ITU-T
together with the Independent Joint Photographic Expert Group (IJG) is
celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the formation of the CCITT/ITU-T and
ISO Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) with the release of an alpha version
of software for a new more efficient compression scheme. The new ITU extension
to JPEG known as ITU-T Recommendation T.851 means that compression is increased
such that images will take-up less space on people’s hard drives or digital
cameras.
The
program available here allows
users to input image files for compression at a more efficient rate than that
currently offered. The group responsible for producing the open source software
is inviting people to test and contribute to the development of the project.
Recently,
and capitalizing on the ‘toolbox’ concept of the original JPEG design, ITU-T
approved ITU-T Rec. T.851, a royalty-free extension that adds to T.81, more
commonly known as JPEG, an alternative compression method using so-called Q15
arithmetic coding. Q15 provides not only higher compression ratios for stored
and transmitted images, but - compared to the original arithmetic coding in
JPEG - also lower latency for compressing and displaying images. T.851 also
extends the color precision of JPEG to maximum 16 bits per color component,
which is seen as essential in applications such as medical imaging,
professional photography and high quality printing.
Founded
in 1986 by its parent bodies, the then ITU CCITT Study Group VIII and the
ISO/TC97/SC2/WG8 group, JPEG continues today under the auspices of ISO/IEC JTC1
SC29/WG1 and ITU-T Study Group 16. The most famous product of JPEG was ITU-T
Recommendation T.81 | ISO/IEC 10918-1, which specifies a process for digital
compression and coding of continuous-tone still images, and is more commonly
known by the name of the group, JPEG. This is the most used format for storing
and transmitting photographs on the Internet, in digital photography and in
many other image compression applications, and it was approved in 1992 first by
ITU-T (then CCITT) and later by ISO/IEC.
Work
on the new compression algorithm was started in 2004 by ITU-T Study Group 16.
The aim was to allow users to take advantage of recent technological advances,
with the addition to the JPEG suite of an alternative, royalty free coder that
would allow even better image compression efficiency and lower latency. The
successful completion of this first phase of the work resulted in the
publication of the specification ITU-T Rec. T.851 after approval in September
2005. Experts from SG 16 say to stay tuned for further developments.