Introduction
From the beginning of human's history we had a communication
network that is identical with the physical distribution network.
In the late 19th century we established the energy network
to distribute electric and thermal energy to open the modern
society. The analog communication network became popular in
the middle of the 20th century. And now at the end of the
20th century we have global digital information networks.
Along with the advantagement of communication network, the
progress of the information processing technology can be classified
into three historical phases. The first phase technology is
the physical information processing to treat physical low
of nature. The second phase is free from the physical constraints.
It is the logical information processing to deal with knowledge
an rule. The most important in this phase is consistency.
"Provable" is employed to confirm the reality of the system.
Based on the advanced computer and network technology, we
are entering the third phase of information processing which
is KANSEI information processing. "KANSEI" is a Japanese word
to express some subjective ability referred to sensibility,
intuition, "affection" and emotion. Emotional resonance or
concept is important in the pursuit of reality in this phase.
Multimedia modeling to harmonize different media and systems
is one of the key technologies in the third phase of information
processing. It will provide a next generation framework to
construct human centered information environment that is more
comfortable and more productive.
This volume is devoted to the discussion of effective modeling
of multimedia information and systems for a wide range of
applications. The volume contains 30 technical articles all
of which were selected, after vigorous peer reviews, for presentation
at the International Conference on Multimedia Modeling held
in Nagano, Japan, on November 13-15, 2000.
MMM2000 Conference Chair
Hashimoto, Shuji
|
See 