Eastman Kodak Co and its partners are predicting an explosion in the movement of images across networks, similar to that of text across the Internet. Until now, said Carl Gustin, vice-president and general manager of Kodak’s Digital and Imaging organisation, efforts to speed up electronic image transfer have concentrated on providing higher bandwidths to send more data. Kodak’s model bypasses this consideration, and concentrates on moving less data through the pipe. Collaborating with IBM Corp and Sprint Corp, Kodak is developing a system to send images around the world using a combination of three technologies. Kodak’s Photo CD format stores images in a single file Image Pac format and enables users across a network to work with a lower resolution image that can be transmitted more quickly. Function Interpolating Transformation System, or FITS, is an image algorithm licensed by Kodak from Live Picture Inc that treats changes to an image separately from the image itself, enabling real-time editing and faster transmission. And Image Access System is Kodak’s method of image management that enables users to file and retrieve images from a central repository. By adding a script based on the FITS algorithm to the Photo CD Image Pac format, any changes made to an image can be stored in a small script file and that can be transmitted indepedently of the image itself. If a user requires a high-resolution version of the image it can be retrieved from the central database. Kodak is attempting to make Image Pac a standard by distributing it free and will license the Image Access System to network providers for a small charge. Kodak sees the future of network imaging split into public and private image networks. The former are designed to be accessed by any user on a public network, like the Internet, while the latter is designed for business use. IBM and Kodak aim to have a commercial picture sale and distribution system operating over the Internet and the IBM Global Network by early 1996. In a similar deal, Sprint Corp and Kodak will collaborate to offer image sharing and distribution services over Sprint’s fibre optic network. According to Carl Gustin, vice- president and general manager of Kodak’s Digital and Imaging organisation, Sprint will be the first network provider to offer products and services based on Kodak technology. Eastman Kodak Co has developed a hypercompression algorithm – the Image Verification System, IVS – to enable a person’s image to be represented by a 400-bit data packet that is small enough to be stored on the magnetic strip of a credit card or as a bar code on a cheque. A decompression program in a retail terminal enables the image to be displayed while the transaction is made. A verification code is attached to other data, such as a merchant code, and it can be compared at a central data centre to detect any changes made to the card. The technology will be used in conjunction with IBM’s 4690 point-of-sale systems later this year. The two companies also have agreements for standardising optical storage technology for write-once media and an expansion of the agreement under which IBM markets Kodak scanners.
