Category Archives: 0218

The JPEG Committee had its 79^th meeting in La Jolla, California, U.S.A., from 9 to 15 April 2018.

During this meeting, JPEG had a final celebration of the 25^th anniversary of its first JPEG standard, usually known as JPEG-1. This celebration coincides with two interesting facts. The first was the approval of a reference software for JPEG-1, “only” after 25 years. At the time of approval of the first JPEG standard a reference software was not considered, as it is common in recent image standards. However, the JPEG committee decided that was still important to provide a reference software, as current applications and standards can largely benefit on this specification. The second coincidence was the launch of a call for proposals for a next generation image coding standard, JPEG XL. This standard will define a new representation format for Photographic information, that includes the current technological developments, and can become an alternative to the 25 years old JPEG standard.

An informative two-hour JPEG Technologies Workshop marked the 25th anniversary celebration on Friday April 13, 2018. The workshop had presentations of several committee members on the current and future JPEG committee activity, with the following program:

Touradj Ebrahimi, convenor of JPEG, presenting an overview of JPEG technologies.

• Overview of JPEG activities, by Touradj Ebrahimi
• JPEG XS by Antonin Descampe and Thomas Richter
• HTJ2K by Pierre-Anthony Lemieux
• JPEG Pleno – Light Field, Point Cloud, Holography by Ioan Tabus, Antonio Pinheiro, Peter Schelkens
• JPEG Systems – Privacy and Security, 360 by Siegfried Foessel, Frederik Temmermans, Andy Kuzma
• JPEG XL by Fernando Pereira, Jan De Cock

After the workshop, a social event was organized where a past JPEG committee Convenor, Eric Hamilton was recognized for key contributions to the JPEG standardization.

La Jolla JPEG meetings comprise mainly the following highlights:

• Call for proposals of a next generation image coding standard, JPEG XL
• JPEG XS profiles and levels definition
• JPEG Systems defines a 360 degree format
• HTJ2K
• JPEG Pleno
• JPEG XT
• Approval of the JPEG Reference Software

The following summarizes various activities during JPEG’s La Jolla meeting.

JPEG XL

Billions of images are captured, stored and shared on a daily basis demonstrating the self-evident need for efficient image compression. Applications, websites and user interfaces are increasingly relying on images to share experiences, stories, visual information and appealing designs.

User interfaces can target devices with stringent constraints on network connection and/or power consumption in bandwidth constrained environments. Even though network capacities are improving globally, bandwidth is constrained to levels that inhibit application responsiveness in many situations. User interfaces that utilize images containing larger resolutions, higher dynamic ranges, wider color gamuts and higher bit depths, further contribute to larger volumes of data in higher bandwidth environments.

The JPEG Committee has launched a Next Generation Image Coding activity, referred to as JPEG XL. This activity aims to develop a standard for image coding that offers substantially better compression efficiency than existing image formats (e.g. more than 60% improvement when compared to the widely used legacy JPEG format), along with features desirable for web distribution and efficient compression of high-quality images.

To this end, the JPEG Committee has issued a Call for Proposals following its 79th meeting in April 2018, with the objective of seeking technologies that fulfill the objectives and scope of a Next Generation Image Coding. The Call for Proposals (CfP), with all related info, can be found at jpeg.org. The deadline for expression of interest and registration is August 15, 2018, and submissions to the Call are due September 1, 2018. To stay posted on the action plan for JPEG XL, please regularly consult our website at jpeg.org and/or subscribe to our e-mail reflector.

JPEG XS

This project aims at the standardization of a visually lossless low-latency lightweight compression scheme that can be used as a mezzanine codec for the broadcast industry, Pro-AV and other markets such as VR/AR/MR applications and autonomous cars. Among important use cases identified one can mention in particular video transport over professional video links (SDI, IP, Ethernet), real-time video storage, memory buffers, omnidirectional video capture and rendering, and sensor compression in the automotive industry. During the La Jolla meeting, profiles and levels have been defined to help implementers accurately size their design for their specific use cases. Transport of JPEG XS over IP networks or SDI infrastructures, are also being specified and will be finalized during the next JPEG meeting in Berlin (July 9-13, 2018). The JPEG committee therefore invites interested parties, in particular coding experts, codec providers, system integrators and potential users of the foreseen solutions, to contribute to the specification process. Publication of the core coding system as an International Standard is expected in Q4 2018.

JPEG Systems – JPEG 360

The JPEG Committee continues to make progress towards its goals to define a common framework and definitions for metadata which will improve the ability to share 360 images and provide the basis to enable new user interaction with images.  At the 79^th JPEG meeting in La Jolla, the JPEG committee received responses to a call for proposals it issued for JPEG 360 metadata. As a result, JPEG Systems is readying a committee draft of “JPEG Universal Metadata Box Format (JUMBF)” as ISO/IEC 19566-5, and “JPEG 360” as ISO/IEC 19566-6.  The box structure defined by JUMBF allows JPEG 360 to define a flexible metadata schema and the ability to link JPEG code streams embedded in the file. It also allows keeping unstitched image elements for omnidirectional captures together with the main image and descriptive metadata in a single file.  Furthermore, JUMBF lays the groundwork for a uniform approach to integrate tools satisfying the emerging requirements for privacy and security metadata.

To stay posted on JPEG 360, please regularly consult our website at jpeg.org and/or subscribe to the JPEG 360 e-mail reflector. 

HTJ2K

High Throughput JPEG 2000 (HTJ2K) aims to develop an alternate block-coding algorithm that can be used in place of the existing block coding algorithm specified in ISO/IEC 15444-1 (JPEG 2000 Part 1). The objective is to significantly increase the throughput of JPEG 2000, at the expense of a small reduction in coding efficiency, while allowing mathematically lossless transcoding to and from codestreams using the existing block coding algorithm.

As a result of a Call for Proposals issued at its 76^th meeting, the JPEG Committee has selected a block-coding algorithm as the basis for Part 15 of the JPEG 2000 suite of standards, known as High Throughput JPEG 2000 (HTJ2K). The algorithm has demonstrated an average tenfold increase in encoding and decoding throughput, compared to the algorithms based on JPEG 2000 Part 1. This increase in throughput results in less than 15% average loss in coding efficiency, and allows mathematically lossless transcoding to and from JPEG 2000 Part 1 codestreams.

A Working Draft of Part 15 to the JPEG 2000 suite of standards is now under development.

JPEG Pleno

The JPEG Committee is currently pursuing three activities in the framework of the JPEG Pleno Standardization: Light Field, Point Cloud and Holographic content coding.

JPEG Pleno Light Field finished a third round of core experiments for assessing the impact of individual coding modules and started work on creating software for a verification model. Moreover, additional test data has been studied and approved for use in future core experiments. Working Draft documents for JPEG Pleno specifications Part 1 and Part 2 were updated. A JPEG Pleno Light Field AhG was established with mandates to create a common test conditions document; perform exploration studies on new datasets, quality metrics, and random-access performance indicators; and to update the working draft documents for Part 1 and Part 2.

Furthermore, use cases were studied and are under consideration for JPEG Pleno Point Cloud. A current draft list is under discussion for the next period and will be updated and mapped to the JPEG Pleno requirements. A final document on use cases and requirements for JPEG Pleno Point Cloud is expected at the next meeting.

JPEG Pleno Holography has reviewed the draft of a holography overview document. Moreover, the current databases were classified according to use cases, and plans to analyze numerical reconstruction tools were established.

JPEG XT

The JPEG Committee released two corrigenda to JPEG XT Part 1 (core coding system) and JPEG XT Part 8 (lossless extension JPEG-1). These corrigenda clarify the upsampling procedure for chroma-subsampled images by adopting the centered upsampling in use by JFIF.

JPEG Reference Software

The JPEG Committee is pleased to announce that the CD ballot for Reference Software has been issued for the original JPEG-1 standard. This initiative closes a long-standing gap in the legacy JPEG standard by providing two reference implementations for this widely used and popular image coding format.

Final Quote

“The JPEG Committee is hopeful to see its recently launched Next Generation Image Coding, JPEG XL, can result in a format that will become as important for imaging products and services as its predecessor was; the widely used and popular legacy JPEG format which has been in service for a quarter of century.” said Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi, the Convenor of the JPEG Committee.

About JPEG

The Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is a Working Group of ISO/IEC, the International Organisation for Standardization / International Electrotechnical Commission, (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 1) and of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T SG16), responsible for the popular JBIG, JPEG, JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, JPSearch and more recently, the JPEG XT, JPEG XS, JPEG Systems and JPEG Pleno families of imaging standards.

The JPEG Committee nominally meets four times a year, in different world locations. The 79^th JPEG Meeting was held on 9-15 April 2018, in La Jolla, California, USA. The next 80^th JPEG Meeting will be held on 7-13, July 2018, in Berlin, Germany.

More information about JPEG and its work is available at www.jpeg.org or by contacting Antonio Pinheiro or Frederik Temmermans (pr@jpeg.org) of the JPEG Communication Subgroup.

If you would like to stay posted on JPEG activities, please subscribe to the jpeg-news mailing list on http://jpeg-news-list.jpeg.org.  

Future JPEG meetings are planned as follows:

• No 80, Berlin, Germany, July 7 to13, 2018
• No 81, Vancouver, Canada, October 13 to 19, 2018
• No 82, Lisbon, Portugal, January 19 to 25, 2019

The original blog post can be found at the Bitmovin Techblog and has been modified/updated here to focus on and highlight research aspects.

MPEG122 Plenary, San Diego, CA, USA.

The MPEG press release comprises the following topics:

• Versatile Video Coding (VVC) project starts strongly in the Joint Video Experts Team
• MPEG issues Call for Proposals on Network-based Media Processing
• MPEG finalizes 7th edition of MPEG-2 Systems Standard
• MPEG enhances ISO Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF) with two new features
• MPEG-G standards reach Draft International Standard for transport and compression technologies

Versatile Video Coding (VVC) – MPEG’ & VCEG’s new video coding project starts strong

The Joint Video Experts Team (JVET), a collaborative team formed by MPEG and ITU-T Study Group 16’s VCEG, commenced work on a new video coding standard referred to as Versatile Video Coding (VVC). The goal of VVC is to provide significant improvements in compression performance over the existing HEVC standard (i.e., typically twice as much as before) and to be completed in 2020. The main target applications and services include — but not limited to — 360-degree and high-dynamic-range (HDR) videos. In total, JVET evaluated responses from 32 organizations using formal subjective tests conducted by independent test labs. Interestingly, some proposals demonstrated compression efficiency gains of typically 40% or more when compared to using HEVC. Particular effectiveness was shown on ultra-high definition (UHD) video test material. Thus, we may expect compression efficiency gains well-beyond the targeted 50% for the final standard.

Research aspects: Compression tools and everything around it including its objective and subjective assessment. The main application area is clearly 360-degree and HDR. Watch out conferences like PCS and ICIP (later this year), which will be full of papers making references to VVC. Interestingly, VVC comes with a first draft, a test model for simulation experiments, and a technology benchmark set which is useful and important for any developments for both inside and outside MPEG as it allows for reproducibility.

MPEG issues Call for Proposals on Network-based Media Processing

This Call for Proposals (CfP) addresses advanced media processing technologies such as network stitching for VR service, super resolution for enhanced visual quality, transcoding, and viewport extraction for 360-degree video within the network environment that allows service providers and end users to describe media processing operations that are to be performed by the network. Therefore, the aim of network-based media processing (NBMP) is to allow end user devices to offload certain kinds of processing to the network. Therefore, NBMP describes the composition of network-based media processing services based on a set of media processing functions and makes them accessible through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Responses to the NBMP CfP will be evaluated on the weekend prior to the 123rd MPEG meeting in July 2018.

Research aspects: This project reminds me a lot about what has been done in the past in MPEG-21, specifically Digital Item Adaptation (DIA) and Digital Item Processing (DIP). The main difference is that MPEG targets APIs rather than pure metadata formats, which is a step forward into the right direction as APIs can be implemented and used right away. NBMP will be particularly interesting in the context of new networking approaches including, but not limited to, software-defined networking (SDN), information-centric networking (ICN), mobile edge computing (MEC), fog computing, and related aspects in the context of 5G.

7th edition of MPEG-2 Systems Standard and ISO Base Media File Format (ISOBMFF) with two new features

More than 20 years since its inception development of MPEG-2 systems technology (i.e., transport/program stream) continues. New features include support for: (i) JPEG 2000 video with 4K resolution and ultra-low latency, (ii) media orchestration related metadata, (iii) sample variance, and (iv) HEVC tiles.

The partial file format enables the description of an ISOBMFF file partially received over lossy communication channels. This format provides tools to describe reception data, the received data and document transmission information such as received or lost byte ranges and whether the corrupted/lost bytes are present in the file and repair information such as location of the source file, possible byte offsets in that source, byte stream position at which a parser can try processing a corrupted file. Depending on the communication channel, this information may be setup by the receiver or through out-of-band means.

ISOBMFF’s sample variants (2nd edition), which are typically used to provide forensic information in the rendered sample data that can, for example, identify the specific Digital Rights Management (DRM) client which has decrypted the content. This variant framework is intended to be fully compatible with MPEG’s Common Encryption (CENC) and agnostic to the particular forensic marking system used.

Research aspects: MPEG systems standards are mainly relevant for multimedia systems research with all its characteristics. The partial file format is specifically interesting as it targets scenarios with lossy communication channels.

MPEG-G standards reach Draft International Standard for transport and compression technologies

MPEG-G provides a set of standards enabling interoperability for applications and services dealing with high-throughput deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing. At its 122nd meeting, MPEG promoted its core set of MPEG-G specifications, i.e., transport and compression technologies, to Draft International Standard (DIS) stage. Such parts of the standard provide new transport technologies (ISO/IEC 23092-1) and compression technologies (ISO/IEC 23092-2) supporting rich functionality for the access and transport including streaming of genomic data by interoperable applications. Reference software (ISO/IEC 23092-4) and conformance (ISO/IEC 23092-5) will reach this stage in the next 12 months.

Research aspects: the main focus of this work item is compression and transport is still in its infancy. Therefore, research on the actual delivery for compressed DNA information as well as its processing is solicited.

What else happened at MPEG122?

• Requirements is exploring new video coding tools dealing with low-complexity and process enhancements.
• The activity around coded representation of neural networks has defined a set of vital use cases and is now calling for test data to be solicited until the next meeting.
• The MP4 registration authority (MP4RA) has a new awesome web site http://mp4ra.org/.
• MPEG-DASH is finally approving and working the 3rd edition comprising consolidated version of recent amendments and corrigenda.
• CMAF started an exploration on multi-stream support, which could be relevant for tiled streaming and multi-channel audio.
• OMAF kicked-off its activity towards a 2nd edition enabling support for 3DoF+ and social VR with the plan going to committee draft (CD) in Oct’18. Additionally, there’s a test framework proposed, which allows to assess performance of various CMAF tools. Its main focus is on video but MPEG’s audio subgroup has a similar framework to enable subjective testing. It could be interesting seeing these two frameworks combined in one way or the other.
• MPEG-I architectures (yes plural) are becoming mature and I think this technical report will become available very soon. In terms of video, MPEG-I looks more closer at 3DoF+ defining common test conditions and a call for proposals (CfP) planned for MPEG123 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Additionally, explorations for 6DoF and compression of dense representation of light fields are ongoing and have been started, respectively.
• Finally, point cloud compression (PCC) is in its hot phase of core experiments for various coding tools resulting into updated versions of the test model and working draft.

Research aspects: In this section I would like to focus on DASH, CMAF, and OMAF. Multi-stream support, as mentioned above, is relevant for tiled streaming and multi-channel audio which has been recently studied in the literature and is also highly relevant for industry. The efficient storage and streaming of such kind of content within the file format is an important aspect and often underrepresented in both research and standardization. The goal here is to keep the overhead low while maximizing the utility of the format to enable certain functionalities. OMAF now targets the social VR use case, which has been discussed in the research literature for a while and, finally, makes its way into standardization. An important aspect here is both user and quality of experience, which requires intensive subjective testing.

Finally, on May 10 MPEG will celebrate 30 years as its first meeting dates back to 1988 in Ottawa, Canada with around 30 attendees. The 122nd meeting had more than 500 attendees and MPEG has around 20 active work items. A total of more than 170 standards have been produces (that’s approx. six standards per year) where some standards have up to nine editions like the HEVC standards. Overall, MPEG is responsible for more that 23% of all JTC 1 standards and some of them showing extraordinary longevity regarding extensions, e.g., MPEG-2 systems (24 years), MPEG-4 file format (19 years), and AVC (15 years). MPEG standards serve billions of users (e.g., MPEG-1 video, MP2, MP3, AAC, MPEG-2, AVC, ISOBMFF, DASH). Some — more precisely five — standards have receive Emmy awards in the past (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVC (2x), and HEVC).

Thus, happy birthday MPEG! In today’s society starts the high performance era with 30 years, basically the time of “compression”, i.e., we apply all what we learnt and live out everything, truly optimistic perspective for our generation X (millennials) standards body!