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Work item:
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H.BWC (planned T.261)
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Subject/title:
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Biomedical and general waveform signal coding
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Status:
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Under study [Issued from previous study period]
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Approval process:
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AAP
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Type of work item:
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Recommendation
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Version:
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New
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Equivalent number:
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ISO/IEC 23003-8 (Twin)
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Timing:
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2026-07 (Medium priority)
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Liaison:
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DICOM WG32; ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG6
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Supporting members:
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Fraunhofer HHI, Dolby Laboratories
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Summary:
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There is currently no codec that provides an interoperable, flexible compressed format for neurophysiology, electrocardiography, and similar time-series biomedical waveform data. Compression methods used for audio, which is a similar time-series signal, are not suitable for biomedical signals because they rely on psychoacoustic masking (irrelevant for medical data) and are limited in terms of channel count and block size. The specification provides for interoperable, efficient, lossless, and near-lossless compression and representation of biomedical waveform data. It fills a critical gap in biomedical data management, enabling scalable, interoperable, and efficient storage and transmission of complex waveform data for clinical and research applications.
The H.BWC codec meets the following minimum requirements:
1. Support for 16 up to 24 bits per sample.
2. Support for a wide range of sampling rates: 500–2000 samples/s for clinical use, up to 40,000 samples/s for research.
3. Support for large numbers of channels and multiple sampling rates.
4. Flexible compression supporting lossy, near-lossless, and lossless operation.
5. Efficient data access via blocking and indexing for rapid access to large datasets. Coding block sizes are encoder-selectable, and indexing can be managed outside the encapsulated bitstream (e.g., using DICOM fragments/frames).
6. Both independent and joint channel coding supported.
7. Metadata support within or outside the bitstream.
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Comment:
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Stage: ISO/IEC NP 23003-8 (2025-10)
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Reference(s):
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Historic references:
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Contact(s):
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First registration in the WP:
2024-06-21 14:16:31
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Last update:
2025-12-09 11:33:55
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