This is the last in a series of three books about multimedia, focusing on applications and associated generic services. The authors say that, despite being part of a series, this work can be used as a standalone book. The book’s primary purpose is as a reference on multimedia applications. Toward that end, the authors try to provide overview structures that integrate each chapter’s subject matter, chapter details, and major issues. Each chapter includes some design tradeoffs, and references that are primarily academic research efforts from the 1990s. The authors point out that the book can also be used as a textbook. An online Web site provides some assistance, in the form of charts that instructors can incorporate into classroom lectures. However, there are no end-of-chapter questions.

The first chapter serves as an introduction to the book’s topic. The second chapter discusses databases and related services. Chapter 3 covers programming, and chapter 4 contains an excellent discussion of security. Chapter 5 discusses multimedia documents, otherwise known as hypermedia, and chapter 6 covers design. Chapters 7 and 8 cover user interfaces, and multimedia learning (which includes an excellent discussion of standardizing efforts on the part of various international bodies). The ninth chapter is oddly titled “Multimedia Applications.”

The chapters on databases; programming; and documents, hypertext, and hypermedia cover mostly routine computer science topics. The very brief and terse discussions of Microsoft’s DirectX and ActiveX were most welcome. It might have been nice, however, if there had at least been pointers to some of the more current, even commercial, efforts, such as methods of programming for voice and streaming media. The design chapter covers a reasonable set of topics, and makes some assertions about design style, including the current direction, namely, “giving up readability to gain attention.” Several of the Web examples in this chapter are in German.

The excellent and well-written chapter on security reminds us that this is a book about multimedia applications. It clearly talks about security as related to multimedia, and not just security with multimedia added at the end, as an afterthought. The discussion covers topics from digital watermarking and encryption to hiding information in images using steganographic methods.

There are many things to like about this book. Most of the definitions are unusually clear, despite being terse. The broad view of what multimedia is, and what is required to deliver a multimedia application, is right on target. The overview figures, attempting to provide the topics with structure, are helpful. Twenty-first century multimedia applications make up a huge field; choosing what to write about can be very difficult. These authors picked some interesting topics. They chose to clearly delineate issues and design tradeoffs, which is always good for both reference and text books.

Some improvements would be welcome. The last chapter, “Multimedia Applications,” on first glance at the table of contents, instantly struck me as a thirteenth chime that made me doubt the other twelve. It is an example of the unforgivable sin of giving a member of a set the same name as the whole set. As one who always reads the last chapter first, I found that this chapter contained basic definitions, followed by an introduction to a ubiquitous computing research project, iLand. For the benefit of the majority of readers, who do not read the last chapter first, this last chapter should definitely have been the first chapter, titled “Introduction.” As a further improvement, the iLand example could have been annotated with notes saying where various chapters’ roles and issues fit.

For a textbook, the organization is somewhat lacking. There is no real linkage between chapters and chapters’ issues, which students would find beneficial. There are some areas that would be nice to see covered in more detail. Some of the chapters are considerably better written than others. Some chapters start out by developing points well, but then leave the reader hanging. For example, in the beginning of the chapter on multimedia learning, the authors went out of their way to discuss three different learning approaches, and provided a very nice summary table. However, this has no connection to the rest of the chapter. It might have been nice to have some actual data on the effects of these different examples’ approaches to learning. There is no common organization among chapters. Most chapters have closing remarks that are variously called “Conclusions,” “Further Reading,” “Summary,” “Final Remarks,” or “Closing Remarks.”

This is an appealing reference book for experienced computer scientists, but, particularly as a standalone book, it may present a challenge for students.