The venerable JPEG format for multimedia images has been an industry standard for some 20 years. Now, the search is on for sharper, more versatile image-coding technology, and Microsoft thinks it has developed it.
By Laurie Rowell

How does Microsoft, a company eyed warily by competitors and open-source advocates alike, deliver a new information technology standard to the industry free of charge and without any strings attached? Especially when that standard promises to change how we see the world, via the Internet and other multimedia sources, for years to come?

Robert Rossi, principal program manager lead for Microsoft’s Core Media Processing Group, took a crafty approach to this challenge. He stood in front of the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), the group that set the JPEG standard, at an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) meeting in February, and said, in essence, “Here is your JPEG1 successor.”

The new format, originally called HD-Photo and renamed JPEG XR (extended range) was developed at Microsoft entirely. “Internally, a lot of people would question why Microsoft gave the technology away free of charge.” Rossi said. “The truth is that an image-coding technology doesn’t survive if it has a cost associated with it, because it needs diffusion.”

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