This chapter provides an overview of the ISO MPEG-4 standard. The MPEG-4 work includes natural video, synthetic video, audio and systems. Both natural and synthetic video have been combined into a single part of the standard, which is referred to as MPEG-4 visual (ISO/IEC, 1998a). It should be emphasized that neither MPEG-1 nor MPEG-2 considers synthetic video (or computer graphics) and the MPEG-4 is also the first standard to consider the problem of contentbased coding. Here, we focus on the video parts of the MPEG-4 standard. INTRODUCTION As we discussed in the previous chapters, MPEG has completed two standards: MPEG-1 that. | 18 MPEG-4 Video Standard Content-Based Video Coding This chapter provides an overview of the ISO MPEG-4 standard. The MPEG-4 work includes natural video synthetic video audio and systems. Both natural and synthetic video have been combined into a single part of the standard which is referred to as MPEG-4 visual ISO IEC 1998a . It should be emphasized that neither MPEG-1 nor MPEG-2 considers synthetic video or computer graphics and the MPEG-4 is also the first standard to consider the problem of contentbased coding. Here we focus on the video parts of the MPEG-4 standard. INTRODUCTION As we discussed in the previous chapters MPEG has completed two standards MPEG-1 that was mainly targeted for CD-ROM applications up to Mbps and MPEG-2 for digital TV and HDTV applications at bit rates between 2 and 30 Mbps. In July 1993 MPEG started its new project MPEG-4 which was targeted at providing technology for multimedia applications. The first working draft WD was completed in November 1996 and the committee draft CD of version 1 was completed in November 1997. The draft international standard DIS of MPEG-4 was completed in November of 1998 and the international standard IS of MPEG-4 version 1 was completed in February of 1999. The goal of the MPEG-4 standard is to provide the core technology that allows efficient content-based storage transmission and manipulation of video graphics audio and other data within a multimedia environment. As we mentioned before there exist several video-coding standards such as MPEG-1 2 and . Why do we need a new standard for multimedia applications In other words are there any new attractive features of MPEG-4 that the current standards do not have or cannot provide The answer is yes. The MPEG-4 has many interesting features that will be described later in this chapter. Some of these features are focused on improving coding efficiency some are used to provide robustness of transmission and interactivity with the end user. .
