The challenge of multimedia processing is to seamlessly integrate text, sound, image, and video information into a single communications channel, and to do it in a way that provides high quality communications while preserving the ease-of-use and interactivity of conventional telephony. There are a number of technology drivers that are pushing the technology forward, as well as a number of technological problems that must be overcome before multimedia becomes as ubiquitous as voiceband telephony. A key issue with any practical multimedia system has to do with standards that insure connectivity between customers and a range of service providers. Multimedia processing is an area of communications that is rapidly evolving. However, a number of interesting and important multimedia communications applications have evolved over the past several years, and some of these applications are described.
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