Multimedia services facilitate the real-time processing and communication of images, audio, and text. The convergence of computer communication and telecommunication has redefined current multimedia services, encouraging the creation of multimedia interfaces for videoconferencing, VoIP, instant messaging, and gaming. Multimedia Services and Streaming for Mobile Devices: Challenges and Innovations provides tutorials, surveys, case descriptions, and original contributions that address current research findings and business success cases in multimedia services and streaming for mobile devices. This publication is useful to researchers, developers, engineers, and innovators working in multimedia services or mobile devices, as well as academics, industry professionals, and researchers who aspire to learn about recent progress and future trends in the field.

Modern mobile devices have evolved into small computers that can render multimedia streaming content anywhere and anytime. These devices can extend the viewing time of users and provide more business opportunities for service providers. Mobile devices, however, make a challenging platform for providing high-quality multimedia services. The goal of this thesis is to identify these challenges from various aspects, and propose efficient and systematic solutions to solve them. In particular, we study mobile video broadcast networks in which a base station concurrently transmits multiple video streams over a shared air medium to many mobile devices. We propose algorithms to optimize various quality-of-service metrics, including streaming quality, bandwidth efficiency, energy saving, and channel switching delay. We analytically analyze the proposed algorithms, and we evaluate them using numerical methods and simulations. In addition, we implement the algorithms in a real testbed to show their practicality and efficiency. Our analytical, simulation, and experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithms can: (i) maximize energy saving of mobile devices, (ii) maximize bandwidth efficiency of the wireless network, (iii) minimize channel switching delays on mobile devices, and (iv) efficiently support heterogeneous mobile devices. Last, we give network operators guidelines on choosing solutions suitable for their mobile broadcast networks, which allow them to provide millions of mobile users much better viewing experiences, attract more subscribers, and thus increase the revenues.

As multimedia-enabled mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are becoming the day-to-day computing device of choice for users of all ages, everyone expects that all mobile multimedia applications and services should be as smooth and as high-quality as the desktop experience. The grand challenge in delivering multimedia to mobile devices using the Internet is to ensure the quality of experience that meets the users' expectations, within reasonable costs, while supporting heterogeneous platforms and wireless network conditions. This book aims to provide a holistic overview of the current and future technologies used for delivering high-quality mobile multimedia applications, while focusing on user experience as the key requirement. The book opens with a section dealing with the challenges in mobile video delivery as one of the most bandwidth-intensive media that requires smooth streaming and a user-centric strategy to ensure quality of experience. The second section addresses this challenge by introducing some important concepts for future mobile multimedia coding and the network technologies to deliver quality services. The last section combines the user and technology perspectives by demonstrating how user experience can be measured using case studies on urban community interfaces and Internet telephones.

With rapid growth of the Internet, the applications of multimedia are burgeoning in every aspect of human life including communication networks and wireless and mobile communications. Mobile Multimedia Communications: Concepts, Applications and Challenges captures defining research on all aspects and implications of the accelerated progress of mobile multimedia technologies. Covered topics include fundamental network infrastructures, modern communication features such as wireless and mobile multimedia protocols, personal communication systems, mobility and resource management, and security and privacy issues. A complete reference to topics driving current and potential future development of mobile technologies, this essential addition to library collections will meet the needs of researchers in a variety of related fields.

Multimedia services involve processing, transmission and retrieval of multiple forms of information. Multimedia services have gained momentum in the past few years due to the easy availability of computing power and storage media. Societyisdemandinghuman-likeintelligentbehaviour,suchasadaptationand generalization, from machines every day. With this view in mind, researchers are working on fusing intelligent paradigms such as arti?cial neural networks, swarm intelligence, arti?cial immune systems, evolutionary computing and multiagents with multimedia services. Arti?cial neural networks use neurons, interconnected using various schemes, for fusing learning in multimedia-based systems. Evolutionary c- puting techniques are used in tasks such as optimization. Typical multiagent systems are based on Belief-Desire-Intention model and act on behalf of the users. Typical examples of intelligent multimedia services include digital - braries, e-learning and teaching, e-government, e-commerce, e-entertainment, e-health and e-legal services. This book includes 15 chapters on advanced tools and methodologies pertaining to the multimedia services. The authors and reviewers have c- tributed immensely to this research-oriented book. We believe that this - search volume will be valuable to professors, researchers and students of all disciplines, such as computer science, engineering and management. We express our sincere thanks to Springer-Verlag for their wonderful e- torial support.

"This book offers an in-depth explanation of multimedia technologies within their many specific application areas as well as presenting developing trends for the future"--Provided by publisher.

"The book is intended to clarify the hype, which surrounds the concept of mobile multimedia through introducing the idea in a clear and understandable way, with a strong focus on mobile solutions and applications"--Provided by publisher.