This book is a clear and comprehensive survey of multimedia system design for a networked world. It's also a perfect companion for multimedia server designers as well as the multimedia application developer ... or anyone building the 'best of breed' products and services that scale to the Internet. Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO Novell, Inc. This is a book on an extremely timely subject. With coming broadband access to the home, there will be an explosion in demand for multimedia streaming applications. This book will be a "must" read for anyone designing the servers that will support them. Don Towsley, Dept. of Computer Science University of Massachusetts- Amherst This book will undoubtedly satisfy the needs of application developers, server designers, integrators, and service providers, as it provides end-to-end, top-down coverage: from application-specific issues to low-level components. Inside, the authors offer specific design, development, and implementation approaches that take into account the complexity of the environments in which multimedia servers operate. You'll learn which techniques are best suited for different kinds of applications and different kinds of networks. You'll master the challenges associated with resource scheduling, collaborative computing, session set-up, and distributed storage. Most importantly, you'll discover how to put all of these solutions to work as part of a coherent strategy aimed at exploiting economies of scale and meeting quality of service requirements. Features Presents optimized design algorithms developed by the authors and other leading researchers. Deals comprehensively with the systems supporting the large-scale storage, retrieval, and distribution of audio and video data. Balances the coverage of current technologies with forward-looking discussions to help you devise a sustainable, evolvable solution. Covers key issues in video-on-demand and other multimedia systems: resource scheduling, local caching, interactivity, architectural strategies, and more.

This book addresses the changing role of networks and the evolving structure of an Infrastructure Superhighway. The requirements for leadership in telecommunications are reviewed from different viewpoints: Network operators, equipment manufacturers, software developers and user organizations. Emphasis is placed on multimedia and what multimedia solutions would mean to telephone utilities and endusers. Based on extensive research undertaken in Europe, US and Japan, Dimitris Chorafas identifies new domains of applications, presents the breakthroughs which have currently been achieved and outlines the systems solutions necessary to fruitfully exploit new technology.

This year's proceedings features a wide variety of papers focusing on cutting edge topics that prove to be an excellent catalyst for further research and collaboration. Topics range from multimedia applications, enabled web services, algorithms, software engineering and development, communication, storage, and retrieval, to e-Learning and Bioinformatics. These topics are playing very important roles for creating next generation multimedia architectures, solutions and applications in the areas of content creation, distribution, authentication, presentation, and, e-learning and Bioinformatics.

Considered the bible of the IBM zSeries and S/390 world, this new edition closely examines the role large computers will play in the new century. All the new hardware models and operating system products—Linux, VSE, MVS, VM, AIX, and Open Edition—are now available for the zSeries and are fully explained, as are critical business issues such as cost justification, lease versus purchase, support, security, and maintenance. Hypothetical small, medium, and large businesses are described and then outfitted with the appropriate zSeries solution. This replaces 1885068700.

This book addresses fundamental design issues and research topics, related to multimedia systems, and provides a comprehensive study of the issues. A number of tutorial and overview articles are included so that the volume strikes a balance between introductory tutorials and advanced topics.

This second edition provides easy access to important concepts, issues and technology trends in the field of multimedia technologies, systems, techniques, and applications. Over 1,100 heavily-illustrated pages — including 80 new entries — present concise overviews of all aspects of software, systems, web tools and hardware that enable video, audio and developing media to be shared and delivered electronically.

Database Semantics: Semantic Issues in Multimedia Systems reflects the state of the art of emerging research on the meaning of multimedia information, as presented during IFIP's Eighth Data Semantics Working Conference (DS-8), organized by its Working Group 2.6 on Databases, and held at Rotorua, New Zealand, in January 1999. DS-8 was planned as an active forum for researchers and practitioners focusing on those issues that involve the semantics of the information represented, stored, and manipulated by multimedia systems. Depending on the topic and state of research, issues may be covered either deeply theoretically or quite practically, or even both. These proceedings contain twenty-one papers carefully selected by an International Programme Committee and organized in six thematic areas: Video Data Modelling and Use; Image Databases; Applications of Multimedia Systems; Multimedia Modeling in General; Multimedia Information Retrieval; Semantics and Metadata. For almost every area, important topics and issues include: data modeling and query languages for media such as audio, video, and images; methodological aspects of multimedia database design; intelligent multimedia information retrieval; knowledge discovery and data mining in multimedia information; multimedia user interfaces. Three visionary keynote addresses, by famous experts Ramesh Jain, Hermann Maurer and Masao Sakauchi, set the stage for discussion and future directions for the field. The collection of papers that resulted now offers a glimpse of the excitement and enthusiasm from DS-8. Database Semantics: Semantic Issues in Multimedia Systems is suitable as a secondary text for a graduate-level course on database systems, multimedia systems, or information retrieval systems and as a reference for practitioners and researchers in industry.

Visualinformationsystemsareinformationsystemsforvisualcomputing.Visual computing is computing on visual objects. Some visual objects such as images are inherently visual in the sense that their primary representation is the visual representation.Somevisualobjectssuchasdatastructuresarederivativelyvisual in the sense that their primary representation is not the visual representation, but can be transformed into a visual representation. Images and data structures are the two extremes. Other visual objects such as maps may fall somewhere in between the two. Visual computing often involves the transformation from one type of visual objects into another type of visual objects, or into the same type of visual objects, to accomplish certain objectives such as information reduction, object recognition, and so on. In visual information systems design it is also important to ask the foll- ing question: who performs the visual computing? The answer to this question determines the approach to visual computing. For instance it is possible that primarily the computer performs the visual computing and the human merely observes the results. It is also possible that primarily the human performs the visual computing and the computer plays a supporting role. Often the human and the computer are both involved as equal partners in visual computing and there are visual interactions. Formal or informal visual languages are usually needed to facilitate such visual interactions.