Image Power Announces First Color Document Paper to Web Publishing Application

Business Wire, Oct 17, 1997

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 1997-- Image Power Inc. (VSE:IPZ) announced Thursday the availability of its integrated image compression application Power Compressor Preview Release 1.0 for electronic document publishing.

Power Compressor converts digital pictures and documents into compound compressed images using a combination of JPEG, JBIG, and Wavelet technology. Power Compressor achieves a level of compression considerably beyond existing techniques. An integrated image management subsystem enables the management of large numbers of digital photos, scanned images and documents. Using an intelligent image analysis technology, the application is able to compress a mix of image types for efficient archive and storage.

Picture Compression Technology

Power Compressor converts JPEG, GIF and scanned photos into highly compressed images using Wavelet continuous tone compression technology developed in partnership with the University of British Columbia. Wavelets are able to tone achieve levels of compression 5 to 20 times better than existing JPEG technology while preserving visual fidelity. Photos produced by scanners and digital cameras are typically 60K to 150K in size. Wavelet compression reduces these images to 10K to 20K, resulting in considerably faster Internet and intranet download times.

Document Compression Technology

Using Image Power's proprietary image classification technology, Power Compressor is able to automatically compress compound documents such as magazine articles, brochures and catalogs which contain a mix of color pictures and text. The resulting compression ratios of up to 150:1 to 200:1 reduce the original size from 4.6M to 10M to 40K to 80K bytes. At this level of compression paper documents containing color pictures become publishable for the first time on the world wide web.

Browser Plug-ins

The company also announces two plug-ins designed to display the resulting compressed photos and documents using Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers. The plug-ins -- available for free download from the web -- support three new file formats: JBIG, Wavelet and Mixed Raster Content (MRC). The MRC plug-in enables the Netscape and IE browsers to view compound compressed documents for the first time on the web. The Internet Explorer plug-in is now available, and the Netscape plug-in will be released later this month.

Power Compressor Preview Release 1.0 is available for free download from the company web site at www.imagepower.com .

Image Power Inc. is a leading developer of color and monochrome image compression and analysis products for the wireless, Internet and intranet markets. For additional information, visit the company's web site at http://www.imagepower.com . -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: In the World Wide Web address noted in this news release, there is a double slash between http: and www.imagepower.com . These symbols may not appear properly in some systems.

CONTACT: FMMG Inc.

561/487-2622

or

Image Power Inc.

Astrid Levelt, 604/662-3188

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