Multimedia is now a broad “umbrella” that innovatively combines different fields of research and industry to produce practical solutions that are used on a wide scale today. Some of these fields are signal processing, imaging and color science, video and audio analysis, 2D/3D graphics, information theory, compression,...

Augmented reality (AR) is a direct or indirect view of real world scenes in which physical objects are annotated with, or overlaid by computer generated digital information. The past two decades have seen a fast growing body of research and development dedicated to techniques and technologies for AR. In particular, due to the recent...

When we think of the Internet, we generally think of Amazon, Google, Hotmail, Napster, MySpace, and a host of other sites for buying products, searching...

It feels like ages ago since I began the journey of writing this book. In its first year, more than 4500 copies were sold, and its reception exceeded my wildest expectations. I am thankful to all those who bought it and also to those who took the time to spread the word to others. Because technology develops at such an unrelenting...

Object tracking is a broad and important fi eld in computer science, addressing the most different applications in the educational, entertainment, industrial, and manufacturing areas. Since the early days of computer vision, the state of the art of visual object tracking has evolved greatly, along with the available imaging devices...

The developed economy is shifting from being manufacturing based to services based. Different from the traditional manufacturing business, the services business is more complicated and dynamic, and end-user driven rather than product driven. To stay competitive, an enterprise thus has to rethink its business strategies and revamp its...

Cutting-edge computer games rival the best that Hollywood has to offer in visual effects, musical score, and pure adrenaline rush. But games are a form of entertainment unlike any other; they can keep players glued to their monitors for hours on end. What sets games apart and makes them so engrossing is interactivity. In a computer game, you...

Mobile devices provide individuals with almost instant access to friends and family, location-based information, productivity tools,...

It can be a concierge, camera, flashlight, game...

Computer graphics is more than an isolated discipline at an intersection of computer science, mathematics, and engineering. It is the very visible leading edge of a revolution in how we use computers and automation to enhance our lives. It has changed forever the worlds of engineering and science, medicine, and the media, too. The wonderful...

A riveting account of the birth and remarkable evolution of the most important development in entertainment since television, Replay: The History of Video Games is the ultimate history of video games. From its origins in the research labs of the 1940s to the groundbreaking success of the Wii, Replay sheds new light on gaming's past. Along...

How to Do Everything: MacBook strongly emphasizes the portability and other unique features of the laptop versions of the Mac, examining ports and jacks, discussing user accounts and privacy, managing multiple network connections,...