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Since the September 11th attacks, the scientific and engineering communities have been called upon to help the world respond to security challenges. This volume focuses on multidisciplinary problem analysis and systems engineering approaches to security. It presents a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art methods for the surveillance and protection of citizens and critical infrastructure against both natural and deliberate threats. The first section analyzes technical issues related to surveillance. Next, the book examines legislative, organization, and management issues with a specific emphasis on privacy concerns. Finally, the contributors discuss innovative solutions and new research topics garnering heightened attention.

Leaving no stone unturned, this book provides a detailed exploration of TV program analysis techniques. It supplies scientifically sound treatment of the state-of-the-art across the related subject areas¿such as systems, architectures, algorithms, applications, research results, emerging approaches, and open issues. The book includes coverage of content extraction, content structuring, content recommendation, content quality, web and social TV, and content production.

This book provides a theoretical and technical basis for advanced research on visual data compression and communication. It presents the results of the author's research on visual data compression and transmission. Studying scalable video coding (SVC), it considers the fundamental problem to be solved in SVC-motion compensation. It explores directional transforms, extends the current coding framework by visual synthesis and reconstruction, and explains how to apply compressive sensing to solve the compression problems in transmission. It also develops the pseudo-analog transmission for image and video.

Effective Surveillance for Homeland Security: Balancing Technology and Social Issues provides a comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art methods and tools for the surveillance and protection of citizens and critical infrastructures against natural and deliberate threats. Focusing on current technological challenges involving multi-disciplinary problem analysis and systems engineering approaches, it provides an overview of the most relevant aspects of surveillance systems in the framework of homeland security.Addressing both advanced surveillance technologies and the related socio-ethical issues, the book consists of 21 chapters written by international experts from the various sectors of homeland security. Part I, Surveillance and Society, focuses on the societal dimension of surveillance-stressing the importance of societal acceptability as a precondition to any surveillance system.Part II, Physical and Cyber Surveillance, presents advanced technologies for surveillance. It considers developing technologies that are part of a framework whose aim is to move from a simple collection and storage of information toward proactive systems that are able to fuse several information sources to detect relevant events in their early incipient phase.Part III, Technologies for Homeland Security, considers relevant applications of surveillance systems in the framework of homeland security. It presents real-world case studies of how innovative technologies can be used to effectively improve the security of sensitive areas without violating the rights of the people involved.Examining cutting-edge research topics, the book provides you with a comprehensive understanding of the technological, legislative, organizational, and management issues related to surveillance. With a specific focus on privacy, it presents innovative solutions to many of the issues that remain in the quest to balance security with the preservation of privacy that society demands.