ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the ISO moving picture expert group (MPEG)-4 standard. The MPEG-4 work includes natural video, synthetic video, audio, and systems. Both natural and synthetic video has been combined into a single part of the standard, which is referred to as MPEG-4 visual. The chapter focuses on the video parts of the MPEG-4 standard. The goal of the MPEG-4 standard is to provide the core technology that allows efficient content-based storage, transmission and manipulation of video, graphics, audio, and other data within a multimedia environment. MPEG-4 is the first standard that supports content-based coding of audiovisual objects. As the MPEG-4 standard is mainly targeted for multimedia applications, there are many requirements to ensure that several important features and functionalities are offered. These features include the allowance of interactivity, high compression, universal accessibility, and portability of audio and video content.
