ZDNet: New tools could help bug hunters find vulnerabilities in popular file formats, such as the JPEG and GIF image formats.

Detailed profiles of SIGGRAPH exhibitors (From Press release)

The leading annual conference and expo about computer graphics and interactive techniques takes place July 31 to August 4 at the L.A. Convention Center. Read on for details on some selected papers.

MainConcept has announced a roadmap to include all major codecs on all major platforms into is product offerings. They have been working on this for past few months with the newly acquired Elecard team.

ComCam, Inc. announced the signing of a distribution agreement with Matsema PTY of South Africa and immediate release of version 1.54 of NXPowerLite from Neuxpower Solutions of the UK. CEO says, “We typically see 8-10M files reduced to about 1M with no loss in quality”.

Three optical disc manufacturers, QOL of France, V.T.V. NV of Belgium and kdg Mediatech of Austria, France and the United Kingdom, announced today that they have become licensees to MPEG LA’s MPEG-2 Patent Portfolio License. Signing Concludes Infringement Actions Brought by MPEG-2 Patent Owners.

Michael A Maniscalco recently announced on comp.compression that MSufSort 2.0 suffix sorting algorithm is now available. MSufsort is a lightweight and high speed suffix sorter. The latest results, code and BWT engine are available at his homepage.

Inlet Technologies announced that it has closed a $5 million round of venture financing. Inlet intends to use this capital to extend the market reach and penetration of its advanced encoding technology in the fast-growing digital media market. Their patent-pending technology provides significant productivity benefits to customers who create content for distribution via video on demand, and next generation DVDs.

MPEG LA announced that essential DVB-H patent holders met on July 8, 2005, to begin the process of structuring a joint license in order to make this technology easily accessible to all users.

The initial group of essential patent holders included France Telecom, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.), Philips, and Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC).

Evaluation of patents for their essentiality to the DVB-H standard submitted by other parties continues in order to include as much essential intellectual property as possible in one license for the benefit of the marketplace

Keenly aware of the strong marketplace interest in a joint patent license for DVB-H mobile digital television technology, the essential patent holders made progress toward building an overall framework for the joint license. A second meeting will be held in September 2005 to reach consensus on licensing terms with the objective of reaching an agreement by the fourth quarter of 2005.

MPEG LA continues to welcome the submission of patents for an evaluation of their essentiality to the standard in order to be included in a joint patent license. Any party that believes it has patents that are essential to the standard and wishes to join the DVB-H Patent Portfolio License is invited to submit their patents for evaluation by MPEG LA’s patent experts. Further information, along with terms and procedures governing patent submissions, can be found at http://www.mpegla.com/pid/dvbh/

MPEG LA provides services for one-stop technology platform patent licenses, enabling users to acquire patent rights necessary for a particular technology standard or platform from multiple patent holders in a single transaction as an alternative to negotiating a license with each of them.

IPEX, Inc. announced that it has acquired certain intellectual property assets in the field of digital image processing that, the company expects, will significantly enhance digital image quality and reduce file size. The company intends to commercialize and incorporate the technology as a value-added feature to its VoIP service offerings and for possible out licensing.

Here is what the company says about the technology:

At its core, the technology constitutes a revolutionary reinterpretation of the treatment of light and color in the digital medium. The current industry standard relies on a three-dimensional color cube, known as RGB (red, green, blue), to process, distribute and store image data. In an RGB display, three separate data points, or bytes, are required to identify the color of an individual pixel. Light, or brightness, in RGB formats, is treated not as a natural component, but as an overlay of varying shades of gray, a phenomenon easily demonstrated by adjusting the brightness on a television set.

IPEX’ technology solves the light and file size limitations of the RGB standard by transforming it into a four-dimensional system that includes red, green, blue and light (”RGBL”). RGBL’s formula-based reinterpretation of digital light and color substantially increases image quality and decreases file size. The technology is highly scalable and capable of outperforming today’s wavelet compression technologies. Visual artifacts, a phenomenon that plagues current RGB compression formats, are significantly reduced.

“The RGBL acquisition is another step toward our goal of becoming the leading IP exchange for voice and media content,” commented Jerry Beckwith, IPEX Chairman and CEO. “Naturally, given the technology’s scope, there may also be interesting licensing opportunities for RGBL that would further add to shareholder value.”

Here is what their website states on this:

Through an acquisition IPEX has certain intellectual property rights including quadratic, circular transform algorithms, codes and formulas for image enhancement, compacting and content protection applications. The technology and formulas also include the concept of “floating pixels” versus a frame by frame system and the integration of sound into a digital image to stream live content for wireless systems based on 9,6Kbit/s and to be used on full display screens at less than 64Kbit/s (ISDN). IPEX will utilize this image technology to enhance quality and reduce the size of any RGB technology based on formulas that will result in a new high definition viewing experience.

Maybe there is something new and innovative here but the concept of separating light and color (luminosity and chroma) is definitely not new.

IPEX, Inc. operates an electronic market for the exchange of international, IP-based telecom traffic and is developing a peering fabric with ENUM connectivity to terminate calls based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).