Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!uokmax!drtiller
From: drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Donald Richard Tillery Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: 24 bit IFF image compression
Message-ID: <1990Nov28.192940.30995@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 28 Nov 90 19:29:40 GMT
References: <3925@mindlink.UUCP>
Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
Lines: 45


I can hear the hoofbeats in the background folks.
 
The 24 bit boards are coming...the 24 bit boards are coming!
 
There's the Toaster, Firecracker 24, HAM-E, CDTV, the A2065 (I think that's a
C=one!), the Colorburst (crossed fingers) and who knows how many others....
 
Now for the catch (ain't there always one?)....those 24 bit RGB IFF
files are HUGE!  I have 11 of them right now and they range from
300K to almost 850K!
 
Now .lzh (lharc or lz) is fine for files and fantastic for text but
it just ain't good enough for these monsters (it isn't all that great
for regular IFFs but I digress).
 
What we really need is some effective IMAGE compression techniques,
algorithms and eventually programs to shrink these bad boys to a
manageable size....
 
I have heard of some such algorithms and one type in particular where
the resulting image IS NOT an exact duplicate of that which started
out.  But the resulting reduction is up to 90% !  Now if only a .1%
or less distortion is introduced, I think we can live with that (it
amounts to about 1 radical pixel every other line) but I don't know
any specifics about it.  Rumour has it that it is the technique used
for telephone face-to-face transmissions.  Anyone have any info on
this?
 
Barring that, does anyone have any info on some effective image
compression techniques that might make use of the 2 dimensional
quality of images versus the 1 dimentional nature of programs?
 
I think there will be a great demand for such compression in the very
near future and I hope someone can put together a solution.
 
While I'm on this subject, where can we start archiving these things.
They are rather large and someone would have to have lots of storage to
keep a good archive going.  Any volunteers?  I have some neat 24 bit ray-
traces to contribute.


Rick Tillery  
(drtiller@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu)