Fundamentals of Multimedia:United States Edition

For one-semester, advanced undergraduate/graduate-level Multimedia courses in departments of Computer Science, Engineering, CIS, and IT. This text fills a gap in the rapidly growing field of multimedia by introducing advanced programming students to the basic concepts of multimedia. Written by experienced teachers, this text evolved from materials used in class and forms the basis for all of the important topics that should be covered in a multimedia course. The material emphasizes concepts over applications and exposes students to real issues that they will encounter in the workplace.

This new multimedia text comes from experienced instructors who have taught upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses for more than five years. Developed from materials actually used in class, Fundamentals of Multimedia introduces all the important multimedia topics for students in computer science and engineering. The text presents an overview of the tools and taxonomy of multimedia authoring, including data representations for images, video, and audio; vital aspects of color; data compression; multimedia communication and retrieval: and content-based retrieval in digital libraries.

Coverage includes:

• Authoring tools such as music sequencers, image and video editors, popular languages such as XML and SMIL, and programs such as Director®, Flash?, and VRML
• Graphics/image/video/audio data representations, including color models, HDTV, MIDI, and audio coding
• Compression formats and standards for data, images, audio, and video, including both lossless and lossy formats
• Multimedia networks, considering QoS, VoIP, media-on-demand, and multimedia over wireless networks
• Content-based retrieval in digital libraries

A companion instructor website provides complete materials and topics for a multimedia course. In addition, an open textbook website at http://www.cs.sfu.ca/mmbook hosts a large collection of student resources.