Image compression based on wavelet technology.........................
Wavelet technology may replace MPEG2 in the long run, probably more than 5 years off.
New Compression Software
Faster Than JPEG
July 9, 1997
PC Week via Individual Inc. : Users now will be able to download
larger video or still-image files at a faster rate than current
compression technologies, thanks to new software from
Compression Engines Inc.
Based on proprietary wavelet compression technology, the new
software, called Compression Engine, can compress a file 50 to 30
times smaller than an original image, said officials at the Houston
company.
For use with Windows 95 and Windows NT, Compression Engine
compresses both still-image graphics and video files at speeds
that are faster than competing JPEG compression techniques.
Using wavelet technology, color images are compressed from 20-1
up to 300-1 ratios, while gray-scale images are compressed from
10-1 to 50-1 ratios.
By comparison, JPEG technology can compress color images from
20-to-1 to 30-to- 1.
Another key advantage of wavelet technology is that it does a
better job of keeping an image intact once it is compressed. For
instance, when using JPEG compression, a user may not receive
the complete image once it is downloaded, or may receive
additions to the image that weren't included in the original file,
officials said.
"My experience with JPEG is that when you try to get a fairly deep
level of compression, you get blockiness in the image," said Bill
Anderson, a partner at Weller, Anderson, Cheneviere and Co.
Ltd., a stock brokerage in Houston. "We tend to send a lot of
charts, and blockiness is a big problem.
"Wavelet also does a much better job of transmitting larger
images than JPEG," Anderson said, adding that larger files take
more time to transport. "Lots of our customers don't have ISDN
lines, and [viewing JPEG files] would take more time than they
would want to spend looking at it."
Minimum hardware requirements include a desktop PC with at
least 8MB of RAM. Wavelet technology supports Windows
bit-maps and GIF, PCX, TIFF and JPEG formats.
The company also is offering its $295 Compression Engine
Professional software, which allows users to convert multiple files
and folders of image formats into Wavelet Image Files, and an
SDK (software development kit) that allows third- party vendors
to integrate wavelet compression capabilities into applications.
The SDK decompression component costs $295, while the
compression component costs $2,195.
Browser plug-ins are also available for both Netscape
Communications Corp.'s Navigator 3.0 and Microsoft Corp.'s
Internet Explorer.
The Compression Engine software is now available for free
download from the company's Web site.
Compression Engines can be contacted at (888) 876-3970 or
www.cengines.com.
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[Copyright 1997, Ziff Wire] |
