Provides several examples of applications using the MPEG-4 Facial Animation standard, including video and speech analysis. Covers the implementation of the standard on both the encoding and decoding side. Contributors includes individuals instrumental in the standardization process.

Data-Driven 3D Facial Animation systematically describes the important techniques developed over the last ten years or so. Comprehensive in scope, the book provides an up-to-date reference source for those working in the facial animation field.

Deformable avatars are virtual humans that deform themselves during motion. This implies facial deformations, body deformations at joints, and global deformations. Simulating deformable avatars ensures a more realistic simulation of virtual humans. The research requires models for capturing of geometrie and kinematic data, the synthesis of the realistic human shape and motion, the parametrisation and motion retargeting, and several appropriate deformation models. Once a deformable avatar has been created and animated, the researcher must model high-level behavior and introduce agent technology. The book can be divided into 5 subtopics: 1. Motion capture and 3D reconstruction 2. Parametrie motion and retargeting 3. Musc1es and deformation models 4. Facial animation and communication 5. High-level behaviors and autonomous agents Most of the papers were presented during the IFIP workshop "DEFORM '2000" that was held at the University of Geneva in December 2000, followed by "A V AT ARS 2000" held at EPFL, Lausanne. The two workshops were sponsored by the "Troisü!me Cycle Romand d'Informatique" and allowed participants to discuss the state of research in these important areas. x Preface We would like to thank IFIP for its support and Yana Lambert from Kluwer Academic Publishers for her advice. Finally, we are very grateful to Zerrin Celebi, who has prepared the edited version of this book and Dr. Laurent Moccozet for his collaboration.

In this book, two leaders of the MPEG-4 standards community offer an in-depth, targeted guide to the MPEG-4 standard and its use in real, cutting-edge applications. The authors demonstrate how MPEG-4 addresses the rapidly evolving needs of telecommunications, broadcast, interactive, and converged applications more successfully than any previous standard.

This volume contains the research papers presented at the Eleventh Eurographics Workshop on Computer Animation and Simulation which took place in Interlaken, Switzerland, August 21-22, 2000. The workshop is an international forum for research in human animation, physically-based modeling, motion control, animation systems, and other key aspects of animation and simulation. The call for papers required submission of the full papers for review, and each paper was reviewed by at least 3 members of the international program committee and additional reviewers. Based on the reviews, 14 papers were accepted and the authors were invited to submit a final version for the workshop. We wish to especially thank all reviewers for their time and effort in working within the rigid constraints of the tight schedule, thereby making it possible to publish this volume in time for the workshop. We also thank the authors for their contributions to the workshop, without whom this unique forum for animation and simulation work would not exist. We are grateful to the Eurographics Association and especially to Werner Purgathofer from the Technical University of Vienna, for his support in publishing the workshop as a volume of the Springer-Verlag Eurographics Series. We also thank the Eurographics '2000 organisers, especially David Duce, and Heinrich Miiller from the EG board. We are also very grateful to lerrin Celebi for the organization of the review process and and Josiane Bottarelli for the registration process.

The past few years have witnessed rapid scienti?c and technological devel- ments in human-centered, seamless computing environments, interfaces, de- ces, and systems with applications ranging from business and communication to entertainment and learning. These developments are collectively best charac- rized as Active Media Technology (AMT), a new area of information technology and computer science that emphasizes the proactive, seamless roles of interfaces and systems as well as new digital media in all aspects of human life. This - lume contains the papers presented at the Sixth International Computer Science Conference: Active Media Technology (AMT 2001), the ?rst conference of its kind, capturing the state of research and development in AMT and the latest architectures, prototypes, tools, and ?elded systems that demonstrate or enable AMT. The volume is organized into the following eight parts: I. Smart Digital - dia; II. Web Personalization; III. Active Interfaces; IV. Autonomous Agent - proaches; V. Facial Image Processing; VI. AMT-Supported Commerce, Business, Learning, and Health Care; VII. Tools and Techniques; and VIII. Algorithms.

Soft computing embraces various methodologies for the development of intelligent systems that have been successfully applied to a large number of real-world problems. Soft Computing in Industry contains a collection of papers that were presented at the 6th On-line World Conference on Soft Computing in Industrial Applications that was held in September 2001. It provides a comprehensive overview of recent theoretical developments in soft computing as well as of successful industrial applications. It is divided into seven parts covering material on: keynote papers on various subjects ranging from computing with autopoietic systems to the effects of the Internet on education; intelligent control; classification, clustering and optimization; image and signal processing; agents, multimedia and Internet; theoretical advances; prediction, design and diagnosis. The book is aimed at researchers and professional engineers who develop and apply intelligent systems in computer engineering.