Preface to New Edition

The first edition of the book was published in August 1999. It was received with overwhelming worldwide support, such that it had to be reprinted in less than 18 months. The book was reviewed by distinguished video coding experts across the globe, from USA to Australia, and the comments were published in numerous prestigious international journals, such as IEEE Signal Processing, IEE Review, EBU Review, etc. Due to these successes, the book was recognised as the best book of the year 2000 by the IEE and was awarded the Reiyleigh prize.

Video coding is a dynamic field, and many changes have happened since the first edition. At that time JPEG2000 was under development, but now it is mature enough to be reported. In 1999 work on MPEG-7 had just started, but today we have more information on how video databases can be searched and the work has progressed into MPEG-21. At the turn of the millennium particular emphasis was put on mobile communications and video streaming over IP networks. Consequently the joint work of ISO/IEC and ITU on very low bit rate video coding has led to the development of the H.26L standard. In the second edition, the important and fundamental aspects of all these new and exciting events are explained. Of course, the remaining parts of the book have also undergone some amendments, either to clarify certain subjects, or to explain new ideas in video coding. Based on the comments of my colleagues at various universities round the world (who have used the book as a text book), I have designed a few problems at the end of each chapter. The model answers are given at the end of the book.

In addition to the material used in the first edition, I would like to acknowledge the work of several of my research associates, assistants and students, in particular: Randa Atta, Soroush Ghanbari, Mislav Grgic, Hiroshi Gunji, Ekram Khan, Fernando Lopes, Mike Nilsson, Antonio Pinheiro, Kai Sun and C.K. Tan.

Finally my deepest gratitude goes to Professor Charles Hughes, who has very passionately read all parts of the manuscript and made numerous valuable comments. Charles, once more, thank you very much.

Mohammed Ghanbari
February 2003



Standard Codecs(c) Image Compression to Advanced Video Coding
Standard Codecs: Image Compression to Advanced Video Coding (IET Telecommunications Series)
ISBN: 0852967101
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 148
Authors: M. Ghanbari

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