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Leading the Way in Multimedia
Applications
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"Photo courtesy of O.T. Kieboom, www.airshows.com" |
The second Moving Picture Coding Experts Group (MPEG)-7 Awareness Event
and a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) 2000 Seminar were hosted
in Singapore by the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PSB) at
the Pan Pacific Hotel and the Marina Mandarin in March 2001.
MPEG was established in January 1988 with the mandate to develop standards
for compression, decompression, processing and coded representation of
moving pictures, audio and their combination, in order to satisfy a wide
variety of applications. MPEG is managed by the Working Group 11 which
operates under the framework of the joint ISO/IEC Technical Committee
(JTC 1) Sub-Committee (SC) 29*
MPEG-7 refers to the upcoming Multimedia Content Description standard,
which enables the management, search and filtering of multimedia content
based on standardised descriptive information. Comprising tutorials and
demonstrations of early MPEG-7 applications by experts from the MPEG-7
development community, the Awareness Event provided an opportunity for
all interested individuals to gain a comprehensive understanding of the
technology and its existing potential.
On the other hand, the JPEG2000 initiative is intended to provide a new
image coding system using state-of-the-art compression technique, based
on the use of wavelet technology. Its architecture can lend itself to
a wide range of uses from portable digital cameras to its use in medical
imaging and satellite photography
Targeted at information technology developers, industrial companies as
well as academic researchers such as engineers and R&D managers, the
seminar offered timely essential information about the JPEG2000 standard
and encouraged multimedia application developers to assess the powerful
technology for adoption eventually. Furthermore, a series of easy-to-understand
tutorials were presented by international experts covering a broad range
of JPEG topics, for instance, Image Coding System, Extensions, Motion
JPEG2000, Reference Software, Compound Image File Format and more.
The ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 plenary and working group 1, 11 and 12 meetings
were hosted in Singapore by PSB over a period of 10 days commencing from
5 March 2001. The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) was the organiser
of these international meetings and seminars. The Infocomm Development
Authority of Singapore (IDA) sponsored these events with the endorsement
of the Information Technology Standards Committee (ITSC) of the national
standardisation programme. Almost 400 international delegates were in
Singapore for these meetings.
Chief Executive of PSB, Mr Lee Suan Hiang, declared at a cocktail hosted
by PSB for the international delegates and local industries that these
meetings "could not have happened at a better time with the focus of Singapore
industry on the new economy, an economy that is powered by the latest
multimedia technologies". He further added, "These meetings conducted
in Singapore are an excellent platform for industry practitioners and
academia to exchange ideas, build useful networks and leverage on the
experience of experts in this most dynamic area of multimedia."
He added, "PSB, as the national standards body of Singapore, has a mission
to promote productivity, quality, safety and market access through standardisation.
Standards and standardisation serve as catalysts for further technological
advancement and allow for more business opportunities and trade exchanges
that will eventually benefit all parties in the global supply chain."
Notably, Mr Lee commended the work of Sub-Committee 29 and its working
groups and gave special mention to Associate Professor Kai-Kuang Ma, whose
"keen and able chairmanship of the Singapore MPEG Technical Committee
of the IT Standards Committee administered by Infocomm Development Authority
of Singapore (IDA), has resulted in a significant Singapore contribution
to the MPEG 4 standard for multimedia applications for video and audio
handheld wireless devices used by both the consumer and the business user".
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Speaking on the significance of MPEG-7, Mr Leonardo Chiariglione,
MPEG (WG11) convenor and Head of the Multimedia Services and Technologies
Research Division, CSELT (corporate research centre of the Telecom
Italian group) said, "MPEG-7 will come in useful when interaction
between individuals is difficult… Besides, MPEG-7 is more than
just helping people search for data; it is also able to provide the
necessary know-how on accessing and managing the data, thus improving
efficiency." |
MPEG (WG 11) convenor, Mr Leonardo Chiariglione
and JPEG (WG 1) convenor, Dr Daniel Lee |
Elaborating on the capabilities of JPEG2000, Dr Daniel Lee, JPEG
convenor and Technical Director, Asia of Yahoo! stated, "With a JPEG2000
camera, one is able to adjust the angle of the lens and lighting and
even capture the time during picture-taking. The camera industry has
shown a keen interest and I expect more camera manufacturers to support
and adopt more of these JPEG features in the near future. Moreover,
JPEG2000 (Core Image Format) is useful for medical and satellite purposes
because of its good scale-ability."
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In conclusion, Mr Chiariglione disclosed that the next MPEG (WG11) meeting
will take place in July 2001, Sydney, where the standard will be finalised.
Dr Lee added, "JPEG forms the core of all arts design, even for graphic
arts. And with the help of the media and the Internet, I am pleased that
JPEG has become part of everyday experience."
By Jaime Koh, PSB
* The ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 29 is a sub-committee that
is responsible for standardisation in coded representation of audio, picture,
multimedia and hypermedia information. Singapore is a Participating member
(P-member) of this SC.
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