A JPEG 2000 compound image file reader/writer and interactive viewer

JPEG 2000 is the emerging image compression standard. This International Standard defines a normative but optional file format for storing compound images using the JPEG 2000 file format family architecture. A compound image is an image that may contain scanned images, synthetic images or both, and that preferably requires a mix of continuous tone and bi-level compression methods. Besides defining a binary container for a mix of continuous-tone and bi-level images, this format defines a composition model that describes how the multiple images are combined to generate a compound image. This composition model is based on the multi-layer Mixed Raster Content (MRC) imaging model. A key feature of JPM is its support of fragmented JPEG 2000 codestreams to enable progressive and interactive rendering in web applications. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of JPM Reader/Writer and a prototype compound image file interactive viewer, in the context of browser plug-ins, and Web Service applications. Examples will be given and results will be provided.