motion estimation and compensation for very low bitrate video coding

Introduction
Preamble
1998 2010
Since the early ages of prehistory,
mankind has slowly but
in an inextinguishable way
tried to understand their environment
so as to adapt themselves
to it and, whenever possible,
in uence it. It probably
started in Mesopotamia,
the \cradle of civilization",
where Sumerians (3500-3000
BC) erected the rst cities
and invented the wheel. Writing,
agriculture and many
other characteristics of our
modern age were invented at
that time. The well-known
civilizations of Egypt and of
the Indus valley pursued the
initial movement of what we
today mean with \progress".
The movie was particularly
long and when Joauma got
out of the theater it was already
dark. She had been
deeply moved (or was it intrigued?)
by the story and
she was not paying attention
to the road. When Daddy
made the car turn right and
stopped in front of the house,
she suddenly had to get out
though she did not want to.
She slowly entered home and
climbed the stairs. She put
on her pyjamas but could not
get to sleep. She opened the
window, looked at the desert
street under the faint light of
the lamp and listened to the
silence of the night.