Standardization is the key to the success of machine vision technology. Machine vision standards are commonly developed in the standard working groups and here by dedicated individuals. The EMVA interview series ‘Faces of Machine Vision Standards‘ introduces engineers having joined a standard working group and talk about their motivation to contribute and which experience they take out for their daily work.
EMVA recently spoke with GenICam working group member Tim Bruylants, Image Coding and Standardization Expert at intoPIX:
Why do you participate in the GenICam WG?
intoPIX is an image and video compression technology company that provided a major part of the technology behind JPEG XS, an open ISO mezzanine video compression standard. It allows to overcome bandwidth and power budget restrictions without impacting latency and quality in applications that otherwise rely on uncompressed video data. JPEG XS furthermore supports direct compression of raw Bayer CFA image data, avoiding any debayering before compression, making it a completely transparent codec. This makes it particularly useful in image sensor, machine vision and automotive applications. Given that GenICam’s GenDC specification is used by other standards, such as GigE Vision, USB3 Vision or CoaXPress, we decided that supporting and promoting JPEG XS in GenICam would be beneficial for everyone.
Which GenICam parts do you intend to shape with your input?
The support of direct raw Bayer CFA compression, along with the line-based latency, low complexity, and high quality, makes JPEG XS particularly interesting as compression technology for EMVA-related applications. For this reason, intoPIX teamed up with other EMVA members to propose adding JPEG XS support in GenICam (GenDC in particular).
How does your company benefit from your WG participation?
Getting JPEG XS support in important standards, like EMVA’s GenICam, significantly helps adoption in both ways. JPEG XS gets more visibility and can be deployed in many more ecosystems, while GenICam and standards that rely on GenICam’s GenDC specification (GigE Vision and USB3 Vision) can benefit from the unique features of JPEG XS to solve real-world application challenges.
What was your biggest light bulb moment in the GenICam collaboration?
Initially, we prepared for multiple proposals to add JPEG XS support in many different specifications (GenICam, GigE Vision and USB3 Vision), expecting it to be a lot of work. However, with the help of Adimec (a partner of intoPIX and EMVA member), we quickly learned that adding support to just GenDC was all that is needed. This clearly shows the skill and expertise of the group to make stable and well-designed specifications.
