NEC JPEG Color Scheme Enables Mobile Images

By Bernard Cole

(08/30/02, 01:36:38 AM EDT)

Tokyo, Japan - NEC Corp. has completed development on a new content distribution and viewing technology that enables large-scale, full-color, superior-quality JPEG 2000 still images to be viewed in any environment where a mobile device can be taken, indoors or outdoors.

Using the next-generation picture format JPEG 2000 to halve the volume of conventional JPEG image data, the company reports it has succeeded in realizing A4-size still images that can be leafed-through at a rate of 1 to 3 pages per second. Also, by tailoring the display resolution of the distributed images to match the connection speed and screen size, pictures can be viewed comfortably in any environment, from mobile PDSs or broadband-connected PCs.

Particularly important in mobile viewing, the new technology allows compression and distribution of a wired or wireless connection with half the data volume of a normal JPEG still image.

Even at the relatively low bandwidths of home voice wired connections and mosst wireless formats, A4 documents can be leafed-through quickly in outline form (1 to 3 pages per second) even with a 64 kbps communication band. Also, large-sized contents can be downloaded piecemeal and displayed freely at the required resolution. In this way, newspapers, color magazines, and other contents conventionally difficult to view in a mobile environment can be displayed quickly via the Internet even on a small footprint iappliance display.

The major problem that the company claims to have solved is dealing with the costs involved in preparing contents for each specific viewing environment, which has been a major problem in contents distribution until now. With the company's new technique, contents can be substantially reduced because images can be created efficiently from the same JPEG 2000 data, at a size that suits the application in the terminal or communication environment.

Future plans for NEC's JPEG 2000-OCR composite technology include enhanced research and development culminating in the commercialization of products that exploit the diversity of this technology, including text-and-graphics distribution systems for newspaper companies.

For further information, visit the NEC home page at http://www.nec.com/.