The purpose of VLBV 2003 was to provide an international forum for the d- cussion of the state of the art of visual content processing techniques, standards, and applications covering areas such as: video/image analysis, representation and coding, communications and delivery, consumption, synthesis, protection, and adaptation. The topics of special interest include all the areas relevant to image communications nowadays, from representation and coding to content classi?cation, adaptation, and personalization. A meeting covering such a wide range of topics takes many years to develop. So, please follow a brief story of the evolution of this relevant and specialized forum and of its adaptation to the prevailing interests along time. At the beginning of 1993, the idea of a specialized workshop to discuss topics in advanced image communications came in Lausanne, Switzerland, at a m- ting of the steering committee of the International Picture Coding Symposium. Therefore, the so-called International Workshop on Coding Techniques for Very Low Bit-rate Video VLBV was born as low bit-rate research was considered to be the leading edge. The ?rst workshop was held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, in 1993; the second at the University of Essex in Colchester, UK, in April 1994; the third at NTT in Tokyo, Japan, in November 1995;thefourthattheUniversityofLink] oping, Sweden, inJuly1997;the?fthin Urbana (again) in October 1998. Until this last workshop, VLBV life was closely tied with MPEG-4, that is to low bit-rate research.