lecommunications Union (ITU) standards organizations. The Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) is a working group operating within ISO and IEC. Since starting its activity in 1988, MPEG has pro- duced ISO/IEC 11172 (MPEG-1, 1992), ISO/IEC 13818 (MPEG-2, 1994), ISO/IEC 14496 (MPEG-4, 1999), and ISO/IEC 15938 (MPEG-7, 2001). Step 1 The MPEG-1 specification was motivated by T1 transmission speeds, the CD-ROM, and the multimedia capabilities of the desktop computer. It is intended for video coding up to the rate of 1.5 Mbps, and is composed Step 2 of five sections: System Configurations, Video Coding, Audio Coding, Compliance Testing, and Software for MPEG-1 Coding. The standard does not specify the actual video coding process, but only the syntax and se- mantics of the bit stream, and the video generation at the receiver. It does not accommodate interlaced video, and only supports CIF quality format at 25 or 30 fps. Activity for MPEG-2 was started in 1991. It was Figure 7.4-7 Three-step search algorithm pictorial. targeted for higher bit rates, broadcast video, and a vari- ety of consumer and telecommunications video and audio applications. The syntax and technical contents of neighborhood is reduced for each successive step. the standard were frozen in 1993. It is composed of four Figure 7.4-7 depicts the three-step search algorithm. parts: Systems, Video, Audio, and Conformance Testing. A 14 X 14 pixel search neighborhood is depicted. The MPEG-2 was also recommended by the ITU as H.262. search area sizes for each step are chosen so that the total The MPEG-4 project is targeted to enable content search neighborhood can be covered in finding the local developers and users to achieve various forms of inter- minimum. The search areas are square. The length of the activity with the audio-visual content of a scene, and to sides of the search area for step 1 are chosen to be larger mix synthetic and natural audio and video information in than or equal to 1/2 the length of the range of the search a seamless way. MPEG-4 te