Pushed by the tremendous technological and societal changes of the last decade, multimedia is emerging more and more as the cornerstone of next generation information and communication technologies. Mobile devices, sensors, embedded systems, high-performance computing, broadband networks, and 3-D are some of the technologies that are pervading a generation of users that are more and more exigent and proactive. Evolving from a simple integration of existing technologies to a mutually aware, interdisciplinary development of new technologies is the biggest challenge of the multimedia SP (MMSP) community. In this article, we will list some of the most promising research trends that have recently emerged in MMSP.