MPEG-4 is the standard for multimedia developed by the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) of the International Standards Organisation (ISO). Like the widely used MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 standards, MPEG-4 provides for the communication of compressed video and audio. In addition, MPEG-4 allows for a wide range of multimedia communication, including object-oriented coding, computer-generated video and audio, and user interactivity.
This tutorial covers the technology behind the visual side of MPEG-4, include low bitrate video coding, video object planes, sprites, and the Binary Format for Scenes (BiFS). It also describes the mechanisms for stream management and synchronization.
The tutorial will be useful to: (1) researchers in image processing and computer vision with interest in communications applications; (2) engineers who are developing products and solutions for visual communication over low bandwidth channels.
Students get copies of all slides, sample code, and a technical report with complete bibliography.
Dr. R. Kakarala is with the Electronics Research Laboratory of Agilent Technologies, the world's largest supplier of CMOS image sensors. He is the Principal Member for Agilent in the US national delegation for MPEG-4 and JPEG2000. Prior to joing Agilent, Dr. Kakarala worked at Motorola's Australian Research Centre, and served on the faculties of the University of Michigan and the University of Auckland. He has published several papers on image processing and compression, and has three patent disclosures.