Focus On: Technical Committee on Information Assurance & Intelligent Multimedia- Mobile Communications

The widespread nature of multimedia processing technologies and the rapid growth of network access
availability have enabled many powerful and creative applications. Digital multimedia content, can be
created, edited, distributed, shared, and stored with convenience at a very low cost over the mobile and
ad hoc nature of today’s various networks. The use of emerging technologies and systems based on
wireless networks has further facilitated the universal occurrence of multimedia data. Although the
progress of these new technologies has been viewed as helping individuals to achieve better
communications, this has created the possibility for malicious attackers to compromise the
confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and corrupt both personal and mission critical data.
Moreover, as our dependence on digital systems keeps growing, denial of service attacks have become
a growing threat. Thus, with the increasing sophistication and ubiquity of sharing and distribution of data
over a plethora of networks, the complexity and challenges of untrustworthy behavior as well as cyber
attacks represent increasing vulnerabilities. Furthermore, modern generations of programmable mobile
systems are endowed with low-cost high-resolution digital cameras and can provide new opportunities for
mass deployment in applications that involve the use of multimedia content.

Our Mission

To facilitate, engage and coordinate Information Assurance & Intelligent Multimedia- Mobile
Communications members to:

  1. Assess the current state-of-the-art in Information Assurance & Intelligent Multimedia- Mobile
    Communications theory, systems, and technology;
  2. Sponsor publications, conferences, technical sessions, workshops, and other information
    exchanges on architectures, applications, systems, and technologies
  3. Identify new concepts and relevant technology trends;
  4. Recognize enabling technologies for future tools that improve knowledge for the betterment of
    society and the global environment

Our Vision

To foster international cooperation in advancing the state-of-the-art in Information Assurance &
Multimedia- Mobile Communications scientific information, resources, and technologies

Our Goals

To help researchers and developers exchange ideas on expanding current and building novel intelligent
communications systems; to bring together researchers and engineers from all parts of the world with an
active interest in the planning, design, process, management and governance of networks in the areas of
multimedia-mobile communications with the center of attention on security, digital forensic
authentication, transmission and detection of sensitive information via communication systems. The
committee is also looking forward to motivate both the theory and applications of this research, advocate
their development, disseminate state-of-the-art scientific information and resources, and to establish
successful associations with the key experts from academia, industry, government, and information
technology consultants.

The co-chairs (from left to right above) of the TC are Dr. Philip Chen (University of Macau, China), Dr. Aram Arakelyan (Yerevan State University, Armenia) and Dr. Sos Agaian (The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA).

The TC currently includes 25 members from 10 countries. Many of them are well-established and
respected leaders in the field of human-computing systems, and have served in SMC in various
capacities all the way back to the beginning of SMC. Furthermore, they are active researchers in this
emerging area, and particularly have:

  1. Organized special sessions on Multimedia-Mobile Communications and information Assurance
    in many conferences, in which most were sponsored by the IEEE SMC Society, special issues for IEEE
    Transactions,
  2. organized special issues for IEEE Transactions
  3. transferred of the knowledge and discoveries into the marketplace for society’s use and benefit
  4. Our goals for the next five years include increasing the number of members, organizing special
    sessions at IEEE SMC conferences and other flagship conferences, publishing special issues of on
    Information Assurance & Intelligent Multimedia- Mobile Communications on journals, and consolidating
    events such as workshops, competitions, and panels to facilitate university- university/industry
    interactions
  5. Continue organizing special sessions for each annual SMC International Conference
  6. Continue soliciting and reviewing high-quality papers for SMC IEEE Transactions
  7. Continue Serving as Guest editors for IEEE Transactions on Cybernetic
  8. Continue Organizing IEEE SMC cosponsored conferences and workshops
  9. The development of special issues of the IEEE Transactions
  10. Continue encouraging student participation by supporting the student-focused IEEE SMC co-sponsored conference
  11. Participating in paper reviews and selecting, organization special sessions for CMS
  12. Preparing technical papers for submission to the IEEE Transactions
  13. Networking opportunities with peers and experts in the field; exchange of research ideas and
    the sharing of research resources
  14. Nominate suitable candidates for SMC and IEEE awards, propose distinguished lecturer
    candidates, endorse deserving candidates for the election to IEEE Senior Member and Fellow grade,
    make contributions to standards in an organized form.

Important Papers

  1. Agaian, S.; Tang, J.; Jassim, S.; Chen, C. L. P.; Zhang, C.; Cao, Y. , “Introduction to the
    Special Issue on Pattern Recognition Technologies for Anti-Terrorism Applications , Guest Editorial,
    IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C: Applications and Reviews, Vol. 41,
    Issue: 5, Page(s) 561 – 564, 2011
  2. Yicong Zhou, Karen Panetta, Sos Agaian, and C. L. Philip Chen, “(n, k, p)-Gray Code for Image
    Systems,” IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 515-529, 2013.
  3. Karen Panetta, Sos Agaian, Yicong Zhou, and Eric Wharton, “Parameterized Logarithmic
    Framework for Image Enhancement,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part B:
    Cybernetics, vol. 41,no. 2, pp. 460-473, 2011
  4. Karen A. Panetta, Chen Gao, Sos. S. Agaian, No Reference Color Image Contrast and Quality
    Measures, IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, volume 59, Number 3, Page(s): 643-651,
    2013
  5. Shahan C. Nercessian, Karen A. Panetta, Sos. S. Agaian, Non-linear Direct Multi-scale Image
    Enhancement Based on the Luminance and Contrast Masking Characteristics of the Human Visual
    System, IEEE Transactions on Image Processing,Vol. 22 , Issue: 9 Page(s): 3549 – 3561, 2013
  6. Karen A Panetta, Eric J Wharton, Sos S Agaian, “Human visual system-based image
    enhancement and logarithmic contrast measure” Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics,
    IEEE Transactions page(s), 174-188 vol. 38, 2008