NEWS: HD Photo to become JPEG XR

http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9810024-39.html

A new attempt to provide a higher-end sequel to the ubiquitous JPEG
image standard is officially under way.

The multiple countries participating in the Joint Photographic
Experts Group, which created the JPEG standard, have approved an
effort to make Microsoft's HD Photo format a standard called JPEG XR,
said Bill Crow, who has led Microsoft's HD Photo effort and who just
took over the company's Microsoft Live Labs Seadragon imaging
project. XR stands for "extended range," a reference to the format's
ability to show a wider and finer range of tonal gradations and a
richer color palette.

"The country vote is done, and it passed," Crow said. "That means the
International JPEG committee has decided to go ahead and create the
standard. Now it's just a process of doing that work," a process that
will begin later this month in a meeting in Kobe, Japan.

The move is an important step in the transformation of the photo
format from an in-house technology called Windows Media Photo to a
neutral format more likely to be palatable to companies that don't
want to be beholden to Microsoft.

However, the move also means that Microsoft will have to be more
patient with its hopes to get HD Photo to catch on more broadly.
Standardization "typically takes around a year," Crow said.

...

In Microsoft's view, HD Photo also offers better compression and
support for in-camera image processing. It's built into Windows
Vista, but Microsoft offers the software development kit to implement
the technology free and with no royalty constraints. Image-editing
powerhouse Adobe Systems has voiced support for the format.

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MY TAKE: JPEG 2000 hasn't exactly taken the market by storm, and a new
more capable format is badly needed, so let's hope JPEG XR takes off!

--
Best regards,
John Navas
Panasonic DMC-FZ8 (and several others)