This book covers several essential aspects of pervasive ambient backscatter communication, one of the most cutting-edge technologies for Internet-of-Things. It begins with introductory Part I, which presents visions, basic concepts, principles, and paradigms of ambient backscatter. Also, a taxonomy of state-of-the-art ambient backscatter systems is provided from the perspective of the OSI model. Part II and III study how ambient backscatter systems work on the communication and networking levels. Specifically, Part II discusses in detail how to make use of ambient WiFi signals to provide high-throughput backscatter communications with WiFi 1 (chapter 5), WiFi 2-3 (chapter 4), WiFi 4 (chapter 3), WiFi 5-6 (chapter 6) standards. Further, Part III includes several of the most advanced ambient backscatter network solutions, which are made possible by the first multi-hop backscatter (chapter 7), first backscatter mesh (chapter 8), and multiprotocol backscatter (chapter 9). On top of reliable communication and networks, we propose two novel applications that are thought impossible before, lightweight spatial sound recording over the air (chapter 10) and self-powered wireless wearables for healthcare (chapter 11). To conclude the monograph, we point out critical challenges for realizing the vision of pervasive backscatter IoTs and potential directions of ambient backscatter applications.  The book provides an in-depth understanding of ambient backscatter technologies. In particular, we mainly take ubiquitous WiF signals as the communication sources and adopt a top-down approach to introduce three crucial subjects: WiFi backscatter communication, ambient backscatter network, and self-powered application systems. For each subject, we carefully divide it into several relatively independent topics, which come with the latest advances in pervasive backscatter and include extensive discussions of closely related state-of-the-art methodologies.

PREVIOUS EDITIONThis textbook introduces the "Fundamentals of Multimedia", addressing real issues commonly faced in the workplace. The essential concepts are explained in a practical way to enable students to apply their existing skills to address problems in multimedia. Fully revised and updated, this new edition now includes coverage of such topics as 3D TV, social networks, high-efficiency video compression and conferencing, wireless and mobile networks, and their attendant technologies. Features: presents an overview of the key concepts in multimedia, including color science; reviews lossless and lossy compression methods for image, video and audio data; examines the demands placed by multimedia communications on wired and wireless networks; discusses the impact of social media and cloud computing on information sharing and on multimedia content search and retrieval; includes study exercises at the end of each chapter; provides supplementary resources for both students and instructors at an associated website.

PREVIOUS EDITIONThis textbook introduces the "Fundamentals of Multimedia", addressing real issues commonly faced in the workplace. The essential concepts are explained in a practical way to enable students to apply their existing skills to address problems in multimedia. Fully revised and updated, this new edition now includes coverage of such topics as 3D TV, social networks, high-efficiency video compression and conferencing, wireless and mobile networks, and their attendant technologies. Features: presents an overview of the key concepts in multimedia, including color science; reviews lossless and lossy compression methods for image, video and audio data; examines the demands placed by multimedia communications on wired and wireless networks; discusses the impact of social media and cloud computing on information sharing and on multimedia content search and retrieval; includes study exercises at the end of each chapter; provides supplementary resources for both students and instructors at an associated website.

This brief presents new architecture and strategies for distribution of social video content. A primary framework for socially-aware video delivery and a thorough overview of the possible approaches is provided. The book identifies the unique characteristics of socially-aware video access and social content propagation, revealing the design and integration of individual modules that are aimed at enhancing user experience in the social network context. The change in video content generation, propagation, and consumption for online social networks, has significantly challenged the traditional video delivery paradigm. Given the massive amount of user-generated content shared in online social networks, users are now engaged as active participants in the social ecosystem rather than as passive receivers of media content. This revolution is being driven further by the deep penetration of 3G/4G wireless networks and smart mobile devices that are seamlessly integrated with online social networking and media-sharing services. Despite increasingly abundant bandwidth and computational resources, the ever-increasing volume of data created by user-generated video content--along with the boundless coverage of socialized sharing--presents unprecedented challenges.

Multimedia is a ubiquitous part of the technological environment in which we work and think, touching upon almost all aspects of computer science and engineering.

This comprehensive textbook introduces the "Fundamentals of Multimedia" in an accessible manner, addressing real issues commonly faced in the workplace. Suitable for both advanced undergraduate and graduate students, the essential concepts are explained in a practical way to enable students to apply their existing skills to address problems in multimedia. Fully revised and updated, this new edition now includes coverage of such topics as 3D TV, social networks, high-efficiency video compression and conferencing, wireless and mobile networks, and their attendant technologies.

Topics and features: presents a brief history and overview of the key concepts in multimedia, including important data representations and color science; reviews lossless and lossy compression methods for image, video and audio data; examines the demands placed by multimedia communications on wired and wireless networks; discusses the impact of social media and cloud computing on information sharing, and on multimedia content search and retrieval; includes study exercises at the end of each chapter; provides supplementary resources for both students and instructors at an associated website.

This classroom-tested textbook is ideal for higher-level undergraduate and graduate courses on multimedia systems. Practitioners in industry interested in current multimedia technologies will also find the book to be a useful reference.