Activity Update from the MMSP TC

by Philip A. Chou (MMSP TC Chair 2010-2011)

The Multimedia Signal Processing Technical Committee (MMSP TC) promotes the advancement of multimedia signal processing technology with special emphasis on the interaction, coordination, synchronization, and joint processing of multimedia and multi-modality signals. In the past, the TC has also served as a home for incubating new areas that do not fall neatly into areas covered by existing TCs.

The MMSP TC organizes annual MMSP Workshops, each loosely organized around a theme. Recently, MMSP 2011was held October 17-19, in Hangzhou (“Heaven on Earth”) China, under the appropriate theme of client-cloud multimedia computing. Plenary/invited talks were given by Susie Wee (Cisco), Mauro Barni (Siena), Harry Shum (Microsoft), Thomas Stockhammer (Nomor et al.), Helen Meng (CUHK), and Pascal Frossard (EPFL). Next September, MMSP 2012 will be held in beautiful Banff, Canada, under the theme of media-sharing social networks. MMSP 2012 special sessions proposals are due February 1, regular papers are due March 15, and overview and panel proposals are due April 30. Proposals may be sent to the General Chair, Rabab Ward.

The MMSP TC is also directly involved in steering and organizing the technical program for the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), held annually in July under the sponsorship of four IEEE societies (Signal Processing, Computer, Communications, and Circuits and Systems). ICME 2011, held July 11-15 in Barcelona, Spain, was a resounding success, with 1,166 papers submitted to the conference and its associated workshops (the second highest on record), despite the newly more exclusive acceptance rate (30% for the main conference). Focused workshops are an integral part of ICME. For the second year, members of the TC organized Hot3D, an ICME workshop that encourages presentation of early stage, preliminary, and potentially disruptive technologies in 3D Multimedia. ICME 2012 will be held July 9-13 in Melbourne, Australia. ICME 2012 workshop and tutorial proposals are due November 15; regular papers are due November 28.

MMSP TC members are also involved in Society publications, awards, and numerous other activities that support the multimedia signal processing community.

New member elections for the 2012-2014 term have just been completed. Congratulations to new members Jianfei Cai, Gene Cheung, Frederick Dufaux, Lina Karam, Qi Tian, Z. Jane Wang, and Cha Zhang, and re-elected member Yen-Kuang Chen. Thanks go to members retiring at the end of this year: Jeffrey Bloom, Touradj Ebrahimi, Carlo Regazzoni, and Eckehard Steinbach. Oscar Au succeeds Phil Chou as TC Chair in January.

Anyone can join the TC as an Affiliate Member at any time by signing up here. Affiliate Members are given opportunities to help the TC with reviews, awards, and other nominations – a good way to find out what it may be like to become an elected member, without commitment. More information about the TC can be found on the TC website or by sending email to the TC Chair, Phil Chou.