JPEG2000 solves giant image file bottleneck

A biologist from the University of Tampere in Finland has developed a software package that allows for compressing, viewing, and serving large image files produced by modern microscope slide scanners.

The system consists of a main JPIP (JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol) server with two network interfaces. The software is available free for noncommercial purposes.

Image files produced by microscope scanners are typically on the gigabyte scale. The sheer size of the data is the main bottleneck in the development of digital image applications in clinical pathology and cytology, said Dr. Jorma Isola, a professor of cancer biology.

He coauthored a paper that describes the use of the JPEG2000 file format to manage images 100 to 1000 times larger than typical x-ray, CT, or MR studies.