The topic of the proposed book is signal compression. The compression (or low bit rate coding) of speech, audio, image and video signals is a key technology for rapidly emerging opportunities in multimedia products and services.The book contains chapters dedicated to the subtopics of data, speech, audio and visual signal coding, together with an introductory overview chapter on signal compression. The overview article summarizes current capabilities and future trends. The signal-specific chapters that follow focus on the latest technologies and coding standards, while including self-contained introductions to the respective signal domains. The authors of the book chapters are recognized experts in the field of signal processing, compression in particular.Signal compression dealing with both audio and visual signals technology has progressed very rapidly. The proposed book fills a clear void, and should prove to be a valuable reference, both to the practicing professional and to the relatively uninitiated student.

These fifteen contributions by distinguished vision and imaging scientists explore the role of human vision in the design of modem image communication systems. A dominant theme in the book is image compression—how compression algorithms can be designed to make best use of what we know about human vision. Electronic image communications, which encompass television, high-definition television, teleconferencing, multimedia, digital photography, desktop publishing, and digital movies, is a rapidly growing segment of technology and business. Because these products and technologies are designed for human viewing, knowledge of human perception is essential to optimal design. This book provides a timely compendium of important ideas and perspectives on such subjects as the key aspects of human visual sensitivity that are relevant to image communications and, conversely, the major problems in image communications that vision science can address; the mathematical models of human vision that are useful in the design of image comunications systems; reliable and efficient methods of evaluating visual quality; and aspects of human vision that can be exploited to provide substantial improvements in coding efficiency. Andrew B. Watson is Senior Scientist for Vision Research at NASA. Contributors: Albert J. Ahumada, Jr. E. Barth. V. Michael Bove, Jr. Gershon Buchsbaum. Phillipe Cassereau. Pamela C. Cosman. Scott J. Daly. Michael Eckert. Bernd Girod. William E. Glenn. Robert M. Gray. Paul J. Hearty. Bradley Horowitz. Stanley Klein. Jeffrey Lubin, Cynthia Null. Karen L. Oehler. Alex Pentland. Todd Reed. Andrew B. Watson. B. Wegmann. Christof Zetsche.

The emerging information technologies have enabled new human patterns ranging from physiological interactions to psychological interactions. Perhaps the best example is the rapid ‘evolution’ of our thumbs from simply holding to controlling mobile devices in just a few years recently. Taking the medical field as an example, the fast-growing technologies such as pill cameras, implantable devices, robotic surgeries, and virtual reality training methods will change the way we live and work. Human Algorithms aim to model human forms, interactions, and dynamics in this new context. Human Algorithms are engineering methods that are beyond theories. They intend to push the envelopes of multi-physics, sensing, and virtual technologies to the limit. They have become more comprehensive and inexpensive for use in real-world designs: inside monitors, connected to networks, and under the patient’s skin. This book aims to reflect the state of the art of Human Algorithms. It is a survey of innovative ideas for readers who may be new to this field. The targeted groups include college students, researchers, engineers, designers, scientists, managers, and healthcare professionals. The 11 chapters are divided into three parts: Human Dynamics, Virtual Humans, and Human Forms. Part I: Human Dynamics. In the first chapter “Implantable Computing,” Warwick and Gasson present an overview of the latest developments in the field of Brain to Computer Interfacing. They describe human experimentation in which neural implants have linked the human nervous system bi-directionally with technological devices and the Internet. In the chapter “Brainwave-Based Imagery Analysis,” Cowell et al.