazuya Kodama did a fabulous job as our Web master."

Episodes 97-108 of the anime series following the adventures of a young girl who is determined to join an organisation of wizards. Membership of the organisation known as 'Fairy Tail' is Lucy Heartfilia (voice of Aya Hirano)'s goal when she runs away from home. A boy she meets in a nearby town, Natsu Dragneel (Tetsuya Kakihara), and his talking cat, Happy (Rie Kugimiya), appear to offer a way in to the powerful guild. Can she realise her dreams and become a wizard to be reckoned with? The episodes are: 'Best Partners', 'Who's the Lucky One', 'Natsu Vs Gildarts', 'Mest', 'Black Wizard', 'Iron Soul', 'Makarov Charges', 'Lost Magic', 'Fire Dragon Vs Flame God', 'Grand Magic World', 'Arc of Embodiment' and 'Human Gate'.

Episodes 14-24 of the Japanese anime. In the distant cosmos, warring factions fight for control of the planets of East and West. On the West planet, a king has risen to unite the people and bring stability, but the East is still engulfed by war. Jeanne Kaguya d'Arc (voice of Yoko Hikasa), a girl prophesised to be the saviour of the worlds at birth, travels to the East planet with Leonardo Da Vinci (Tomokazu Sugita) in the hope of uniting the battling clans under the flag of the impulsive Nobunaga (Mamoru Miyano) and ending the war forever. The episodes are: 'The Empress', 'The Hanged Man', 'Ace of Cups', 'The Hermit', 'The Emperor', 'Wheel of Fortune', 'The Sun', 'Justice', 'The Devil', 'The World' and 'Judgement'.

All 12 episodes from the Japanese anime series based on the manga by Takehaya. With his father moving away for work, new high school student Kotaro Satomi (voice of Yuichi Nakamura) is forced to find a cheap place to stay while he studies. After choosing Room 106 of Corona House, Kotaro thinks he has the perfect new home. However, shortly after moving in he is visited by a number of supernatural beings who all claim they need the room for their own reasons. Not willing to give up without a fight, Kotaro is forced to live with his ghostly visitors until they can settle their dispute. The episodes are: 'The Invasion Begins!?', 'More Invasions!?', 'Friends and Promises', 'Swimming and Plots!?', 'Precious Charms', 'Cultural Festivals and Beetles!?', 'My Knight', 'An Evil Magical Girl Appears!?', 'The Sun and a Rainbow', 'The Earth Empire Vs. The Sun Squad!?', 'Someday, With Them' and 'Invasion Going Well!?'.

Episodes 1-13 of the Japanese anime. In the distant cosmos, warring factions fight for control of the planets of East and West. On the West planet, a king has risen to unite the people and bring stability, but the East is still engulfed by war. Jeanne Kaguya d'Arc (voice of Yoko Hikasa), a girl prophesised to be the saviour of the worlds at birth, travels to the East planet with Leonardo Da Vinci (Tomokazu Sugita) in the hope of uniting the battling clans under the flag of the impulsive Nobunaga (Mamoru Miyano) and ending the war forever. The episodes are: 'The Star', 'The Lovers', 'The Chariot', 'The Magician', 'The Tower', 'Strength', 'The Hierophant', 'Wands', 'The Moon', 'Temperance', 'Death', 'The Fool' and 'Ace of Swords'.

Episodes 85-96 of the anime series following the adventures of a young girl who is determined to join an organisation of wizards. Membership of the organisation, known as 'Fairy Tail', is Lucy Heartfilia (voice of Aya Hirano)'s goal when she runs away from home. A boy she meets in a nearby town, Natsu Dragneel (Tetsuya Kakihara), and his talking cat, Happy (Rie Kugimiya), appear to offer a way in to the powerful guild. Can she realise her dreams and become a wizard to be reckoned with? The episodes comprise: 'Code ETD', 'Erza Vs. Erza', 'We're Talking About Lives Here!', 'For Pride's Sake, the River of Stars', 'The Apocalyptic Dragon Chain Cannon', 'The Boy Back Then', 'Dragon Sense', 'O Living Ones', 'I'm Standing Right Here', 'Bye-Bye Edolas', 'Lisanna' and 'He Who Extinguishes Life'.