The2002IEEEPaci?cRimConferenceonMultimedia(PCM2002)isthethird annualconferenceoncutting-edgemultimediatechnologiesandwasheldatTsing HuaUniversity,Hsinchu,Taiwan,December16-18,2002.HsinchuCity,located about70kmtothesouthofTaipei,isknownasTaiwan'sSiliconValley,where hundredsofsuccessfulhi-techcompanies,twomajornationaluniversities,several research centers, and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) are clusteredtoformandreinforcethe"Science-BasedIndustrialPark."Thecon- rencecomplementedthiswonderfulsettingbyprovidingaforumforpresenting andexploringtechnologicalandartisticadvancementsinmultimedia.Technical issues, theory and practice, and artistic and consumer innovations brought - getherresearchers,artists,developers,educators,performers,andpractitioners ofmultimediafromthePaci?cRimandaroundtheworld. Thetechnicalprogramfeaturedacomprehensiveprogramincludingkeynote speeches, tutorials, special sessions, regular paper presentations, and technical demonstrations. We received 224 papers and accepted 154 of them.
We ack- wledge the great contribution from all of our committee members and paper reviewerswhodevotedtheirtimetoreviewingsubmittedpapersandproviding valuablecommentsfortheauthors. PCM 2002 could never have been successful without the support and - sistance of several institutions and many people. We sincerely appreciate the supportoftheNationalScienceCouncilandtheMinistryofEducationofT- wans, ROC. The ?nancial sponsorships from the Institute of Applied Science &EngineeringResearchofAcademiaSinica,SunplusTechnologyCo.,Ltd.,the Institute for Information Industry, Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories, AIPTEK International, Inc., the MOE Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities,andOpto-Electronics&SystemsLab/ITRIarealsogratefullya- nowledged. Our sincere gratitude goes to our advisory committee chairs: Prof. Sun-Yuan Kung of Princeton University, Dr. Bor-Shenn Jeng of CHT Labs of Taiwan,andProf.H.Y.MarkLiaoofAcademiaSinicaofTaiwan.Deepthanks gototheIEEESignalProcessingSocietyandtheCircuitsandSystemsSociety fortechnicalco-sponsorship.