Foreword. Preface. 1. Introduction to MPEG-4. The MPEG Brain and Its Artifacts. MPEG and Memes. The MPEG Brain. MPEG Standards. MPEG-4 in a Nutshell. MPEG-4 Design Goals and Principles. Navigating MPEG-4. MPEG-4 and Other Multimedia Standards. Architecture and Tools. End-to-End Architecture. MPEG-4 Browser Architecture and Tools. Applications. Next Generation of Portals. Interactive Broadcast. Multimedia Conferencing and Communities. Conclusion. References.
2. Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) Overview. Introduction to VRML97. How MPEG-4 BIFS Extends VRML. Major Features and Related Jargon. VRML Browsers. VRML Plug-Ins. Objects, Scenes, and Worlds. VRML Files. Scene Graphs. Nodes. Fields. Events. eventIn and eventOut Fields. Shapes, Geometry, and Appearance. Primitive Objects. Complex Objects. Text Objects. Coordinate Systems. Moving, Scaling, and Rotating. Summary.
3. D/3D Scene Composition. Binary Format for Scenes (BIFS). Fundamental Differences with VRML97. A Note on Coordinate Systems. New Scene Features and New Nodes. Geometry Nodes. Interpolator Nodes. Grouping Nodes. Material Nodes. Sensor Nodes. Audio Nodes. Face and Body Animation Nodes. Stream Synchronization and Control Nodes. Other Nodes. Summary.
4. BIFS-Updates. Overview of the Binary Format for Scenes (BIFS). BIFS-Update Decoding Process. Overview of the SDL Language. Structures Used by the Decoder. Configuring the Decoder. Decoding Commands. Examples. Writing BIFS-Update Codecs: Considerations. Summary. References.
5. Quantization in BIFS-Updates. Why We Need Quantization. A Crash Course on Quantization. Fourteen BIFS Quantizers. Local and Global QuantizationParameter Nodes. Quantizers 1 to 8. Quantizing Normals and Rotations (9, 10). Quantizing Object Size (11, 12). Linear Scalar Quantizers (13, 14). Efficient Float Coding. Using Quantization in BIFS. Example: Using QuantizationParameter Node. Summary. References.
6. Animating Scenes in MPEG-4. Synthetic Animations in MPEG-4. The BIFS-Anim Protocol. Encoding BIFS-Anim. Decoding the BIFS-Anim Mask. Decoding the BIFS-Anim Frames. Interpolators Encoded by PredictiveMFFields. PredictiveMFFields and BIFS Scenes. PredictiveMFFields Decoding. Summary.
7. D Mesh Animation. 2D Mesh Animation Tools in MPEG-4. Tools. Profiles. 2D Mesh Generation and Coding. Mesh Generation. Mesh Coding. Summary. References.
8. MPEG-4 Face and Body Animation Tools and Applications. Face Definition Parameters (FDPs). Face Animation Parameters (FAPs). FAP Interpolation. FDP Information vs the FDP Node. FAP Estimation from Video. FBA File Formats. Connecting the Head to an Animated Body. FAP/ BAP Quantization. Applications. Streaming. Implications of FAP Normalization. Real Faces vs Animated Characters. Authoring Considerations. Real Time. FBA Visual Bitstream Syntax. FBA Object. FBA Object Plane. FBA Temporal Header. Decode Frame Rate and Skip Frames. Decode New Minmax. Decode ifap. Decode pfap. Decode Viseme and Expression. FBA Systems BIFS Nodes. Text To Speech (TTS) Node. Face Model Predictability Hierarchy. Summary. References.
9. MPEG-4 Human Virtual Body Animation. Body Modeling and Animation. Body System BIFS Nodes. Body Node. BAP Node. BDP Node. BodySceneGraph Node. BodyDefTables Node. Body Bitstream Syntax. Summary. References.
10. 3D Mesh Coding. Functionalities of 3DMC. Introduction to IndexedFaceSet. 3D Mesh Coding. Topological Analysis Topological Surgery. Connectivity Coding. Geometry and Properties Coding. Entropy Coding. Bitstream Syntax. 3D Mesh Object. Stitching Mode. Error Resilience Mode. Progressive Transmission Mode. Performance Demonstrations. Compression. Incremental Rendering. Error Resilience. Summary. References.
11. Extensible MPEG-4 Textual