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Beyond RGB: A new image file format efficiently stores invisible light data
New Spectral JPEG XL compression reduces file sizes, making spectral imaging more practical.
Imagine working with special cameras that capture light your eyes can't even see—ultraviolet rays that cause sunburn, infrared heat signatures that reveal hidden writing, or specific wavelengths that plants use for photosynthesis. Spectral JPEG XL utilizes a technique used with human-visible images, a math trick called a discrete cosine transform(DCT), to make these massive files smaller. That is then fed into the codec, and rather than inventing a completely new file type, the method uses the compression engine and features of the standardized JPEG XL image format to store the specially prepared spectral data.
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