Bigger Isn't Always Better

With all the efforts to make the internet faster, CPUs more powerful and higher capacity storage devices you may not thing to approach the data problem from the opposite direction. When someone does think about it though, you realize that it makes perfect sense. Don't concentrate on how to make your large files move faster, when you should be trying to find a way to make your large files smaller.

The Singapore-based startup MatrixView has done just that by developing a new image compression format that may just become the next universal standard. The format, aptly named, MatrixView Universal (MVU) can compress an image to around 15x smaller than a JPEG but unlike JPEG compression a MVU file does not simplify image details or degrade image quality. Because of this, MatrixView is beginning to distribute licenses for its new format first in medical applications where it can be used to efficiently store digital copies of detailed X-Rays, MRI's and the like, where loss of image detail can be a life or death issue. Talks are in the works to incorporate this technology into chips for digital cameras. Maybe in the not so distant future it won't be necessary to spend as much on a higher capacity memory card as you did on the camera itself.

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