BBC struggling to develop patent-free video codec
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The BBC has developed a video codec, Dirac which is able to compress videos by means of wavelet compression at a resolution of 1920 × 1080 -- about two times more dense than is possible with MPEG-2 codecs.
Aside from a reduced bit rate at high resolutions, it is said that the codec will be optimized particularily for internet streaming resolutions. Dirac is written in C++ and is currently at the experimental stage. The developers are hoping that the result of their development efforts will be a structurally simple and open codec, in which the free source community and universities will both participate.
In contrast to the Fourier Transformation of image contents into frequencies which is used in codecs such as MPEG-2, the Wavelet Transformation does not make use of ordinary sine and cosine functions but, specially formed and localized base functions, so-called Wavelets.
The BBC has participated in the European Commission's consultations on software patents of 2000/10-2001/01 and has expressed strong reservations about the effects of patents in particular on broadcasting standards.
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Covered by European Patent No. 0985193
Tux (11. Mai 2004 13:20)
Sadly, however, the bare notion of wavelets have been planted in the software patent mine field.
The Wavelet Transformation algorithm falls under the EP 0985193: http://swpat.ffii.org/pikta/txt/ep/0985/193/
Whoever wants to integrate codecs based on this algorithm into Mozilla without paying license royalties should subscribe here: http://www.ffii.org/ffii-cgi/aktiv?f=euparl&l=en
Tux
