JPEG AI becomes an International Standard
The 106th JPEG meeting was held online from January 6 to 10, 2025. During this meeting, the first image coding standard based on machine learning technology, JPEG AI, was sent for publication as an International Standard. This is a major achievement as it leverages JPEG with major trends in imaging technologies and provides an efficient standardized solution for image coding, with nearly 30% improvement over the most advanced solutions in the state-of-the-art. JPEG AI has been developed under the auspices of three major standardization organizations: ISO, IEC and ITU.
The following sections summarize the main highlights of the 106th JPEG meeting.
- JPEG AI – the first International Standard for end-to-end learning-based image coding
- JPEG Trust – a framework for establishing trust in digital media
- JPEG XE – lossless coding of event-based vision
- JPEG AIC – assessment of the visual quality of high-fidelity images
- JPEG Pleno – standard framework for representing plenoptic data
- JPEG Systems – file formats and metadata
- JPEG DNA – DNA-based storage of digital pictures
- JPEG XS – end-to-end low latency and low complexity image coding
- JPEG XL – new image coding system
- JPEG 2000
- JPEG RF – exploration on Radiance Fields
JPEG AI
At its 106th meeting, the JPEG Committee approved publication of the text of JPEG AI, the first International Standard for end-to-end learning-based image coding. This achievement marks a significant milestone in the field of digital imaging and compression, offering a new approach for efficient, high-quality image storage and transmission.
The scope of JPEG AI is the creation of a learning-based image coding standard offering a single-stream, compact compressed domain representation, targeting both human visualization with significant compression efficiency improvement over image coding standards in common use at equivalent subjective quality, and effective performance for image processing and computer vision tasks, with the goal of supporting a royalty-free baseline.
The JPEG AI standard leverages deep learning algorithms that learn from vast amounts of image data the best way to compress images, allowing it to adapt to a wide range of content and offering enhanced perceptual visual quality and faster compression capabilities. The key benefits of JPEG AI are:
- Superior compression efficiency: JPEG AI offers higher compression efficiency, leading to reduced storage requirements and faster transmission times compared to other state-of-the-art image coding solutions.
- Implementation-friendly encoding and decoding: JPEG AI codec supports a wide array of devices with different characteristics, including mobile platforms, through optimized encoding and decoding processes.
- Compressed-domain image processing and computer vision tasks: JPEG AI’s architecture enables multi-purpose optimization for both human visualization and machine-driven tasks.
By creating the JPEG AI International Standard, the JPEG Committee has opened the door to more efficient and versatile image compression solutions that will benefit industries ranging from digital media and telecommunications to cloud storage and visual surveillance. This standard provides a framework for image compression in the face of rapidly growing visual data demands, enabling more efficient storage, faster transmission, and higher-quality visual experiences.
As JPEG AI establishes itself as the new benchmark in image compression, its potential to reshape the future of digital imaging is undeniable, promising groundbreaking advancements in efficiency and versatility.
JPEG Trust
The first part of JPEG Trust, the “Core Foundation” (ISO/IEC 21617-1) was approved for publication in late 2024 and is in the process of being published as an International Standard by ISO. The JPEG Trust standard provides a proactive approach to trust management by defining a framework for establishing trust in digital media. The Core Foundation specifies three main pillars: annotating provenance, extracting and evaluating Trust Indicators, and handling privacy and security concerns.
At the 106th JPEG Meeting, the JPEG Committee produced a Committee Draft (CD) for a 2nd edition of the Core Foundation. The 2nd edition further extends and improves the standard with new functionalities, including important specifications for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management such as authorship and rights declarations. In addition, this new edition will align the specification with the upcoming ISO 22144 standard, which is a standard for Content Credentials based on the C2PA 2.1 specification.
In parallel with the work on the 2nd edition of the Core Foundation (Part 1), the JPEG Committee continues to work on Part 2 and Part 3, “Trust Profiles Catalogue” and “Media Asset Watermarking”, respectively.
JPEG XE
The JPEG XE initiative is currently awaiting the conclusion of the open Final Call for Proposals on lossless coding of events, which will close on March 31, 2025. This initiative focuses on a new and emerging image modality introduced by event-based visual sensors. JPEG aims to establish a standard that efficiently represents events, facilitating interoperability in sensing, storage, and processing for machine vision and other relevant applications.
To ensure the success of this emerging standard, the JPEG Committee has reached out to other standardization organizations. The JPEG Committee, already a collaborative group under ISO/IEC and ITU-T, is engaged in discussions with ITU-T’s SG21 to develop JPEG XE as a joint standard. This collaboration aligns perfectly with the objectives of both organizations, as SG21 is also dedicated to creating standards around event-based systems.
Additionally, the JPEG Committee continues its discussions and research on lossy coding of events, focusing on future evaluation methods for these technologies. Those interested in the JPEG XE initiative are encouraged to review the public documents available at jpeg.org. Furthermore, the Ad-hoc Group on event-based vision has been re-established to advance work leading up to the 107th JPEG meeting in Brussels. To stay informed about this activity, please join the event-based vision Ad-hoc Group mailing list.
JPEG AIC
Part 3 of JPEG AIC (AIC-3) defines a methodology for subjective assessment of the visual quality of high-fidelity images, and the forthcoming Part 4 of JPEG AIC deals with objective quality metrics, also of high-fidelity images. In this JPEG meeting, the document on Use Cases and Requirements that refers to both AIC-3 and AIC-4, was revised. It defines the scope of both anticipated standards and sets it into relation to the previous specifications for AIC-1 and AIC-2. While AIC-1 covers a broad quality range including low quality, it does not allow fine-grained quality assessment in the high-fidelity range. AIC-2 entails methods that determine a threshold separating visually lossless coded images from lossy ones. The quality range addressed by AIC-3 and AIC-4 is an interval that contains the AIC-2 threshold, reaching from high quality up to the numerically lossless case. The JPEG Committee is preparing the DIS text for AIC-3 and has launched the Second Draft Call for Proposals on Objective Image Quality Assessment (AIC-4) which includes the timeline for this JPEG activity. Proposals are expected at the end of Summer 2025. The first Working Draft for Objective Image Quality Assessment (AIC-4) is planned for April 2026.
JPEG Pleno
The 106th meeting marked a major milestone for the JPEG Pleno Point Cloud activity with the release of the Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) for ISO/IEC DIS 21794-6:2024 Information technology — Plenoptic image coding system (JPEG Pleno) — Part 6: Learning-based point cloud coding. Point cloud data supports a wide range of applications, including computer-aided manufacturing, entertainment, cultural heritage preservation, scientific research, and advanced sensing and analysis. The JPEG Committee considers this learning-based standard to be a powerful and efficient solution for point cloud coding. This standard is applicable to interactive human visualization, with competitive compression efficiency compared to state-of-the-art point cloud coding solutions in common use, and effective performance for 3D processing and machine-related computer vision tasks and has the goal of supporting a royalty-free baseline. This standard specifies a codestream format for storage of point clouds. The standard also provides information on the coding tools and defines extensions to the JPEG Pleno File Format and associated metadata descriptors that are specific to point cloud modalities. With the release of the FDIS at the 106th JPEG meeting, it is expected that the International Standard will be published in July 2025.
The JPEG Pleno Light Field activity discussed the Committee Draft (CD) of the 2nd edition of ISO/IEC 21794-2 (“Plenoptic image coding system (JPEG Pleno) Part 2: Light field coding”) that integrates AMD1 of ISO/IEC 21794-2 (“Profiles and levels for JPEG Pleno Light Field Coding”) and includes the specification of a third coding mode entitled Slanted 4D Transform Mode and its associated profile.
A White Paper on JPEG Pleno Light Field Coding has been released, providing the architecture of the current two JPEG Pleno Part-2 coding modes, as well as the coding architecture of its third coding mode, to be included in the 2nd edition of the standard. The White Paper also presents applications and use cases and briefly describes the JPEG Pleno Model (JPLM). The JPLM provides a reference implementation for the standardized technologies within the JPEG Pleno framework, including the JPEG Pleno Part 2 (ISO/IEC 21794-2). Improvements to JPLM have been implemented and tested, including a user-friendly interface that relies on well-documented JSON configuration files.
During the JPEG meeting week, significant progress was made in the JPEG Pleno Quality Assessment activity, which focuses on developing methodologies for subjective and objective quality assessment of plenoptic modalities. A Working Draft on subjective quality assessment, incorporating insights from extensive experiments conducted by JPEG experts, was discussed.
JPEG Systems
The reference software of JPEG Systems (ISO/IEC 19566-10) is now published as an International Standard and is available as open source on the JPEG website. This first edition implements the JPEG Universal Metadata Box Format (ISO/IEC 19566-5) and provides a reference dataset. An extended version of the reference software with support for additional Parts of JPEG Systems is currently under development. This new edition will add support for JPEG Privacy and Security, JPEG 360, JLINK, and JPEG Snack.
At its 106th meeting, the JPEG Committee also initiated a 3rd edition of the JPEG Universal Metadata Box Format (ISO/IEC 19566-5). This new edition will integrate the latest amendment that allows JUMBF boxes to exist as stand-alone files and adds support for payload compression. In addition, the 3rd edition will add a JUMBF validator and a scheme for JUMBF box retainment while transcoding from one JPEG format to another.
JPEG DNA
JPEG DNA is an initiative aimed at developing a standard capable of representing bi-level, continuous-tone grayscale, continuous-tone color, or multichannel digital samples in a format using nucleotide sequences to support DNA storage. The JPEG DNA Verification Model (VM) was created during the 102nd JPEG meeting based on performance assessments and descriptive analyses of the submitted solutions to a Call for Proposals, issued at the 99th JPEG meeting. Since then, several core experiments have been continuously conducted to validate and enhance this Verification Model. Such efforts led to the creation of the first Working Draft of JPEG DNA during the 103rd JPEG meeting. At the 105th JPEG meeting, the JPEG Committee officially introduced a New Work Item Proposal (NWIP) for JPEG DNA, elevating it to an officially sanctioned ISO/IEC Project. The proposal defined JPEG DNA as a multi-part standard: Part 1: Core Coding System, Part 2: Profiles and Levels, Part 3: Reference Software, Part 4: Conformance.
The JPEG Committee is targeting the International Standard (IS) stage for Part 1 by April 2026.
At its 106th meeting, the JPEG Committee made significant progress toward achieving this goal. Efforts were focused on producing the Committee Draft (CD) for Part 1, a crucial milestone in the standardization process. Additionally, JPEG DNA Part 1 has now been assigned the Project identification ISO/IEC 25508-01.
JPEG XS
The JPEG XS activity focussed primarily on finalization of the third editions of JPEG XS Part 4 – Conformance testing, and Part 5 – Reference software. Recall that the 3rd editions of Parts 1, 2, and 3 are published and available for purchase. Part 4 is now at FDIS stage and is expected to be approved as International Standard around April of 2025. For Part 5, work on the reference software was completed to implement TDC profile encoding functionality, making it feature complete and fully compliant with the 3rd edition of JPEG XS. As such, Part 5 is ready to be balloted as a DIS. However, work on the reference software will continue to bring further improvements. The reference software and Part 5 will become publicly and freely available, similar to Part 4.
JPEG XL
The second edition of Part 3 (conformance testing) of JPEG XL proceeded to publication as International Standard. Regarding Part 2 (file format), a third edition has been prepared, and it reached the DIS stage. The new edition will include support for embedding gain maps in JPEG XL files.
JPEG 2000
The JPEG Committee has begun work on adding support for the HTTP/3 transport to the JPIP protocol, which allows the interactive browsing of JPEG 2000 images over networks. HTTP/3 is the third major version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and allows for significantly lower latency operations compared to earlier versions. A Committee Draft ballot of the 3rd edition of the JPIP specifications (Rec. ITU-T T.808 | ISO/IEC 15444-9) is expected to start shortly, with the project completed sometime in 2026.
Separately, the 3rd edition of Rec. ITU-T T.815 | ISO/IEC 15444-16, which specifies the carriage of JPEG 2000 imagery in the ISOBMFF and HEIF file formats, has been approved for publication. This new edition adds support for more flexible color signaling and JPEG 2000 video tracks.
JPEG RF
The JPEG RF exploration issued at this meeting the “JPEG Radiance Fields State of the Art and Challenges”, a public document that describes the latest developments on Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) and 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) technologies and defines a scope for the activity focusing on the creation of a coding standard. The JPEG Committee is also organizing a workshop on Radiance Fields jointly with MPEG, which will take place on January 31st, featuring key experts in the field presenting various aspects of this exciting new emerging technology.
Final Quote
“The newly approved JPEG AI, developed under the auspices of ISO, IEC and ITU, is the first image coding standard based on machine learning and is a breakthrough in image coding providing 30% compression gains over the most advanced solutions in state-of-the-art.” said Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi, the Convenor of the JPEG Committee.
