Delivering MPEG-4 Based Audio-Visual Services - Delivering MPEG-4 Based Audio-Visual Services investigates the different aspects of end-to-end multimedia services; content creation, server and service provider, network, and the end-user terminal. Part I provides a comprehensive introduction to digital video communications, MPEG standards, and technologies, and deals with system level issues including standardization and interoperability, user interaction, and the design of a distributed video server. Part II investigates the systems in the context of object-based multimedia services and presents a design for an object-based audio-visual terminal, some of these features having been adopted by the MPEG-4 Systems specification. The book goes on to study the requirements for a file format to represent object-based audio-visual content and the design of one such format. The design introduces new concepts such as direct streaming that are essential for scalable servers. The final part of the book examines the delivery of object-based multimedia presentations and gives optimal algorithms for multiplex-scheduling of object-based audio-visual presentations, showing that the audio-visual object scheduling problem is NP-complete in the strong sense. The problem of scheduling audio-visual objects is similar to the problem of sequencing jobs on a single machine. The book compares these problems and adapts job-sequencing results to audio-visual object scheduling, and provides optimal algorithms for scheduling presentations under resource constraints, such as bandwidth (network constraints) and buffer (terminal constraints). In addition, the book presents algorithms that minimize the resources required for scheduling presentations and the auxiliary capacity required to support interactivity in object-based audio-visual presentations. Delivering MPEG-4 Based Audio-Visual Services is essential reading for researchers and practitioners in the areas of multimedia systems engineering and multimedia computing, network professionals, service providers, and all scientists and technical managers interested in the most up-to-date MPEG standards and technologies. An investigation of the different aspects of end-to-end multimedia services, providing a comprehensive introduction to digital video communications, MPEH standards, and technology. Covers content creation, server and service provider, and the end-user terminal. DLC: Multimedia systems.
MPEG-4 Jump-Start - The "get started" developer's guide to MPEG-4, the future of Internet and Web multimedia. MPEG-4 will transform Internet- and Web-based multimedia by enabling breakthrough audio, video, 2D, and 3D capabilities. This book is for every developer and technical decision-maker. In MPEG-4 Jump-Start, two leaders of the Internet multimedia community introduce the MPEG-4 standard: its key concepts, capabilities, applications, requirements, and limitations. Aaron E. Walsh and Mikael Bourges-Sevenier cover what you need to know to start developing MPEG-4 players and content today, including: How MPEG-4 builds on the success of the MPEG standards that enabled CDs, DVDs, and MP3 MPEG-4's underlying technical capabilities and requirements 2D/3D scene composition and the MPEG-4 Binary Format for Scenes (BIFS) MPEG-4 techniques for facial and body animation New compression methods for 3D meshes XMT: The XML-based textual format for storing MPEG-4 contents and authoring commands. MPEG-4 offers unprecedented opportunities for delivering media in any networked communications environment -- Internet, Web, broadcast, satellite, or even wireless. MPEG-4 Jump-Start gives you specific, insider's techniques for building tomorrow's breakthrough media applications -- starting right now. About the Author: AARON E. WALSH is Chairman of Mantis Development Corporation, a development firm specializing in advanced multimedia and network technologies. He is Chairman of the Web3D Consortium's Universal Media technical working group, Chairman of the Web3D-MPEG group responsible for the convergence of Web3D and MPEG technology, Co-Chair of the Web3D Intellectual Property Rights group, and Web3D Liaison to MPEG and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Walsh is author of the best-selling Core Web3D, XHTML Example by Example, and Java 3D API Jump-Start. MIKAEL BOURGES-SEVENIER is Senior Software Engineer for iVAST Inc., a development firm specializing in advanced multimedia technologies. With expertise in 2D, 3D, and multimedia technologies, he is actively involved in several areas of MPEG-4 development. In addition to serving as Co-Chairman of the MPEG-4 Animation Framework Extension (AFX) animation group, Bourges-Sevenier is responsible for the animation system for the MPEG-4 Reference Software Group.