标准化是产业化活动成功的前提，视、音频编码的各种国际标准的制定集中地反映了视、音频编码技术发展的水平．目前，图象压缩方面的标准主要有MPEG系列(MPEG-1，MPEG-2，MPEG-4，MPEG-7和MPEG-21标准)，以及H．26X系列(H．261，H．263标准)和静止图象压缩标准JPEG．为了使人们对图象压缩标准有所了解，以进一步推动图象压缩方面的研究，首先对MPEG系列的各种已有标准及其应用进行了概述，然后着重讨论了MPEG中的新面孔——正在开发的MPEG-21标准，并就其目标、用户需求、技术要素、关键任务、应用领域以及工作计划做了较详细的描述．

Solutions with advanced multimedia functionality are becoming increasingly important as individuals are producing more and more digital media, not only for professional use but also for their personal use. With the increasing use of network and multimedia technologies, all kinds of compression standards of multimedia information are widely concerned. In order to push forward the research and development of compression technologies in China, a summary and general overview on matters of MPEG compression standards for coded representation of digital audio and video is provided. At first, all kinds of existed MPEG international standards MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MPEG-7 and their basic applications are reviewed in this paper. Then, the new\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\ncompression standard element-MPEG-21 multimedia framework is emphasized and discussed about its target,\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nuser's need, technical elements, key issues, main characteristics, application domain and future work plan.