Image format for spectral image browsing

The technology for spectral imaging has developed rapidly during the past few years. The spectral cameras are usable in a variety of applications. These applications include archiving of artis- tic and museum objects, telemedicine, and e-commerce. In all of these applications, a large number of images will be stored in the archives with a high spatial and spectral (color) resolution. A possibility for fast browsing of these archives is needed. For browsing, the speed is more important than the high resolution of the images. The original, high resolution spectral images should be kept in the archive. In this paper, the authors present a new spectral image browsing architecture. This architecture contains a new data structure for spectral images. The data structure is based on a low-dimensional representation of original spectral images including a spatial subsampling of eigenimages. The authors show that this format enables fast network transfer of spectral images with a small loss of spatial and spectral information. Also, measures of visual quality are given. (c) 2006 Society for Imaging Science and Technology.