Joint Photographic Experts Group - Often referred to as JPEG, this group agreed upon an image compression standard (ISO 10918) which bears its name. The file format, considered lossy because of its estimation of similar blocks of pixels, encodes the image using a combination of up to 29 distinct coding processes.

LINDA – This is a very popular distributed development application used today. Developed at Yale University, this environment is based upon a shared memory approach where each computer on the network accesses shared data.

Linux – (often pronounced LIH-nuhks with a short "i") An operating system similar to commercial versions of UNIX. This OS is freely distributed, provides excellent networking tools, and has extensive documentation.

Motion Pictures Expert Group – Often referred to as MPEG (pronounced EHM-pehg), this compression scheme has expanded to become the international and industry standard for video compression. While the MPEG family actually consists of a suite of algorithms, this project will focus specifically on the MPEG-1 compression scheme base on previous work by the Berkley MPEG Group.

Parallel Virtual Machine – Often referred to as PVM, this is one of the most popular distributed development applications available today. Developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, this particular environment is based on an independent memory approach, with each computer controlling its own data. The source code is freely distributed.

"Real-Time" – This term is used to describe a compression rate. This term varies between rates of 20 to 30 frames per second for video compression.

RSH - A built-in UNIX command that sends standard input from the local host to the remote command and receives standard output and standard error from the remote command.

Spatial Redundancy – This term, often used with multimedia applications, refers to a high occurrence of similarities in various regions of an image. Specifically, it refers to similarities found between small, adjacent areas of an image at a set instance in time.

Temporal Redundancy – This term, often used with multimedia applications, refers to the high probability for consistency an image has over short periods of time. Specifically, it refers to the fact that small areas of an image tend to stay in the same place or move as a unit to a new location over short periods of time.

YUV – These gamma corrected RGB values are an industry standard for raw pixel formats. Both planar and packed types of this format are used to represent the luminance/chrominance color space.