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Annual Report for: INCITS Subgroup L3

Covering the Period from June 2007 to July 2008

Title of INCITS Subgroup:  Coding of Audio, Picture, Multimedia, and Hypermedia Information

Links:

• L3 web site:  http://l3.incits.org/
• Executive summary
• Link to Subgroup's area on the Secretariat's Projects Database
• Significant accomplishments
• Significant challenges
• Expected challenges
• Previous year's meetings
• Next year's meetings
• Liaison activities
• Membership and Officers
• Future Trends
• Other administrative information

 
Informal Description of Work:  The INCITS/L3 Technical Committee for Audio, Picture, Multimedia, and Hypermedia Information serves as the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29, and its Working Groups:  WG1 and WG11.   WG1 creates standards for still image compression and is known informally as the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) and Joint Bilevel Image Experts Group (JBIG).   WG11 likewise creates standards for moving pictures, audio, multimedia, and hypermedia information and is known informally as the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). 

1. Executive Summary

All INCITS L3 activities are international liaison projects.  There are no American National Standards in process, nor any concurrent development projects. 

INCITS L3 is composed of three entities: 

• The L3 Executive Committee:  This committee oversees and approves the work of the L3.1 and L3.2 sub-committees, and handles all of the administrative affairs including the planning of U.S. INCITS meetings, hosting of (international) working group and SC29 meetings, dissemination of USNB ballot recommendations and comments, and the management of financial matters. 
• The L3.1 Sub-Committee:  This committee provides experts and their contributions for the U.S. participation in the standardization of digital video, digital audio, multimedia, and hypermedia for global interoperability and interchange.  This group acts as the U.S. TAG to the SC29/WG11 and is hence very much involved in all of WG11’s activities including:  MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-7, MPEG-21, MPEG-A, MPEG-B, MPEG-C, and most recently MPEG-V.  L3.1 also participates heavily in the ISO/ITU Joint Video Team, a joint effort between the ITU-T and ISO/IEC toward standardizing digital video.   Some of MPEG’s most significant and recent accomplishments include the standardization of Scalable Video Coding, Spatial Audio Objects, a specific implementation of the Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform, multimedia application formats, and file formats.  New initiatives include explorations for the representation of sensory effects (ROSE), linking middleware for multimedia applications, and interchange between virtual worlds.
• The L3.2 Sub-Committee:  Similarly, this committee provides experts and their contributions for the U.S. participation in the standardization of still image compression, file formats, network access, search, and security operatives for global interoperability and interchange.  This group acts as the U.S. TAG to the SC29/WG1 whose activities include JPEG, JPEG2000, JBIG-1, and JBIG-2.  Recently, WG1 updated JPEG2000 for its use as a digital cinema format, and initiated a work item toward defining a new still image compression standard for high-definition digital photography.   The JPEG committee also continues to remain active in defining digital cinema studio broadcast applications, extending JPEG2000 for 3-dimensional image applications (e.g. medical and scientific), and developing technologies for searching large collections of images.

Many viable products and technologies have been developed as a result of the standards developed by MPEG and JPEG, and correspondingly by the contributions made by L3.1 and L3.2.  Some of these products include DVD players and recorders, MP3 players and other mobile multimedia devices, digital television, digital cinema, digital video set-top boxes, and digital image processing (including image processing for medical applications).  For example, virtually all digital cameras employ the ubiquitous JPEG standard; and in the U.S., television broadcast will soon exploit the superiority of MPEG standards as analogue broadcast will soon be eclipsed by digital broadcast.   Governments and industries worldwide study the standards produced by JPEG and MPEG as these working groups continue to heavily influence the development and use of multimedia for an exploding number of applications.

The approved Area of Work for SC29 (refer to ISO/IEC JTC1 N2545) is the standardization of audio, picture, multimedia, and hypermedia information, and sets of compression and control functions for use with such information.  Examples of such include:

• Audio information
• Bi-level and limited bits per pixel still images
• Digital continuous tone still images
• Computer graphic images
• Moving pictures and associated audio
• Audio visual interactive scriptware

The associated standards address requirements and guidelines encompassing:

1. Data compression methods and techniques used to transform digital data into equivalent compressed (or coded) representations.
2. Image and information interchange requirements within and across applications and services such as telecommunications and broadcast networks.
3. Product development and research activities for microchips and embedded systems.
4. Encoding for representation of multimedia and hypermedia information objects and audiovisual interactive script ware.
5. Testing via conformance and compliance of requirements and implementations.

 

2. Significant Accomplishments

Significant accomplishments at the L3.1 committee level (in association with WG11) include standards completed or in progress for:

• Scalable Video Coding (in collaboration with the ITU-T).  The SVC design enables the creation of a video bitstream that is structured in layers. Such an architecture features the ability to decode either the full bitstream or a subset of it with the removal of enhancement layers. Data remaining after the removal of enhancement layers is still decodable with a decoded video quality that is commensurate with the amount of remaining data.
• The 8x8 inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) which is a fundamental building block of video and still-image coding technology.  MPEG has produced a single unified standard for a specific conforming fixed-point approximation of the ideal integer-output 8x8 IDCT. This design performs exceptionally well in objective accuracy, linearity, dynamic range, and "drift phenomenon" tests while minimizing computational resources.
• A Media Streaming Application Format.  The purpose of this new standard is for the distribution of governed media resources, metadata and related information over streaming channels, such as IPTV and digital broadcasting, to receiver devices (called Media Streaming Players), in which the received content can be played in real time or stored in a file for possible further secure distribution.
• Spatial Audio Object Coding (SAOC). This technology enables the highly efficient storage and transport of individual audio objects (e.g. voices, instruments, ambience, etc.) as a single mono or stereo audio signal with a minimal data rate of side information. This format permits the listener to adjust the audio mix based on his or her personal taste, for example, by changing the level or position of audio objects within the audio scene. This new standard is applicable to personalized music, including Karaoke, and to highly flexible and efficient teleconferencing solutions.

Significant accomplishments at the L3.2 committee level (in association with WG1) include standards completed or in progress for:

• High definition digital photography.  This new standard, known as JPEG XR, will explicitly address the needs for next generation high definition digital cameras, while at the same time provide a wide range of capabilities for image editing (i.e. cropping, rotating, annotating, and scaling) and compressed storage.  The Final Committee Draft for this new standard is expected to be balloted in July 2008.
• Digital Cinema.  The Digital Cinema Initiatives organization has adopted JPEG2000 as their chosen technology for distribution of digital features to movie theaters.  There are over 5000 theaters worldwide that support digital cinema including 1000 stereoscopic theaters.  The JPEG committee remains highly active in defining profiles, broadcast applications, and archival of digital cinema content.  
• JP Search.  This initiative, in collaboration with WG11, defines a new query format for the definition of search criteria, the aggregation of returned results, and the management of the entire query process.  Moreover it standardizes a file format for metadata associated with still images.
• JPIP, which exploits the best features of JPEG2000 to enable power and efficient network access to JPEG2000 images and their metadata.

3. Significant Challenges

Notwithstanding its role in the above accomplishments, the L3 Technical Committee continues to face challenges in the area of increased costs for participation.  With the recently revised membership fee structure, the per-employee costs for large corporations are lower than those for smaller corporations, as any number of employees (once the per-company fixed-fee has been paid) can participate.  All companies must balance the factors involved in volunteering employees toward the development of and participation in open standards vs. the development of revenue-generating products; and yet, increasingly, industries and governments alike continue to turn toward and adopt the technologies developed by these standards-making groups.  Recognizing this, some governments have acknowledged that to remain influential in the development of key industry standards, some amount of funding by them, for the development of standards, is necessary.  

 

In the area of multimedia standards development, the U.S. must remain active and influential without the aid of direct subsidies by the U.S. government.    Toward this end, the USNB relies on the expertise and participation of individual experts, serving as volunteers from their employers, at crucial points in the development of international standards.  Almost all, if not all, of the important technical work for the development of these standards is done at international meetings.   However, the expenses for travel – as can be well appreciated – have increased significantly over the last twelve months.  Facilities fees, hotel fees, and all transportation costs have swelled, notably, in light of the increased cost of fuel and the rise in value of the Euro vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar.    Collectively, these costs can weigh on the U.S.’s ability to protect its interests in the development of multimedia international standards.

 

With respect to its membership, the U.S. falls short in engaging its highly-qualified university sector for the development of international multimedia standards as only a very small number of USNB members represent university and research institutions.  In contrast, similar organizations are regarded as the majority in Asian and European national bodies.    Notable barriers to entry for U.S. research institutions include the costs of maintaining active and effective membership, as well as travel costs particularly as competition for research and public funding is increasingly fierce.   

 

Additionally, L3 could be better empowered to create its list of delegates for international meetings; i.e. strict rules and criteria restrict L3’s placement of individual experts onto U.S. delegation rosters.   While the spirit of these rules is acknowledged by L3, ultimately the committee could benefit by having more flexibility in controlling the placement of delegates onto its rosters, as these experts are key to the successful development of international standards at various times.

 

Finally, the U.S. is increasingly expected to host international meetings.  Organizing these meetings can be time consuming, and is managed entirely by L3.   L3 could benefit from assistance in ensuring that the U.S. hosts these meetings in a manner that ensures a smooth and successful event for the international community.

4. Expected Challenges

Beyond the challenges identified above, the L3 committee is tasked with planning the combined WG1, WG11, and SC29 meeting in April 2009 at the Westin Maui Resort on Maui, Hawaii.   Administrative tasks to manage the reservation of meeting space and hotel rooms, host a social event, and rent audio/visual equipment represent the majority of the effort in ensuring a successful meeting.

Moreover, the L3 committee looks forward to a smooth transition to the new Kavi tool based membership database and document management system.    L3 will use the new system to replace the manual system currently in place: i.e. for the automatic generation of delegation rosters, management of email reflectors, tracking of voting status, and updating of membership.

 

5. Committee Activities

a. Previous Year's Meetings:

The following table summarizes the meetings and teleconferences encompassed by this report:

Meeting Number	Date	Location
56	June 25, 2008	Teleconference
55	February 28, 2008	Cupertino, CA (Apple)
54	December 19, 2007	Teleconference
53	September 27, 2007	Boston, MA (Mitre)

b. Next Year's Planned Meetings:

The following table summarizes the planned meetings from July 2008 to July 2009.  A comprehensive schedule of meetings, including those for WG1 and WG11, can also be found at the Members Only working website at http://l3.incits.org/l3htm/xl3info/l3_working.htm.

Meeting Number	Date	Location
57	September 18, 2008	San Diego, CA (Qualcomm)
58	December 18, 2008	Teleconference
59	February 2009	Location to be determined
60	June 2009	Teleconference

6. Liaison Activities

The SC29 webpage at http://www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/sc29/ lists almost 70 liaison organizations for both WG1 and WG11, through which a variety requests, most of which relate to the use of SC29 technologies in other organizations, are made. 

7. Membership and Officers

a. Officers:

Position (and training date)	Name and organization represented
Chair (April 2008)	Dr. Arianne T. Hinds Ricoh | IBM InfoPrint Solutions Company
International Representative (April 2008)	Dr. Andrew G. Tescher Microsoft Corporation

b. Membership:

A complete list of members can be found at http://l3.incits.org/l3htm/xl3info/l3_working.htm.

8. Future Trends and Related Technical Activities

Both the L3.1 and L3.2 committees remain alert to the globally exploding popularity of multimedia and its potentially disruptive nature to businesses and individuals alike.  Hence, each strives to identify important trends in its approved area of work not only to ensure that these trends are addressed at the international level, but as well, to influence the development of successful standards for them.  As noted above, MPEG and JPEG participate in the development of standards for audio, moving picture, continuous tone still images, and bi-level still images.  Collectively, these standards influence a multi-billion dollar marketplace.  

With respect to MPEG and moving pictures, the U.S. remains active in (and chairs the international committees for) technical projects for scalable video coding, advanced video coding, multi-view video coding, and 3D video coding.  For audio information, the U.S. also remains active in (and chairs the international committee responsible for) projects including enhanced audio coding, audio delivery (i.e. enhanced surround) and manipulation (spatial audio object coding).   MPEG’s home website can be found at:  http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/.

With respect to JPEG, the U.S. is currently leading an international effort to standardize a new still image technology – called JPEG XR – based off of Microsoft’s HD Photo technology and designed for the next generation of high-definition  and high dynamic range digital photography and applications.  L3.2 also participates heavily in the continued development and maintenance of standards encompassed by JPEG2000 including technologies for digital cinema, medical imaging, 3D images, wireless transmission of images, and searching of large collections of images.  JPEG’s home website can be found at: http://www.jpeg.org/.

9. Other Administrative Information