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Distributed Networks: Intelligence, Security, and Applications
by Qurban A. MemonFor many civilian, security, and military applications, distributed and networked coordination offers a more promising alternative to centralized command and control in terms of scalability, flexibility, and robustness. It also introduces its own challenges. Distributed Networks: Intelligence, Security, and Applications brings together scientific research in distributed network intelligence, security, and novel applications. The book presents recent trends and advances in the theory and applications of network intelligence and helps you understand how to successfully incorporate them into distributed systems and services. Featuring contributions by leading scholars and experts from around the world, this collection covers: Approaches for distributed network intelligence Distributed models for distributed enterprises, including forecasting and performance measurement models Security applications for distributed enterprises, including intrusion tackling and peer-to-peer traffic detection Future wireless networking scenarios, including the use of software sensors instead of hardware sensors Emerging enterprise applications and trends such as the smartOR standard and innovative concepts for human–machine interaction in the operating room Several chapters use a tutorial style to emphasize the development process behind complex distributed networked systems and services, which highlights the difficulties of knowledge engineering of such systems. Delving into novel concepts, theories, and advanced technologies, this book offers inspiration for further research and development in distributed computing and networking, especially related to security solutions for distributed environments.
Distributed Optimization: Advances in Theories, Methods, and Applications
by Huaqing Li Qingguo Lü Zheng Wang Xiaofeng Liao Tingwen HuangThis book offers a valuable reference guide for researchers in distributed optimization and for senior undergraduate and graduate students alike. Focusing on the natures and functions of agents, communication networks and algorithms in the context of distributed optimization for networked control systems, this book introduces readers to the background of distributed optimization; recent developments in distributed algorithms for various types of underlying communication networks; the implementation of computation-efficient and communication-efficient strategies in the execution of distributed algorithms; and the frameworks of convergence analysis and performance evaluation. On this basis, the book then thoroughly studies 1) distributed constrained optimization and the random sleep scheme, from an agent perspective; 2) asynchronous broadcast-based algorithms, event-triggered communication, quantized communication, unbalanced directed networks, and time-varying networks, from a communication network perspective; and 3) accelerated algorithms and stochastic gradient algorithms, from an algorithm perspective. Finally, the applications of distributed optimization in large-scale statistical learning, wireless sensor networks, and for optimal energy management in smart grids are discussed.
Distributed Optimization in Networked Systems: Algorithms and Applications (Wireless Networks)
by Qingguo Lü Xiaofeng Liao Huaqing Li Shaojiang Deng Shanfu GaoThis book focuses on improving the performance (convergence rate, communication efficiency, computational efficiency, etc.) of algorithms in the context of distributed optimization in networked systems and their successful application to real-world applications (smart grids and online learning). Readers may be particularly interested in the sections on consensus protocols, optimization skills, accelerated mechanisms, event-triggered strategies, variance-reduction communication techniques, etc., in connection with distributed optimization in various networked systems. This book offers a valuable reference guide for researchers in distributed optimization and for senior undergraduate and graduate students alike.
Distributed Parameter Modeling and Boundary Control of Flexible Manipulators
by Jinkun Liu Wei HeThe book investigates fundamental issues in flexible manipulator systems, including distributed parameter modeling and boundary controller design. It presents theoretical explorations of several fundamental problems concerning the dynamics and control of these systems. By integrating fresh concepts and results to form a systematic approach to control, it also provides a basic theoretical framework.In turn, the book offers a comprehensive treatment of flexible manipulator systems, addressing topics ranging from related distributed parameter modeling and advanced boundary controller design for these systems with input constraint, to active control with output constraint.In brief, the book addresses dynamical analysis and control design for flexible manipulator systems. Though primarily intended for researchers and engineers in the control system and mechanical engineering community, it can also serve as supplemental reading on the modeling and control of flexible manipulator systems at the postgraduate level.
Distributed Perception: Resonances and Axiologies (Routledge Studies in Science, Technology and Society)
by Natasha LushetichContributors to this book include key theorists and practitioners from media theory, Native Science, bio-media and sound art, philosophy, art history and design informatics. Collectively, they examine the becoming-technique of animal-human- machinic perceptibilities; and micro-perceptions that lie beneath the threshold of known perceptions yet create energetic vibrations. Who, what, and where perceives, and how? What are the sedimentations, inscriptions and axiologies of animal, human and machinic perceptions? What are their perceptibilities? Deleuze uses the word ‘visibilities’ to indicate that visual perception isn’t just a physiological given but cues operations productive of new assemblages. Perceptibilities are, by analogy, spatio- temporal, geolocative, kinaesthetic, audio-visual, and haptic operations that are always already memory. In the case of strong inscriptions, they are also epigenetic events. The contributors show distributed perception to be a key notion in addressing the emergence and persistence of plant, animal, human and machine relations. An invaluable reference for students and scholars in a range of areas including Media Theory, Sociology, Philosophy, Art and Design.
Distributed Programming
by A. Udaya ShankarDistributed Programming: Theory and Practice presents a practical and rigorous method to develop distributed programs that correctly implement their specifications. The method also covers how to write specifications and how to use them. Numerous examples such as bounded buffers, distributed locks, message-passing services, and distributed termination detection illustrate the method. Larger examples include data transfer protocols, distributed shared memory, and TCP network sockets. Distributed Programming: Theory and Practice bridges the gap between books that focus on specific concurrent programming languages and books that focus on distributed algorithms. Programs are written in a "real-life" programming notation, along the lines of Java and Python with explicit instantiation of threads and programs. Students and programmers will see these as programs and not "merely" algorithms in pseudo-code. The programs implement interesting algorithms and solve problems that are large enough to serve as projects in programming classes and software engineering classes. Exercises and examples are included at the end of each chapter with on-line access to the solutions. Distributed Programming: Theory and Practice is designed as an advanced-level text book for students in computer science and electrical engineering. Programmers, software engineers and researchers working in this field will also find this book useful.
Distributed Real-Time Architecture for Mixed-Criticality Systems
by Hamidreza Ahmadian Roman Obermaisser Jon PerezThis book describes a cross-domain architecture and design tools for networked complex systems where application subsystems of different criticality coexist and interact on networked multi-core chips. The architecture leverages multi-core platforms for a hierarchical system perspective of mixed-criticality applications. This system perspective is realized by virtualization to establish security, safety and real-time performance. The impact further includes a reduction of time-to-market, decreased development, deployment and maintenance cost, and the exploitation of the economies of scale through cross-domain components and tools. Describes an end-to-end architecture for hypervisor-level, chip-level, and cluster level. Offers a solution for different types of resources including processors, on-chip communication, off-chip communication, and I/O. Provides a cross-domain approach with examples for wind-power, health-care, and avionics. Introduces hierarchical adaptation strategies for mixed-criticality systems Provides modular verification and certification methods for the seamless integration of mixed-criticality systems. Covers platform technologies, along with a methodology for the development process. Presents an experimental evaluation of technological results in cooperation with industrial partners. The information in this book will be extremely useful to industry leaders who design and manufacture products with distributed embedded systems in mixed-criticality use-cases. It will also benefit suppliers of embedded components or development tools used in this area. As an educational tool, this material can be used to teach students and working professionals in areas including embedded systems, computer networks, system architecture, dependability, real-time systems, and avionics, wind-power and health-care systems.
Distributed Real-Time Systems: Theory and Practice (Computer Communications and Networks)
by K. ErciyesThis classroom-tested textbook describes the design and implementation of software for distributed real-time systems, using a bottom-up approach. The text addresses common challenges faced in software projects involving real-time systems, and presents a novel method for simply and effectively performing all of the software engineering steps. Each chapter opens with a discussion of the core concepts, together with a review of the relevant methods and available software. This is then followed with a description of the implementation of the concepts in a sample kernel, complete with executable code.Topics and features: introduces the fundamentals of real-time systems, including real-time architecture and distributed real-time systems; presents a focus on the real-time operating system, covering the concepts of task, memory, and input/output management; provides a detailed step-by-step construction of a real-time operating system kernel, which is then used to test various higher level implementations; describes periodic and aperiodic scheduling, resource management, and distributed scheduling; reviews the process of application design from high-level design methods to low-level details of design and implementation; surveys real-time programming languages and fault tolerance techniques; includes end-of-chapter review questions, extensive C code, numerous examples, and a case study implementing the methods in real-world applications; supplies additional material at an associated website.Requiring only a basic background in computer architecture and operating systems, this practically-oriented work is an invaluable study aid for senior undergraduate and graduate-level students of electrical and computer engineering, and computer science. The text will also serve as a useful general reference for researchers interested in real-time systems.
Distributed Sensing and Intelligent Systems: Proceedings of ICDSIS 2020 (Studies in Distributed Intelligence)
by Mohamed Elhoseny Xiaohui Yuan Salah-Ddine KritThis book is the proceeding of the 1st International Conference on Distributed Sensing and Intelligent Systems (ICDSIS2020) which will be held in The National School of Applied Sciences of Agadir, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco on February 01-03, 2020. ICDSIS2020 is co-organized by Computer Vision and Intelligent Systems Lab, University of North Texas, USA as a scientific collaboration event with The National School of Applied Sciences of Agadir, Ibn Zohr University. ICDSIS2020 aims to foster students, researchers, academicians and industry persons in the field of Computer and Information Science, Intelligent Systems, and Electronics and Communication Engineering in general. The volume collects contributions from leading experts around the globe with the latest insights on emerging topics, and includes reviews, surveys, and research chapters covering all aspects of distributed sensing and intelligent systems. The volume is divided into 5 key sections: Distributed Sensing Applications; Intelligent Systems; Advanced theories and algorithms in machine learning and data mining; Artificial intelligence and optimization, and application to Internet of Things (IoT); and Cybersecurity and Secure Distributed Systems. This conference proceeding is an academic book which can be read by students, analysts, policymakers, and regulators interested in Distributed Sensing, Smart Network approaches, Smart Cities, IoT Applications, and Intelligent Applications. It is written in plain and easy language, and describes new concepts when they appear first so that a reader without prior background of the field finds it readable. The book is primarily intended for research students in sensor networks and IoT applications (including intelligent information systems, and smart sensors applications), academics in higher education institutions including universities and vocational colleges, policy makers and legislators.
Distributed Sensor Networks: Image and Sensor Signal Processing (Volume One) (Chapman And Hall/crc Computer And Information Science Ser. #26)
by S. Sitharama Iyengar Richard R. BrooksThe best-selling Distributed Sensor Networks became the definitive guide to understanding this far-reaching technology. Preserving the excellence and accessibility of its predecessor, Distributed Sensor Networks, Second Edition once again provides all the fundamentals and applications in one complete, self-contained source. Ideal as a tutorial for
Distributed Sensor Networks: Sensor Networking and Applications (Volume Two) (Chapman & Hall/CRC Computer and Information Science Series)
by S. Sitharama Iyengar Richard R. BrooksThe best-selling Distributed Sensor Networks became the definitive guide to understanding this far-reaching technology. Preserving the excellence and accessibility of its predecessor, Distributed Sensor Networks, Second Edition once again provides all the fundamentals and applications in one complete, self-contained source. Ideal as a tutorial for
Distributed Serverless Architectures on AWS: Design and Implement Serverless Architectures
by Jithin Jude PaulExplore the serverless world using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and develop various architectures, including those for event-driven and disaster recovery designs. This book will give you an understanding of different distributed serverless architectures and how to build them using AWS components. You will begin with an introduction to serverless components and architectures, before progressing to data platforms and containers. Next, you'll dig deeper into these serverless architectures and how they leverage AWS components through practical use cases. You will also explore designing systems in a multi-cloud paradigm. Author Jithin Jude Paul then demonstrates how efficient serverless architectures are, and the benefits of designing distributed systems globally in a cost-effective way while incorporating a microservices architectural style. Distributed Serverless Architectures with AWS concludes with a discussion of current and future trends in serverless frameworks. After completing this book, you'll be able to design distributed serverless architectures using AWS.What You'll LearnGain an overview of different serverless architectures Design and build distributed systems using serverless componentsBuild serverless data and container platforms on AWSPlan a multi-cloud strategy using serverless components Who This Book Is For Cloud engineers, DevOps engineers, and architects focused on the AWS ecosystem, as well as software engineers/developers working with AWS.
Distributed Simulation (Computer Science And Engineering Ser.)
by Udo W. Pooch John A. Hamilton David A. NashSimulation is a multi-disciplinary field, and significant simulation research is dispersed across multiple fields of study. Distributed computer systems, software design methods, and new simulation techniques offer synergistic multipliers when joined together in a distributed simulation. Systems of most interest to the simulation practitioner are often the most difficult to model and implement. Distributed Simulation brings together the many complex technologies for distributed simulation. There is strong emphasis on emerging simulation methodologies, including object-oriented, multilevel, and multi-resolution simulation. Finally, one concise text provides a strong foundation for the development of high fidelity simulations in heterogeneous distributed computing environments!
Distributed Simulation
by Okan Topçu Umut Durak Halit Oğuztüzün Levent YilmazThis uniquetext/reference provides a comprehensive review of distributed simulation (DS)from the perspective of Model Driven Engineering (MDE), illustrating how MDEaffects the overall lifecycle of the simulation development process. Numerouspractical case studies are included to demonstrate the utility andapplicability of the methodology, many of which are developed from toolsavailable to download from the public domain. Topics and features: Provides a thorough introduction to the fundamental concepts, principles and processes of modeling and simulation, MDE and high-level architecture Describes a road map for building a DS system in accordance with the MDE perspective, and a technical framework for the development of conceptual models Presents a focus on federate (simulation environment) architectures, detailing a practical approach to the design of federations (i. e. , simulation member design) Discusses the main activities related to scenario management in DS, and explores the process of MDE-based implementation, integration and testing Reviews approaches to simulation evolution and modernization, including architecture-driven modernization for simulation modernization Examines the potential synergies between the agent, DS, and MDE methodologies, suggesting avenues for future research at the intersection of these three fields Distributed Simulation -A Model Driven Engineering Approach is an important resource for allresearchers and practitioners involved in modeling and simulation, and softwareengineering, who may be interested in adopting MDE principles when developingcomplex DS systems.
Distributed Space-Time Coding
by Yindi JingDistributed Space-Time Coding (DSTC) is a cooperative relaying scheme that enables high reliability in wireless networks. This brief presents the basic concept of DSTC, its achievable performance, generalizations, code design, and differential use. Recent results on training design and channel estimation for DSTC and the performance of training-based DSTC are also discussed.
Distributed Storage Networks
by Thomas C. JepsenThe worldwide market for SAN and NAS storage is anticipated to grow from US $2 billion in 1999 to over $25 billion by 2004. As business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce matures, even greater demands for management of stored data will arise.With the rapid increase in data storage requirements in the last decade, efficient management of stored data becomes a necessity for the enterprise. A recent UC-Berkeley study predicts that 150,000 terabytes of disk storage will be shipped in 2003. Most financial, insurance, healthcare, and telecommunications institutions are in the process of implementing storage networks that are distributed to some degree. For these institutions, data integrity is critical, and they will spend much time and money on planning.One of the primary obstacles to implementing a storage network cited by enterprise IT managers is a lack of knowledge about storage networking technology and the specific issues involved in extending a Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network Attached Storage (NAS) over the Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN) or Wireless Area Networks (WAN). Distributed Storage Networks : Architecture, Protocols and Management addresses the "terminology gap" between enterprise network planners and telecommunications engineers, who must understand the transport requirements of storage networks in order to implement distributed storage networks. Jepsen comprehensively provides IT managers, planners, and telecommunications professionals with the information they need in order to choose the technologies best suited for their particular environment.* Addresses a hot topic that will become increasingly important in the coming years* Enables high-level managers and planners to make intelligent decisions about network needs.* Includes example network configurations providing solutions to typical user scenarios* Fills the "terminology gap" between enterprise network managers and telecommunications engineers who must understand the transport requirements of storage networks in order to implement distributed storage area networksA fundamental resource for all network managers, planners and network design engineers, as well as telecommunications engineers and engineering, computer science, and information technology students.
Distributed System Design
by Jie WuFuture requirements for computing speed, system reliability, and cost-effectiveness entail the development of alternative computers to replace the traditional von Neumann organization. As computing networks come into being, one of the latest dreams is now possible - distributed computing. Distributed computing brings transparent access to as much computer power and data as the user needs for accomplishing any given task - simultaneously achieving high performance and reliability.The subject of distributed computing is diverse, and many researchers are investigating various issues concerning the structure of hardware and the design of distributed software. Distributed System Design defines a distributed system as one that looks to its users like an ordinary system, but runs on a set of autonomous processing elements (PEs) where each PE has a separate physical memory space and the message transmission delay is not negligible. With close cooperation among these PEs, the system supports an arbitrary number of processes and dynamic extensions.Distributed System Design outlines the main motivations for building a distributed system, including:inherently distributed applicationsperformance/costresource sharingflexibility and extendibilityavailability and fault tolerancescalabilityPresenting basic concepts, problems, and possible solutions, this reference serves graduate students in distributed system design as well as computer professionals analyzing and designing distributed/open/parallel systems.Chapters discuss:the scope of distributed computing systemsgeneral distributed programming languages and a CSP-like distributed control description language (DCDL)expressing parallelism, interprocess communication and synchronization, and fault-tolerant designtwo approaches describing a distributed system: the time-space view and the interleaving viewmutual exclusion and related issues, including election, bidding, and self-stabilizationprevention and detection of deadlockreliability, safety, and security as well as various methods of handling node, communication, Byzantine, and software faultsefficient interprocessor communication mechanisms as well as these mechanisms without specific constraints, such as adaptiveness, deadlock-freedom, and fault-tolerancevirtual channels and virtual networksload distribution problemssynchronization of access to shared data while supporting a high degree of concurrency
Distributed Systems: Theory and Applications
by Ratan K. Ghosh Hiranmay GhoshDistributed Systems Comprehensive textbook resource on distributed systems—integrates foundational topics with advanced topics of contemporary importance within the field Distributed Systems: Theory and Applications is organized around three layers of abstractions: networks, middleware tools, and application framework. It presents data consistency models suited for requirements of innovative distributed shared memory applications. The book also focuses on distributed processing of big data, representation of distributed knowledge and management of distributed intelligence via distributed agents. To aid in understanding how these concepts apply to real-world situations, the work presents a case study on building a P2P Integrated E-Learning system. Downloadable lecture slides are included to help professors and instructors convey key concepts to their students. Additional topics discussed in Distributed Systems: Theory and Applications include: Network issues and high-level communication tools Software tools for implementations of distributed middleware. Data sharing across distributed components through publish and subscribe-based message diffusion, gossip protocol, P2P architecture and distributed shared memory. Consensus, distributed coordination, and advanced middleware for building large distributed applications Distributed data and knowledge management Autonomy in distributed systems, multi-agent architecture Trust in distributed systems, distributed ledger, Blockchain and related technologies. Researchers, industry professionals, and students in the fields of science, technology, and medicine will be able to use Distributed Systems: Theory and Applications as a comprehensive textbook resource for understanding distributed systems, the specifics behind the modern elements which relate to them, and their practical applications.
Distributed Systems: An Algorithmic Approach, Second Edition (Chapman And Hall/crc Computer And Information Science Ser.)
by Sukumar GhoshDistributed Systems: An Algorithmic Approach, Second Edition provides a balanced and straightforward treatment of the underlying theory and practical applications of distributed computing. As in the previous version, the language is kept as unobscured as possible-clarity is given priority over mathematical formalism. This easily digestible text:Fea
Distributed Systems and Applications of Information Filtering and Retrieval
by Cristian Lai Alessandro Giuliani Giovanni SemeraroThis volume focuses on new challenges in distributed Information Filtering and Retrieval. It collects invited chapters and extended research contributions from the special session on Information Filtering and Retrieval: Novel Distributed Systems and Applications (DART) of the 4th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval (KDIR 2012), held in Barcelona, Spain, on 4-7 October 2012. The main focus of DART was to discuss and compare suitable novel solutions based on intelligent techniques and applied to real-world applications. The chapters of this book present a comprehensive review of related works and state of the art. Authors, both practitioners and researchers, shared their results in several topics such as "Multi-Agent Systems", "Natural Language Processing", "Automatic Advertisement", "Customer Interaction Analytics", "Opinion Mining". Contributions have been careful reviewed by experts in the area, who also gave useful suggestions to improve the quality of the volume.
Distributed Systems with Node.js
by Thomas Hunter IIMany companies, from startups to Fortune 500 companies alike, use Node.js to build performant backend services. And engineers love Node.js for its approachable API and familiar syntax. Backed by the world's largest package repository, Node's enterprise foothold is only expected to grow.In this hands-on guide, author Thomas Hunter II proves that Node.js is just as capable as traditional enterprise platforms for building services that are observable, scalable, and resilient. Intermediate to advanced Node.js developers will find themselves integrating application code with a breadth of tooling from each layer of a modern service stack.Learn why running redundant copies of the same Node.js service is necessaryKnow which protocol to choose, depending on the situationFine-tune your application containers for use in productionTrack down errors in a distributed setting to determine which service is at faultSimplify app code and increase performance by offloading work to a reverse proxyBuild dashboards to monitor service health and throughputFind out why so many different tools are required when operating in an enterprise environment
Distributed Tracing in Practice: Instrumenting, Analyzing, and Debugging Microservices
by Austin Parker Daniel Spoonhower Jonathan Mace Ben Sigelman Rebecca IsaacsMost applications today are distributed in some fashion. Monitoring the health and performance of these distributed architectures requires a new approach. Enter distributed tracing, a method of profiling and monitoring applications—especially those that use microservice architectures. There’s just one problem: distributed tracing can be hard. But it doesn’t have to be.With this practical guide, you’ll learn what distributed tracing is and how to use it to understand the performance and operation of your software. Key players at Lightstep walk you through instrumenting your code for tracing, collecting the data that your instrumentation produces, and turning it into useful, operational insights. If you want to start implementing distributed tracing, this book tells you what you need to know.You’ll learn:The pieces of a distributed tracing deployment: Instrumentation, data collection, and delivering valueBest practices for instrumentation (the methods for generating trace data from your service)How to deal with or avoid overhead, costs, and samplingHow to work with spans (the building blocks of request-based distributed traces) and choose span characteristics that lead to valuable tracesWhere distributed tracing is headed in the future
Distributed User Interfaces
by José A. Gallud Victor M.R. Penichet Ricardo TesorieroThe recent advances in display technologies and mobile devices is having an important effect on the way users interact with all kinds of devices (computers, mobile devices, laptops, tablets, and so on). These are opening up new possibilities for interaction, including the distribution of the UI (User Interface) amongst different devices, and implies that the UI can be split and composed, moved, copied or cloned among devices running the same or different operating systems. These new ways of manipulating the UI are considered under the emerging topic of Distributed User Interfaces (DUIs). DUIs are concerned with the repartition of one of many elements from one or many user interfaces in order to support one or many users to carry out one or many tasks on one or many domains in one or many contexts of use - each context of use consisting of users, platforms, and environments. The 20 chapters in the book cover between them the state-of-the-art, the foundations, and original applications of DUIs. Case studies are also included, and the book culminates with a review of interesting and novel applications that implement DUIs in different scenarios.
Distributed User Interfaces: Usability and Collaboration
by María D. Lozano José A. Gallud Ricardo Tesoriero Víctor M. R. PenichetWritten by international researchers in the field of Distributed User Interfaces (DUIs), this book brings together important contributions regarding collaboration and usability in Distributed User Interface settings. Throughout the thirteen chapters authors address key questions concerning how collaboration can be improved by using DUIs, including: in which situations a DUI is suitable to ease the collaboration among users; how usability standards can be used to evaluate the usability of systems based on DUIs; and accurately describe case studies and prototypes implementing these concerns. Under a collaborative scenario, users sharing common goals may take advantage of DUI environments to carry out their tasks more successfully because DUIs provide a shared environment where the users are allowed to manipulate information in the same space and at the same time. Under this hypothesis, collaborative DUI scenarios open new challenges to usability evaluation techniques and methods. Distributed User Interfaces: Collaboration and Usability presents an integrated view of different approaches related to Collaboration and Usability in Distributed User Interface settings, which demonstrate the state of the art, as well as future directions in this novel and rapidly evolving subject area.
Distributed Video Sensor Networks
by Bir Bhanu Demetri Terzopoulos Amit K. Roy-Chowdhury Hamid Aghajan Chinya V. RavishankarLarge-scale video networks are of increasing importance in a wide range of applications. However, the development of automated techniques for aggregating and interpreting information from multiple video streams in real-life scenarios is a challenging area of research. Collecting the work of leading researchers from a broad range of disciplines, this timely text/reference offers an in-depth survey of the state of the art in distributed camera networks. The book addresses a broad spectrum of critical issues in this highly interdisciplinary field: current challenges and future directions; video processing and video understanding; simulation, graphics, cognition and video networks; wireless video sensor networks, communications and control; embedded cameras and real-time video analysis; applications of distributed video networks; and educational opportunities and curriculum-development. Topics and features: presents an overview of research in areas of motion analysis, invariants, multiple cameras for detection, object tracking and recognition, and activities in video networks; provides real-world applications of distributed video networks, including force protection, wide area activities, port security, and recognition in night-time environments; describes the challenges in graphics and simulation, covering virtual vision, network security, human activities, cognitive architecture, and displays; examines issues of multimedia networks, registration, control of cameras (in simulations and real networks), localization and bounds on tracking; discusses system aspects of video networks, with chapters on providing testbed environments, data collection on activities, new integrated sensors for airborne sensors, face recognition, and building sentient spaces; investigates educational opportunities and curriculum development from the perspective of computer science and electrical engineering. This unique text will be of great interest to researchers and graduate students of computer vision and pattern recognition, computer graphics and simulation, image processing and embedded systems, and communications, networks and controls. The large number of example applications will also appeal to application engineers.