JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol Research Articles

Pathological image compression for big data image analysis: Application to hotspot detection in breast cancer.

In this paper, we propose a pathological image compression framework to address the needs of Big Data image analysis in digital pathology. Big Data image analytics require analysis of large databases of high-resolution images using distributed storage and computing resources along with transmission of large amounts of data between the storage and computing nodes that can create a major processing bottleneck. The proposed image compression framework is based on the JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol and aims to minimize the amount of data transfer between the storage and computing nodes as well as to considerably reduce the computational demands of the decompression engine. The proposed framework was integrated into hotspot detection from images of breast biopsies, yielding considerable reduction of data and computing requirements.

Responsive high throughput congestion control for interactive applications over SDN-enabled networks

New interactive video applications are increasingly emerging over the Internet; these interactive applications are characterized by high bandwidth requirements that fluctuates depending on end-user actions (e.g. less bandwidth is usually needed for stationary scenes). More importantly, this interactive class of services also involves a requirement for high responsiveness (i.e. low latency) from the network, in order to respond in real-time to end-user actions. One emerging service of this nature is 360° video streaming; another example is cloud-based gaming services. In this paper, we focus specifically on JPIP (JPEG 2000 Interactive Protocol) applications that support remote interactive video browsing with dynamic pan and zoom capabilities, as a highly representative example of the interactive service class. Existing network communication services are mostly agnostic to latency implications, and hence are not well adapted to such interactive applications. Meanwhile, explicit resource reservation protocols have not been widely deployed, and do not consider the time-varying dependencies that naturally arise in interactive applications. In this work, we leverage software defined networking (SDN) principles to support a proposed “interactive service” class. The main contributions of this work are a network-exposed application programming interface (API) that provides visibility into the state of the network, an SDN-assisted congestion control algorithm that utilizes network state information to achieve the desired low latency and high bandwidth utilization requirements, and a fair resource assignment algorithm that shares available bandwidth among interactive and non-interactive traffic dynamically – all without a reservation protocol.

Visually Lossless JPEG 2000 for Remote Image Browsing.

Image sizes have increased exponentially in recent years. The resulting high-resolution images are often viewed via remote image browsing. Zooming and panning are desirable features in this context, which result in disparate spatial regions of an image being displayed at a variety of (spatial) resolutions. When an image is displayed at a reduced resolution, the quantization step sizes needed for visually lossless quality generally increase. This paper investigates the quantization step sizes needed for visually lossless display as a function of resolution, and proposes a method that effectively incorporates the resulting (multiple) quantization step sizes into a single JPEG2000 codestream. This codestream is JPEG2000 Part 1 compliant and allows for visually lossless decoding at all resolutions natively supported by the wavelet transform as well as arbitrary intermediate resolutions, using only a fraction of the full-resolution codestream. When images are browsed remotely using the JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP), the required bandwidth is significantly reduced, as demonstrated by extensive experimental results.

Flexible synthesis of video frames based on motion hints.

In this paper, we propose the use of "motion hints" to produce interframe predictions. A motion hint is a loose and global description of motion that can be communicated using metadata; it describes a continuous and invertible motion model over multiple frames, spatially overlapping other motion hints. A motion hint provides a reasonably accurate description of motion but only a loose description of where it is applicable; it is the task of the client to identify the exact locations where this motion model is applicable. The focus of this paper is a probabilistic multiscale approach to identifying these locations of applicability; the method is robust to noise, quantization, and contrast changes. The proposed approach employs the Laplacian pyramid; it generates motion hint probabilities from observations at each scale of the pyramid. These probabilities are then combined across the scales of the pyramid starting from the coarsest scale. The computational cost of the approach is reasonable, and only the neighborhood of a pixel is employed to determine a motion hint probability, which makes parallel implementation feasible. This paper also elaborates on how motion hint probabilities are exploited in generating interframe predictions. The scheme of this paper is applicable to closed-loop prediction, but it is more useful in open-loop prediction scenarios, such as using prediction in conjunction with remote browsing of surveillance footage, communicated by a JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP) server. We show that the interframe predictions obtained using the proposed approach are good both visually and in terms of PSNR.

JPIP Proxy Server With Prefetching Strategies Based on User-Navigation Model and Semantic Map

The efficient transmission of large resolution images and, in particular, the interactive transmission of images in a client-server scenario, is an important aspect for many applications. Among the current image compression standards, JPEG2000 excels for its interactive transmission capabilities. In general, three mechanisms are employed to optimize the transmission of images when using the JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP): 1) packet re-sequencing at the server; 2) prefetching at the client; and 3) proxy servers along the network infrastructure. To avoid the congestion of the network, prefetching mechanisms are not commonly employed when many clients within a local area network (LAN) browse images from a remote server. Aimed to maximize the responsiveness of all the clients within a LAN, this work proposes the use of prefetching strategies at the proxy server-rather than at the clients. The main insight behind the proposed prefetching strategies is a user-navigation model and a semantic map that predict the future requests of the clients. Experimental results indicate that the introduction of these strategies into a JPIP proxy server enhances the browsing experience of the end-users notably.

Streaming of medical images using JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol

Access to all relevant information at the diagnostic decision moment improves the quality of care. With the deployment of the electronic health records (EHRs), information now exits in multiple distributed systems. When conducting diagnosis based on medical images, physicians often need to compare current images with older ones that may need to be imported prior to visualisation. This leads to persistency management and information consistency issues. JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP) can be used to avoid imports by streaming images and significantly reduce bandwidth requirements. In this paper, we describe how JPIP can enable two interactive visualisation schemes, 'zoom and pan' and a magnification lens, to significantly improve user experience and productivity while minimising network usage. We will show that, with carefully selected compression parameters, JPIP allows physicians to start their investigation within few seconds of the initial request and stay productive during the entire download process.

Grid-based implementation of XDS-I as part of image-enabled EHR for regional healthcare in Shanghai

Due to the rapid growth of Shanghai city to 20 million residents, the balance between healthcare supply and demand has become an important issue. The local government hopes to ameliorate this problem by developing an image-enabled electronic healthcare record (EHR) sharing mechanism between certain hospitals. This system is designed to enable healthcare collaboration and reduce healthcare costs by allowing review of prior examination data obtained at other hospitals. Here, we present a design method and implementation solution of image-enabled EHRs (i-EHRs) and describe the implementation of i-EHRs in four hospitals and one regional healthcare information center, as well as their preliminary operating results. We designed the i-EHRs with service-oriented architecture (SOA) and combined the grid-based image management and distribution capability, which are compliant with IHE XDS-I integration profile. There are seven major components and common services included in the i-EHRs. In order to achieve quick response for image retrieving in low-bandwidth network environments, we use a JPEG2000 interactive protocol and progressive display technique to transmit images from a Grid Agent as Imaging Source Actor to the PACS workstation as Imaging Consumer Actor. The first phase of pilot testing of our image-enabled EHR was implemented in the Zhabei district of Shanghai for imaging document sharing and collaborative diagnostic purposes. The pilot testing began in October 2009; there have been more than 50 examinations daily transferred between the City North Hospital and the three community hospitals for collaborative diagnosis. The feedback from users at all hospitals is very positive, with respondents stating the system to be easy to use and reporting no interference with their normal radiology diagnostic operation. The i-EHR system can provide event-driven automatic image delivery for collaborative imaging diagnosis across multiple hospitals based on work flow requirements. This project demonstrated that the grid-based implementation of IHE XDS-I for image-enabled EHR could scale effectively to serve a regional healthcare solution with collaborative imaging services. The feedback from users of community hospitals and large hospital is very positive.

Linking Whole-Slide Microscope Images with DICOM by Using JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol

The use of digitized histopathologic specimens (also known as whole-slide images (WSIs)) in clinical medicine requires compatibility with the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard. Unfortunately, WSIs usually exceed DICOM image object size limit, making it impossible to store and exchange them in a straightforward way. Moreover, transmitting the entire DICOM image for viewing is ineffective for WSIs. With the JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP), WSIs can be linked with DICOM by transmitting image data over an auxiliary connection, apart from patient data. In this study, we explored the feasibility of using JPIP to link JPEG2000 WSIs with a DICOM-based Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS). We first modified an open-source DICOM library by adding support for JPIP as described in the existing DICOM Supplement 106. Second, the modified library was used as a basis for a software package (JVSdicom), which provides a proof-of-concept for a DICOM client–server system that can transmit patient data, conventional DICOM imagery (e.g., radiological), and JPIP-linked JPEG2000 WSIs. The software package consists of a compression application (JVSdicom Compressor) for producing DICOM-compatible JPEG2000 WSIs, a DICOM PACS server application (JVSdicom Server), and a DICOM PACS client application (JVSdicom Workstation). JVSdicom is available for free from our Web site (http://jvsmicroscope.uta.fi/), which also features a public JVSdicom Server, containing example X-ray images and histopathology WSIs of breast cancer cases. The software developed indicates that JPEG2000 and JPIP provide a well-working solution for linking WSIs with DICOM, requiring only minor modifications to current DICOM standard specification.

The Application of JPEG2000 in Virtual Microscopy

Virtual microscopy (i.e., the viewing of entire microscope specimens on a computer display) is becoming widely applied in microscopy teaching and clinical laboratory medicine. Despite rapidly increasing use, virtual microscopy currently lacks of a universally accepted image format. A promising candidate is JPEG2000, which has potential advantages for handling gigabyte-sized virtual slides. To date, no JPEG2000-based software has been specifically suited for virtual microscopy. To study the utility of JPEG2000 in virtual microscopy, we first optimized JPEG2000 code-stream parameters for virtual slide viewing (i.e., fast navigation, zooming, and use of an overview window). Compression using ratios 25:1-30:1 with the irreversible wavelet filter were found to provide the best compromise between file size and image quality. Optimal code-stream parameters also consisted of 10 wavelet decomposition levels, progression order Resolution-Position-Component-Layer (RPCL), a precinct size of 128 x 128, and code-block size of 64 x 64. Tiling and the use of multiple quality layers were deemed unnecessary. A compression application (JVScomp) was developed for creating optimally parameterized JPEG2000 virtual slides. A viewing application (JVSview) was developed specifically for virtual microscopy, offering all of the basic viewing functions. JVSview also supports viewing of focus stacks, embedding of textual descriptions, and defining regions of interest as metadata. Combined with our server application (JVSserv), virtual slides can be viewed over networks by employing the JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol (JPIP). The software can be tested using virtual slide examples located on our public JPIP server ( http://jvsmicroscope.uta.fi/ ). The software package is freely downloadable and usable for noncommercial purposes.

Efficient transmission of compressed data for remote volume visualization

One of the goals of telemedicine is to enable remote visualization and browsing of medical volumes. There is a need to employ scalable compression schemes and efficient client-server models to obtain interactivity and an enhanced viewing experience. First, we present a scheme that uses JPEG2000 and JPIP (JPEG2000 Interactive Protocol) to transmit data in a multi-resolution and progressive fashion. The server exploits the spatial locality offered by the wavelet transform and packet indexing information to transmit, in so far as possible, compressed volume data relevant to the clients query. Once the client identifies its volume of interest (VOI), the volume is refined progressively within the VOI from an initial lossy to a final lossless representation. Contextual background information can also be made available having quality fading away from the VOI. Second, we present a prioritization that enables the client to progressively visualize scene content from a compressed file. In our specific example, the client is able to make requests to progressively receive data corresponding to any tissue type. The server is now capable of reordering the same compressed data file on the fly to serve data packets prioritized as per the client's request. Lastly, we describe the effect of compression parameters on compression ratio, decoding times and interactivity. We also present suggestions for optimizing JPEG2000 for remote volume visualization and volume browsing applications. The resulting system is ideally suited for client-server applications with the server maintaining the compressed volume data, to be browsed by a client with a low bandwidth constraint.