Forecasts

predictions of the cutting edge

 

Pyramids

Trudy Levy
Image Integration

Remember the spy thriller, where the geek zooms in on a picture of the car and captures the license plate. Well, if you went to the XIPPIX site you could do just that at their Image Pump examples. They and several other folks are working with an image compression technology which is referred to as pyramids. You don't bring a higher resolution image to your screen as you zoom in, just more information about a smaller section at the same resolution. The old Flashpix demo was images made from money which looked like pixels until you zoomed in. Guess whose image it was? And where is Flashpix now? It was a great idea, but who other than the spies needed it?

Last week I was at a demonstration at another example ­ Luna Imaging's Insight ­ to a group of art historians. The benefit to zoom in on artwork seems pretty clear, but an architectural historian came up with a use which seemed pretty exciting to me for others also. He was interested in showing the parts of a building in relation to the whole and proposed an illusion of a virtual tour of an interior with zoomed shots. Being able to see the relationship of the parts to the whole clicked with me.

For example:

A jewelry promotion might be done with a shot of elegant people leaving the opera in San Francisco. The viewer might zoom in on one interesting looking group and select the one who is center of attention, and zoom in again to see her necklace.

Or a Realtor could show the city. From the city shot you could check out the neighborhood, the building, the condition of the roof and even your possible neighbor's backyard.

Granted you could do this with a series of linked cropped images, but then you control the sequence. Using zoomed images from one shot not only means you have only one image - albeit a very well scanned one - but give your viewer more control of the story which they can unfold as they wish.

You could also have a ³Find the ....... in the picture² contest.

This toy should be used!

Response to Pyramids

John Weise
Coordinator of Image Services
Digital Library Production Service
University of Michigan

Hi. I like some of the things the xippix folks have done with their java zooming interface. I'm wondering why you chose to focus on xippix alone, when there are other products that do similar things. MrSID (www.lizardtech.com) is another where compression and capabilities for zooming are intertwined. MrSID is also being geared for the high-end publishing market. I'll admit I have a bias for MrSID since we've been using it (http://images.umdl.umich.edu) for a few years now.

The Lizardtech site has a very nice and impressive demo of their technology and John's site shows how to use it well. As a Sidebar he also has a very good system for protecting the copyright of his images, as you will see if you select one which the University feels it shouldn't display to the general public. I like that the University is allowing the public to see so much of their collection while in the same site cleanly reserving some of the zoomed images for those who have the rights to see them. Very nicely done. John.

Flashpix is also worth noting, even if the core of each differs fundamentally.

Anyone want to speak up for Flashpix? Is it still alive out there? Yes it is , though now its is part of MGI Zoom and can be seen on many retail sites.

What's the goal of your resource? To highlight useful products? This would be useful if over time it gets broader and deeper (selective is good, but too selective is not, I think).

We definitely hope to bring as many good products to light here as we can. Forecaster in particular hopes to talk about the cutting edge and new products, so if you have one tell us about it.

Will you get in to comparative reviews as well? Or maybe you are focusing on "news".

We will not be doing comparative reviews at this time, but you all are more then welcome to voice your opinions. We will shortly have set up a management system to present reader's comments and opinions. Look for it in 2000.

Good Luck with this all! -

Thanks - you too

 
Image Integration
the digital imaging guide always there to help you