| Doc.
No. |
H3/05-023 |
| Date: |
May 23, 2005 |
| Reply
To: |
William J. Protzman DCS Corporation 1330 Braddock Place Alexandria, VA 22314 USA 571-227-6181 wprotzman@dcscorp.com |
INCITS SUBGROUP ANNUAL REPORT
Annual Report for
INCITS Committee H3
Covering the
period from
Computer Graphics
and Image Processing
Informal
Description of Work
INCITS
Technical Committee H3, Computer
Graphics and Image Processing, is responsible for the development and
maintenance of national standards relating to the field of computer
graphics
and imaging. It also serves as US
Counterpart
to ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 24 (Computer Graphics and Image Processing). Its scope includes the following topics:
·
Development of the
reference model for computer
graphics;
·
Standardization of
methodologies for computer
graphics programming;
·
Standardization of
functional specifications of computer
graphics facilities, including those needed for image processing,
graphical
data bases and graphical user interfaces;
·
Standardization of
programming language bindings
for computer graphics functional definitions;
·
Standardization of
graphical information exchange,
including computer graphics metafiles and computer graphics device
interfaces;
·
Methods and
procedures for testing and validation
of implementations of computer graphics standards;
·
Specification
techniques for computer graphics
standards; and
·
Providing US input to
the standardization of
procedures for the registration of graphical items and administration
of those
parts of the procedures for which the US National Body is responsible.
INCITS
H3 has continued to remain active in
the development of computer graphics and imaging standards through the
past reporting
period. The committee has continued to
experience change both within its membership and the manner in which it
executes its program of work. These changes continually require the
committee
to reevaluate and provide for increased communication and harmonization
with
reduced physical personal contact. In
addition, potential changes under consideration with respect to the
SC24 scope,
continued advancements in computing technologies, computer graphic and
imaging
application areas (especially with respect to geospatial and metadata)
as well
as computer architectural advancements have also influenced the
standardization
efforts and requirements within the committee.
As in
previous years, H3 remains largely and
almost exclusively involved in the development of ISO standards in
conjunction with
ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 24. In addition,
standards development activities have continued to migrate away from
internal
developments towards more focused cooperative standardization
activities in
conjunction with industry and consortia partners. Among
the successes for H3 within this arena
over the past year have been the continued efforts to coordinate with
the Web3D
consortium (as a liaison and in coordination with SC24) to continue to
progress
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) enhancements and to coordinate
with
the Synthetic Environment Data Representation and Interchange
Specification
(SEDRIS) Organization (as a liaison and in coordination with SC24) to
continue
to progress the SEDRIS family of standards.
In addition, many of the standards communities utilizing SC24
standards
have been active in the registration of graphics and imagery data,
resulting in
several ballot activities and updates to the ISO/IEC
International Registry of Graphical Items. The market relevance of these standards
combined with the fact that the committee members have been able to
continue to
quickly progress standards sets the stage for continued development
activities
along these same lines throughout the remainder of 2005 and into 2006. H3 has found that its experience in
conformance and validation, its long history and technical expertise in
the
development of computer graphics and imaging standards, and its
consumer/user
base is well applied to these types of efforts and in effect adds to
the
viability, enhancement, and maintenance aspects of the published ISs.
Another
area that shows some significant
potential over the next few years is the prospective for closer
coordination
with INCITS L1, to coordinate US positions for the oversight of
standards
within ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC24 and ISO TC 211 and to work together to
coordinate
closer communication, analysis, and recommendations for coordinated
projects
within the respective committees.
INCITS
H3 continues to feel that the
following issues are essential to the successful continuance and
effectiveness
of the committee:
·
Increased
participation, recruitment, and
involvement of technical experts.
·
Continued
coordination activities between SC24 and
other ISO/IEC TCs and consortia.
·
Maintaining and
establishing cooperative partnerships
with outside standards organizations, commercial and industry partners,
government
functions, and the users of graphics and imaging technologies.
·
Maintaining and
expanding the education of the
membership with regard to ANSI and ISO standards development processes.
·
Continued
mechanization and electronic
communication/distribution.
Primarily
during this reporting period H3
members worked to continue to progress the VRML and SEDRIS work items
and the ISO/IEC Procedures for the registration
of items. H3 members
were instrumental in all these
efforts, and in many cases provided Conveners, Rapporteurs, and
Document
Editors.
H3
oversees 40 projects (7 Ms, 11 MIs, 5
M-STs, 16 Ls, and 1 TIB). As the
published standards continue to age, H3 continues to be increasingly
involved
in Reaffirmation, Technical Corrigenda, and Amendment work. H3 also believes strongly in the value of
profiles and registration as a way of identifying useful subsets of
standard
functionality.
H3
Membership has remained fairly stable
throughout this reporting period, although the mix of the membership
continues
to change slightly due to the scope of the project base and the ongoing
maintenance activities. The committee
has continued to draw interest from industry, academic and Government
organizations.
The
current program of work for Technical
Committee INCITS H3 can be found on the web at the following URL: http://www.incits.org/tc_home/h3sd4.htm.
As in
previous years, INCITS H3 has
continued to develop and progress standards in conjunction with its
ISO/IEC
counterpart ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 24. Primary
accomplishments associated with the H3 program of work are identified
in the
paragraphs below.
Members
of H3, along with H3’s Environmental
Representation Task Group H3.9, devoted much effort over the course of
this
reporting period to support the progression of the SEDRIS technology
standards. H3 members provided support to
many SEDRIS
Organization and ISO WG meetings and were instrumental in helping to
progress
the following standards:
|
Standard |
SC24
Progression Authorization* |
Anticipated
IS Publication |
|
ISO/IEC 18023-1 (SEDRIS,
Part 1) |
FDIS |
12/2005 |
|
ISO/IEC 18023-2 (SEDRIS,
Part 2) |
FDIS |
12/2005 |
|
ISO/IEC 18023-3 (SEDRIS
Part 3) |
FDIS |
01/2006 |
|
ISO/IEC 18024-4
(SEDRIS C binding) |
FDIS |
02/2006 |
|
ISO/IEC 18026 ( |
FDIS |
12/2005 |
|
ISO/IEC 18042-4
( |
FDIS |
02/2006 |
* SC24
authorized progression to
the identified milestone following availability of text at the SC24
plenary in
Sydney Australia in March 0f 2005.
The
SEDRIS Environmental Data Coding Specification
(EDCS) passed FDIS ballot and is awaiting publication.
Four negative votes were cast during the
ballot, and while not required, a response document was developed and
the SC24
Secretariat has been requested to distribute as appropriate.
The
Additional
information
related to SEDRIS and SC24/H3 standardization of SEDRIS technologies is
available from the SEDRIS website (http://www.sedris.org).
Members
of H3, along with H3’s Image Processing and Interchange Task
Group, H3.8 continued to support the BIIF program element within the H3
program
of work (ISO/IEC 12087-5). BIIF
continues to be widely used domestically by the NGA and internationally
within
the NATO imaging community. In addition,
several commercial satellite imaging companies are selling on demand
imagery
files in BIIF format. The
implementations of BIIF have been progressed to include JPEG2000
compression
handling.
In
March of 2004, SC24 approved the progression of two BIIF profiles for
inclusion into the ISO/IEC International Register of Graphical Items. These profiles were 1) JPEG 2000 (a profile
using the JPEG 2000 proforma intended to be used in BIIF applications)
and 2)
The US
hosted the editing committee for the ISO/IEC International
Register NP ballot resolution meeting in conjunction with the November
2004 WG8
meeting in Saint Louis University, Saint Louis Missouri.
Virtual
Reality Modeling Language (VRML)
Over
the course of the reporting period, members of INCITS H3 continued
to support the work of ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC 24’s WG6, Multimedia
Presentation and
Interchange working group. Significant
accomplishments in this area included:
X3D
ISO/IEC
19775-1, X3D Architecture and Base Components, was published in
November of 2004 and the PDAM ballot for 19775-1:2004/Am1 was completed
in
February of 2005.
X3D Encodings
The
FDIS ballots for ISO/IEC 19776-1 (XML
Encoding) and ISO/IEC 19776-2 (Classic VRML Encoding) were unanimously
approved
during this reporting period. Final text
for these standards is in the process of being published.
X3D Language
Bindings
FDIS text for both
ISO/IEC 19777-1 (ECMAScript) and ISO/IEC 19777-2 (Java) is imminent and
FDIS
ballots will be initiated when text is available.
Humanoid Animation
The
FCD text for ISO/IEC 19774 has been registered and balloted. An
editing meeting was held in conjunction with the WG6 meeting in July,
2004. All
comments were processed and the editing meeting recommended that
ISO/IEC 19774
be progressed to FDIS status when FDIS text has been prepared.
SC24
Meeting, Sydney Australia, March 2005
SC24 met in WG and plenary sessions in Sydney Australia in March of 2005. Continued cooperation with the following organizations was endorsed: Web3D, W3C, NATO Air Group IV and NITFS Technical Board, SEDRIS, Open Geospatial Consortium, and SISO. In addition, a relationship was initiated with the Khronos Group with intent to establish a Category C liaison. The meetings were very successful, and well attended by members of INCITS H3 serving on the USNB delegation.
H3
continues to face
challenges in the areas of membership and officership as well as
fluctuating
levels of participation and retention of subject matter experts with
respect to
historical projects/published standards.
These challenges are addressed briefly in the paragraphs below.
Issue:
Marketing/Business Development
Summary:
For the last several years, H3
has discussed actively working with INCITS to market and publicize
activities
with respect to its program of work along with INCITS.
Status:
As reported last year, H3
has not made significant progress with respect to this action. H3 did identify the following initial POCs:
Rob Cox (SEDRIS) and Dick Puk (VRML/Web3D), but time constraints as
well as a
suspected lack of prioritization/consideration for this activity by the
POCs’
organizations has likely resulted in the low activity.
Plan:
The H3 chair has discussed the
potential for
press release and joint press release regarding Web3D standardization
activities with the Web3D representatives.
It is desirable to attempt to reinitiate this activity with the
identified H3 POCs and establish communications between the H3 POCs and
INCITS. In order to establish an
effective activity, initial coordination may need to be initiated by
INCITS
with some periodic reminder mechanism to track events to support press
releases
and significant events on an annual basis.
Issue:
Membership/Levels of Participation
(Continuous)
Summary:
H3 members continue to face
economic pressures, which prevent them from participating fully in the
committee and taking on additional responsibility and while the
membership
level in general tends to stay relatively stable, the composition of
the
membership continues to fluctuate based on the new and current work
items
within the committee. Another
complicating factor in this equation is the fact that as more projects
are
coordinated with industry partners, there is a perception
that fewer individuals are required
to support the progression from within H3 directly.
Status:
There remains a heightened
awareness within the committee, which in turn causes the membership to
understand the importance of levels of participation and the need to
solicit
new members. The current members tend to
be dedicated and fully support the entire program of work within the
committee;
however, increased work such as identification and marketing of new
opportunities and coordination with other domestic and international
committees
tends to be limited.
Plan:
This issue is
reported annually and while there
is still no concrete plan in effect to solve this problem, the focus on
awareness is a first step and is being combined with a continued
emphasis to
work and meet electronically (web meetings, phone cons, etc.), with the
primary
goal being to support the need to meet and converse frequently while at
the
same time trying to reduce financial and time burdens on individuals. With respect to the solicitation of new
members, H3 continues to express to its industry partners the
importance of H3
membership towards the final standardization and publication of
National and
International standards.
Issue:
Increasing Maintenance Activity
(Continuous)
Summary:
As the projects within the
committee continue to age, H3 is faced with the need to make
recommendations
and support revisions/updates while at the same time the membership is
turning
over and the committee loses subject matter expertise.
Status:
This issue is not
resolved.
Plan:
With respect to the management of the
maintenance projects, H3 continues to employ the transition to
stabilized
standards, where applicable. With
respect to subject matter expertise, H3 draws upon the available
knowledge base
of its well experienced members as well as trying to keep in touch with
the industrial
application base in the formulation of its opinions on reaffirmation,
revision,
or withdraw decisions.
With respect to the
structure of
the H3 committee, expected challenges within the next reporting period
will
continue to be centered on the determination and execution of an
effective
organization to support the balance of maintenance and new work items
and the
development of new work items within the scope of H3 and its task
groups. Closer
coordination with
INCITS committees regarding synergistic projects is essential, but time
consuming to the members of H3 that are already loaded with industry
jobs and
the progression of the H3 program of work.
As more standards within the H3 program of work start to reach
FDIS
status in the late 2005/early 2006 timeframe, it is anticipated that
relationships and potentially joint discussion with respect to tighter
coordination will be realized. With
respect to image processing, H3 no longer has a dedicated task group to
identify and progress imagery standards, however dedicated experts
remain
involved in the imagery work and maintenance within the committee. Internationally, there is some desire to
update imagery standards within the SC24 programme of work and
investigate new
imagery standards supporting metadata and advanced sensors. It will be a challenge for H3 to identify,
recruit, and support the initiation and progression of these activities. Finally,
the SEDRIS work item continues to be the largest developmental body of
work
within the committee. Review and comment
resolution is intensive due to the size of these documents; however,
the work
is well managed (both domestically and internationally) and many of the
work
items are starting to achieve FDIS status.
5. Committee Activities
|
Meeting Number |
Date |
Location |
|
59 (H3, H3.9) |
|
|
|
H3.9 |
|
Teleconference |
|
H3.9 |
|
Teleconference |
|
H3.9 |
|
Teleconference |
|
Meeting Number |
Date |
Location |
|
60 (H3, H3.9) |
Fall 2005 |
TBD |
The
current list of H3 liaisons is provided below. Generally
H3 liaisons are identified to
coordinate standards development activities (e.g., consortium partners)
or to
facilitate communication and exchange of information in related
technologies or
areas of work with in H3’s scope. In
general, liaison assignees retain membership in both H3 and the liaison
committee. H3 is not anticipating the
assignment of additional liaisons within the next reporting cycle.
Liaison Org:
INCITS
L1
H3 Appointee:
Laura
Moore, NGA
Purpose:
Coordinate geospatial
standards and initiatives between L1 and H3.
Liaison Org:
INCITS
L3
H3 Appointee:
Bill
Protzman
Purpose:
Coordinate audio and
picture coding initiatives with H3 graphics/imaging standardization
initiatives.
Liaison
Org:
H3 Appointee:
Donald
Singley, Eastman Kodak
Purpose:
Support coordination
between H3 imaging efforts and the medical
imaging and multimedia community.
Liaison Org:
MEDSEC
H3 Appointee:
Donald
Singley, Eastman Kodak
Purpose:
Support coordination
between H3 imaging efforts and the medical
imaging and multimedia community.
Liaison Org:
TC
215 (Medical Informatics)
H3 Appointee:
Donald
Singley, Eastman Kodak
Purpose:
Support coordination
between H3 imaging efforts and the TC 215.
Liaison Org:
Web 3D Consortium (VRML and X3D)
H3 Appointee:
Richard
Puk, Intelligraphics Inc.
Purpose:
Support coordination
between VRML and 3D projects with H3 standardization activities.
Liaison Org:
CGM Open Consortium (CGM)
H3 Appointee:
Vacant
Purpose:
Support coordination
with continued progression of CGM and WebCGM.
Liaison Org:
SEDRIS
Organization
H3 Appointee:
Vacant
Purpose:
Support continued
progression of work between H3 and the SEDRIS Organization.
Liaison Org:
Open GIS
Consortium
H3 Appointee:
Charles
Roswell, NIMA
Purpose:
Coordinate geospatial
standards and initiatives between the Open GIS Consortium and H3.
7. Membership and Officers
Membership
in INCITS H3 and
its task groups has remained stable in this reporting year. The overall membership tends to be directly
proportional to the currently active projects.
The following table depicts the officer staffing for INCITS H3.
|
Position |
Training Date |
Name and organization represented |
|
Chair H3 |
|
William Protzman, DCS Corp. |
|
Vice Chair H3 |
|
Vacant |
|
Secretary H3 |
|
William Protzman, DCS Corp. |
|
International Rep H3 |
|
William Protzman, DCS Corp. |
|
Vocabulary Rep H3 |
|
Vacant |
|
|
|
|
|
Chair H3.9 |
|
Rob Cox, SAIC |
|
Vice Chair H3.9 |
|
Louis Hembree, NRL |
|
Secretary H3.9 |
|
Vacant |
|
International Rep H3.9 |
|
Performed by H3 IR |
|
Vocabulary Rep H3.9 |
|
Vacant |
|
INCITS H3, Computer Graphics and Image
Processing Technical Committee |
|||||
|
Membership List |
|||||
|
Status Key (P
- Principal, A - Alternate, A# - Additional Alternate, O - Observer, L
– Liaison, Pet - Petitioning, Term – On Termination List) |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Name |
Company |
Address |
Phone/Fax |
Email |
Status |
|
Gifford, |
AFTS |
32792-6720 |
P:
407-677-0153 x238 |
P |
|
|
Wentz, Gary |
AFTS |
32792-6720 |
P:
407-677-0153 x218 |
A |
|
|
Ratell,
Kathleen |
Booz, Allen
& Hamilton |
Booz, Allen
& Hamilton 22162 |
P: 703-902-7058 |
rattell_kathleen@bah.com |
L |
|
|
DCS Corporation |
22314 |
P: 571-227-6181 |
P |
|
|
Leite, Michael |
DMSO |
DMSO 22311 |
P: P: F: |
P |
|
|
Smith, Jerry |
DoD/DISA |
DISA-GE33 5600 Columbia
Pike 22041-2717 |
P: 703-681-2388 F: 703-681-0518 |
P |
|
|
Kerr, Stephen |
DoD/DISA (JITC) |
JITC (DISA) 85613-7020 |
P: 520-538-5154 |
P |
|
|
Singley, Donald |
Eastman Kodak |
55128 |
P: 651-393-1392 |
P |
|
|
Puk, Richard F |
Intelligraphics
Inc. |
92009-8206 |
P: 760-753-9027 |
P |
|
|
Michael, Dave |
Apple |
|
P: |
|
|
|
Moore, Laura |
NGA |
NIMA 63118-3399 |
P: F: 314-263-4381 |
P |
|
|
Roswell,
Charles |
NGA |
||||