Recent Advances in Multimedia Signal Processing and Communications, 2010 Coll. Studies in Computational Intelligence, Vol. 231

The rapid increase in computing power and communication speed, coupled with computer storage facilities availability, has led to a new age of multimedia app- cations. Multimedia is practically everywhere and all around us we can feel its presence in almost all applications ranging from online video databases, IPTV, - teractive multimedia and more recently in multimedia based social interaction. These new growing applications require high-quality data storage, easy access to multimedia content and reliable delivery. Moving ever closer to commercial - ployment also aroused a higher awareness of security and intellectual property management issues. All the aforementioned requirements resulted in higher demands on various - eas of research (signal processing, image/video processing and analysis, com- nication protocols, content search, watermarking, etc.). This book covers the most prominent research issues in multimedia and is divided into four main sections: i) content based retrieval, ii) storage and remote access, iii) watermarking and co- right protection and iv) multimedia applications. Chapter 1 of the first section presents an analysis on how color is used and why is it crucial in nowadays multimedia applications. In chapter 2 the authors give an overview of the advances in video abstraction for fast content browsing, transm- sion, retrieval and skimming in large video databases and chapter 3 extends the discussion on video summarization even further. Content retrieval problem is tackled in chapter 4 by describing a novel method for producing meaningful s- ments suitable for MPEG-7 description based on binary partition trees (BPTs).

Section I.- Color in Multimedia.- Advances in Video Summarization and Skimming.- New Video Abstractions for Summarisation and Browsing.- Multi-dimensional BPTs for Content Retrieval.- Logarithmic r-? Map for Hybrid Optical Neural Network Filter for Object Recognition within Cluttered Scenes.- 2D-3D Pose Invariant Face Recognition System for Multimedia Applications.- Interfaces That Should Feel Right: Natural Interaction with Multimedia Information.- Section II.- Super Resolution for Multimedia, Image, and Video Processing Applications.- Flexible Motion Models for Scalable and High Definition Video Coding.- Video Transcoding Techniques.- Cross-Layer Approach for Reliable Transmission of Wavelet Coded Images over Portable Multimedia Devices.- HD Video Communication at Very Low Bitrates.- Evolution of IPTV Architecture and Services towards NGN.- Exploring the Characteristics of High Definition Television Systems.- Section III.- Encryption Based Robust Watermarking in Fractional Wavelet Domain.- Multimedia Encryption: A Brief Overview.- The Method for Image Copy Detection Robust to Basic Image Processing Techniques.- An Optimally Robust Digital Watermarking Algorithm for Stereo Image Coding.- Reversible Watermarking for 3D Cameras: Hiding Depth Maps.- Audio Watermarking: More Than Meets the Ear.- Section IV.- A Survey of Music Structure Analysis Techniques for Music Applications.- Examining the Theoretical Schema of Shimpai Muyou! Narrative Learning Environment.- Art – A Perfect Testbed for Computer Vision Related Research.- A Survey of Image Processing Algorithms in Digital Mammography.

Recent Advances in Multimedia Signal Processing and Communications