Post-modern video

Digital video is no longer a special-purpose curiosity, but is an integral component of all emerging computer-mediated communications systems. Moving pictures, conferencing, entertainment systems, movie production, and video sequencing are some of the areas that have been influenced. Advances in digital representations of moving pictures are already responsible for important changes in our communications systems. Novel conferencing and entertainment systems made possible by compression are infecting home and work environments. Now, inroads are being carved into theatrical movie production, and new analysis techniques are making digital picture archives realistic and useful. Video sequence understanding has suddenly become a vital research domain, rivaling restoration and compression as a locus of interest. Applications in digital video range from digital libraries to surveillance and home television.