This book discusses the growth of digital television technology and the revolution in image and video compression (such as JPEG2000, broadcast TV, video phone), highlighting the need for standardisation in processing static and moving images and their exchange between computer systems. The book gives an authoritative explanation of picture and video coding algorithms, working from basic principles through to the advanced video compression systems now being developed. One of its main objectives is to describe the reasons behind the introduction of a standard codec for a specific application and its chosen parameter.
Professor Mohammed Ghanbari, is Professor of Video Networking at the University of Essex, UK. He is best known for pioneering work on two-layered video coding for ATM networks (SNR scalability in the standard codecs). Prior to his academic career, Professor Ghanbari worked for ten years in broadcasting. He has published more than 270 papers, registered nine international patents on video networking and is a former co-recipient of the A.H. Reeves Prize for the best paper on digital coding. Professor Ghanbari was a co-author of Principles of Performance Engineering (IEE, 1997). He has also been associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Multimedia and the guest editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology. Professor Ghanbari is a Fellow of both the IEE and IEEE, as well as a Chartered Engineer.