ERIC M. JUKELEVICS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Michael Marcellin, a UA professor of electrical engineering, is one of the designers of JPEG 2000, a new image format. Marcellin said companies like Kodak and Sony are currently working to make the JPEG 2000 the standard for their new digital cameras.

JPEG 2000 makes downloading images more efficient

The days of waiting hours to download digital images riddled with distortion may soon come to an end, thanks to a UA professor's development of a new image format that has become the industry standard.

Michael Marcellin, a professor of electrical engineering, was one of the two chief designers of the new computer image format: the JPEG 2000. He said the new format works by only downloading as much information the viewer needs to see, a change that will greatly decrease the image's download time.

He also said the quality of an image in the new format is sharply increased compared to the current standard, the Joint Photographic Experts Group - or JPEG.

In a demonstration in his office, Marcellin downloaded an image that was approximately 10 feet by 10 feet. After turning the Internet connection in his office down to the speed of a 56k modem, the whole image took less than 30 seconds to download.

He said the new format may mean the 56k modem would not totally give way to the faster broadband and DSL connections to which many people are switching.

Marcellin said the JPEG 2000 format could automatically detect how much information to send in order to let the computer display the image. If the viewer wants a closer look, the format will download more information - with almost no distortion at all.

During the demonstration, Marcellin was able to crisply focus on a person in a parking lot in the 100 square foot image of an amusement park in Texas.

"Even now, when I show it to people, it still blows me away," Marcellin said.

Marcellin said he and David Taubman, a professor from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, headed a team of more than 200 contributors to develop the updated version of the traditional JPEG image, which was thought by many to be the current international standard for computer imaging.

Taubman was not available for comment because he was on a trip to Italy.

Marcellin said it took three years of meeting with contributors from around the world to finally complete the workings for the format. It then quickly became accepted as the standard for image formatting by the International Standard Organization.

Lee Lewis, public relations officer for DSPWorx, a Minneapolis-based firm that works in developing software for image rendering, said his company is working to use the new format in everything from home use to video surveillance at airports.

"I would much rather they recognize my face from the hundreds at a ticket counter than one as I'm boarding a plane," Lewis said.

Marcellin said the process would also help in the electronic transfer of X-rays and CT - computed tomography - scans between hospitals. The format would also aid in updating video conferencing technology.

Kevin McNeely, co-director of telemedicine at University Medical Center, said he attended a conference demonstrating the capabilities of the JPEG 2000 in video conferencing. He said his findings were remarkable.

"It makes high-end video conferencing obsolete," McNeely said. "I don't know when we will be using it, but it will be soon."

He added that the same video conferencing that currently costs up to $30,000 could now run from a regular computer.

Carol Flax, a UA arts professor who frequently works with digital photography, said the new format would be especially useful before an image is printed.

"You can make a larger, better quality image, and you can get a better picture when you print," Flax said.

Marcellin said companies like Kodak and Sony are currently working to make the JPEG 2000 the standard for their new digital cameras.

Marcellin said the new format will also be available for people downloading images at home. Although the format was released in December 2000, he expects Internet browsers to incorporate the new format into their programs within the next six months.