In order to conform to the needs of effective program production in multimedia era, we are studying Desk Top Program Production system. With the DTPP, users can easily produce multimedia program icluding video, sound, and ancillary data, and freely handle video images synthesizing video components retrieved from video database. This paper describes the new program production system, DTPP and its key technologies such as cooperative program production via multimedia network, indexing and utilization of attribute information of images, and image segmentation and spatio-temporal editing.

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A virtual reality system using video image is designed and implemented. A participant having 2 1/2 DOF can interact with the computer-generated virtual object using her/his full body posture and gesture in the 3D virtual environment. The system extracts the necessary participant-related information by video-based sensing, and simulates the realistic interaction such as collision detection in the virtual environment. The resulting scene obtained by compositing video image of the participant and virtual environment is updated in near real time.

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We developed a visualization system for sports broadcasting that informs TV viewers of a sports player's sequential performing forms and locus in detail when gymnastic game such as 'vault' is broadcasted. It records the corresponding frames while a player is performing, extracts only the player's performing forms from background scenes by a proposed algorithm, superposes them sequentially on a background scene, and broadcasts them with slow speed. This system named as 'Multi-Motion' has ever been used in NHK live broadcasting for 1995 World Gymnastics Championships held in Japan.

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User's qualities of services (QoS) are the basic requirements involved in distributed multimedia systems. Considering ATM network, ATM adapter cannot control the end-to-end connection satisfying the user's QoS. This paper describes the new concept of QoS prediction management system in the distributed network and the configuration of it's QoS prediction management architecture and also discusses it's algorithm.

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This paper describes the system and network configurations of the Application Development Center for multimedia applications on Korean broadband testbed network. The center is primarily used for developing networked multimedia services funded by the Korean Ministry of Information and Communications. The center is equipped with ATM switch, multimedia workstations and PCs. More than 180 applications for the broadband testbed network are under development. Several examples will be presented in detail.

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This paper describes an information retrieval system which offers real time information about mobile vehicles through the Internet. In order to evaluate the efficiency of solar batteries and feasibility of electric vehicles, four crews of Tokyo Denki University made a round trip through the North American Continent by their handmade solar electric vehicles last summer. In accordance with this project, an information retrieval system which offers the daily drive information through the Internet to the public was constructed. The system configuration and operating results of this system are reported.

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Interactive CATV system is under development to provide multimedia applications such as movies on demand, home shopping, etc.in addition to the conventional analog cable TV services. This system applies international standard DAVIC, ATM forum, DSM-CC etc. The system adopts modular architecture design approach so that the system can be adaptive to the fast moving technology wavefront. In this article, interactive CATV system and essential elements such as video server, delivery network and Set-Top-Box (STB) and related international standardization are introduced.

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We introduce the outline of our research plans concerning mental image expression for the purpose of communication. We are studying the Computer Organized Media Integration & Communication System (COMICS) as a flexible media handling environment. The system can expand the potential of mental image expression by freely handling and integrating various kinds of media. An experimental COMICS is also introduced.

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In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a multimedia information system integrating hypermedia, information retrieval, and DBMS technologies. We browse the information space through hypermedia link navigation and also use ad hoc queries for direct retrieval of information from the database. Both the hypermedia and the information retrieval systems are integrated into a database management system (DBMS) so that concurrent edition, update. and retrieval of documents can have the ACID properties of atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability. We will first explain the architecture of the system and then, describe how the hypermedia system is integrated with information retrieval capability, and finally integrated with DBMS capabilities.

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This paper discusses the user interface for content selection with a video-on-demand system. We suggest two modes for the selection process : active and passive. This paper analyses various video intensive user interfaces using logs of user operation to understand how users behave in each mode.

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