A New Look at Books: E-books
01 Jul 2001-Iete Technical Review (Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers)-Vol. 18, Iss: 4, pp 343-352
TL;DR: A novel scheme for construction and delivery of legacy documents in Indian and other languages in the form of e-books with the facility of hyper-linking and indexing of various logical components in the document image is proposed.
Abstract: E-book refers to books in Electronic form. In this paper we provide a review of the technological issues involved in design and construction of e-books. We also address the issues involved in designing e-books in Indian languages. We have proposed a novel scheme for construction and delivery of legacy documents (in Indian and other languages) in the form of e-books with the facility of hyper-linking and indexing of various logical components in the document image.
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01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: WBIIS as mentioned in this paper applies a Daubechies' wavelet transform for each of the three opponent color components, and the wavelet coefficients in the lowest few frequency bands, and their variances, are stored as feature vectors.
Abstract: This paper describes WBIIS (Wavelet-Based Image Indexing and Searching), a new image indexing and retrieval algorithm with partial sketch image search- ing capability for large image databases. The algorithm characterizes the color variations over the spatial extent of the image in a manner that provides semantically meaningful image comparisons. The indexing algorithm applies a Daubechies' wavelet transform for each of the three opponent color components. The wavelet coeA- cients in the lowest few frequency bands, and their variances, are stored as feature vectors. To speed up retrieval, a two-step procedure is used that first does a crude selection based on the variances, and then refines the search by performing a feature vector match between the selected images and the query. For better accuracy in searching, two-level multiresolution matching may also be used. Masks are used for partial-sketch queries. This technique performs much better in capturing coherence of image, object granularity, local color/texture, and bias avoidance than traditional color layout algorithms. WBIIS is much faster and more accurate than traditional algorithms. When tested on a database of more than 10000 general-purpose images, the best 100 matches were found in 3.3 seconds.
363 citations
TL;DR: Comparison of shape-adaptive wavelet coding with other coding schemes for arbitrarily shaped visual objects shows that shape- Adaptive Wavelet coding always achieves better coding efficiency than other schemes.
Abstract: This paper presents a shape-adaptive wavelet coding technique for coding arbitrarily shaped still texture. This technique includes shape-adaptive discrete wavelet transforms (SA-DWTs) and extensions of zerotree entropy (ZTE) coding and embedded zerotree wavelet (EZW) coding. Shape-adaptive wavelet coding is needed for efficiently coding arbitrarily shaped visual objects, which is essential for object-oriented multimedia applications. The challenge is to achieve high coding efficiency while satisfying the functionality of representing arbitrarily shaped visual texture. One of the features of the SA-DWTs is that the number of coefficients after SA-DWTs is identical to the number of pixels in the original arbitrarily shaped visual object. Another feature of the SA-DWT is that the spatial correlation, locality properties of wavelet transforms, and self-similarity across subbands are well preserved in the SA-DWT. Also, for a rectangular region, the SA-DWT becomes identical to the conventional wavelet transforms. For the same reason, the extentions of ZTE and EZW to coding arbitrarily shaped visual objects carefully treat "don't care" nodes in the wavelet trees. Comparison of shape-adaptive wavelet coding with other coding schemes for arbitrarily shaped visual objects shows that shape-adaptive wavelet coding always achieves better coding efficiency than other schemes. One implementation of the shape-adaptive wavelet coding technique has been included in the new multimedia coding standard MPEG-4 for coding arbitrarily shaped still texture. Software implementation is also available.
253 citations
TL;DR: Electronic book and document readers will neither replace paper nor will they replace desktop computers, Instead, they will occupy their own unique and valuable role in the authors' lives, bringing the paper and computer worlds closer together.
Abstract: In the 1970s, Alan Kay and his colleagues at Xerox PARC envisioned a dynamic, interactive electronic book. Now, nearly 30 years later, that vision has become a reality. A new kind of personal information appliance-the reading appliance-is emerging as a tool for serious readers. But is the world ready for reading appliances? The authors believe that these appliances are indeed viable. Advances in mobile hardware have made it possible to build the necessary hardware. Additionally, the Web has created a market for online reading by introducing millions of people to it, and books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, and other printed matter can be produced and read at very low cost. Network based digital libraries increase the availability of information, but people still tend to print the documents to work with them. Electronic book and document readers will neither replace paper nor will they replace desktop computers. Instead, they will occupy their own unique and valuable role in our lives, bringing the paper and computer worlds closer together.
102 citations
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TL;DR: In the 1970s, Alan Kay and his colleagues at Xerox PARC envisioned a dynamic, interactive electronic book, and now, nearly 30 years later, that vision has become a reality.
Abstract: In the 1970s, Alan Kay and his colleagues at Xerox PARC envisioned a dynamic, interactive electronic book. Now, nearly 30 years later, that vision has become a reality. A new kind of personal infor...
56 citations
TL;DR: The article looks at technology trends, current design issues, and future prospects for e-books, as well as suggesting directions for the future of reading.
Abstract: E-books serve the needs of people reading text information in digital formats. The article looks at technology trends, current design issues, and future prospects for e-books. A number of dramatic changes and innovations have affected reading and information dissemination over the ages, with the most recent being the Web and portable information appliances. Trends in technology suggest further improvements to come that will enable even better e-book designs with large volumes of content material made easily accessible and available. Current device designs and e-commerce models suggest directions for the future of reading.
48 citations