ools and algorithms supporting the coding of Video Communications: The Whole Picture natural (pixel based) still images and video sequences as well as tools to support the compression of synthetic 2-D and 3-D graphic geometry parameters (i.e. compression of wire grid parameters, synthetic text). The MPEG-4 visual standard will support bitrates typically between 5 Kbps and 10 Mbps, progressive and interlaced video, and resolutions ranging from SQCIF to DTV. Moreover, it supports compression efficiencies from acceptable to near lossless, and will allow for random access of video such as fast forward and reverse. Spatial scalability allows decoders to decode a subset of the total bitstream generated by the encoder to reconstruct and display textures, images and video objects at reduced spatial resolution. For textures and still images, a maximum of 11 levels of spatial scalability is supported. For video sequences, a maximum of three levels is supported. Temporal scalability allows decoders to decode a subset of the total bitstream generated by the encoder to reconstruct and display video at reduced temporal resolution. A maximum of three levels is supported. Quality scalability allows a bitstream to be parsed into a number of bitstream layers of different bitrate such that the combination of only a subset of the layers can be decoded into a meaningful signal. The bitstream parsing can occur either during transmission or in the decoder. The reconstructed quality, in general, is related to the number of layers used for decoding and reconstruction. MPEG-4 supports shape coding to assist the description and composition of conventional images and video as well as arbitrarily shaped video objects. Applications that benefit from binary shape maps with images are content-based image representations for image databases, interactive games, surveillance, and animation. Error resilience assists the access of image and video over a wide range of storage and transmission media such as the useful operation of image and video comp