JPEG Offers On-line Test Facility for its Standards
The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is a Working Group of ISO/IEC, the International Organisation for Standardization / International Electrotechnical Commission, (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC29/WG 1) and of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T SG16), responsible for the popular JPEG, JPEG 2000 and more recently, the JPSearch and JPEG XR families of imaging standards. The WG1 group meets nominally three times a year, in Europe, North America and Asia. The latest meeting was held on January 21, 2013, at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland hosted by the Swiss National Body. The meeting was organized in conjunction with the 2nd International Workshop On Standards And Technologies In Multimedia Archives And Records (STAR2013).
The WG1 group has also launched a systematic review and consolidation of its file formats and codestream syntax with a view to consolidating the benefits of the JPEG system of standards and enabling new functionalities. In this, the JPEG committee intends to extend and expand JPSEC (JPEG 2000 - Part 8) technologies to its other compression standards such as JPEG and JPEG XR, particularly taking care that back and forward compatibility is not broken and hence legacy codecs and applications are supported. These privacy and security extension will support the secured exchange of image and metadata. WG1 requests all parties that are interested in this topic to contribute to the next WG1 meeting (61st at Korea) and join the discussion to improve Use case scenario and Requirements.
JPEG further explores standardization of an image compression format to deliver HDR imagery using JPEG. In this context, comprehensive guidelines for codec evaluation with a specific focus on high dynamic range and S3D images are being defined. JPEG is pleased to announce that the first working drafts of its new work item, JPEG extensions, were completed, and that work proceeded well from our last meeting. Part-1 of the new work item specifies a core coding system that reflects the most popular use cases of our legacy JPEG standard. Part-2 carefully extends the core coding system for high-dynamic range data, still allowing legacy applications access to allow dynamic range version of the image contained within. Contributions to the HDR activity are welcomed for discussion at the next JPEG meeting.
JPEG continues its study of display stream compression technology by reviewing technical requirements and recommending evaluation criteria and test methodology. This study is performed in close collaboration with the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), which is developing technology recommendations for leading companies in consumer and commercial IT electronics.
The JPEG committee is pleased to offer an online test facility of its past and present standards, allowing the public to evaluate our standards on images from our core experiments set also used internally for testing. Please browse to http://jpegonline.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/index.py for our online test facility for everyone.
“JPEG Systems will be an important framework to ensure interoperability and functionality exchange between JPEG standards. The current activities with respect to HDR extensions and privacy & security are important precursors of larger standardization effort.” said Dr. Daniel Lee, Convener of the JPEG committee.
The JPEG web site has sponsorship opportunities for all companies involved in developments around JPEG. The marketing departments of interested companies should contact the webmaster, Richard Clark (webmaster@jpeg.org) for this high-traffic site.
The next (61st )WG 1 Meeting and its ad hoc group meetings will be held on April 22-26, 2013, in Incheon, Korea, hosted by the Korean National Body.
More information about JPEG and its work is available at www.jpeg.org or by contacting Iraj Sodagar and Peter Schelkens, the JPEG PR ad hoc group at pr@jpeg.org.