Multi-level browsing for efficient image transmission

Multimedia applications such as distributed digital libraries, digital databases, teleshopping and telebrowsing systems are expected to deliver as minimum data as needed and allow users to quickly browse through images located in remote databases. Currently users often experience delays since a large amount of multimedia data such as images has to be transmitted across networks. Existing network technologies are not advanced enough (many places still use slow links) and the number of users is growing at a rapid pace. This places a further demand on the network bandwidth. Usually different users and applications may require images at different levels of quality but existing browsers only deliver the available data (often pre-compressed data) and do not allow users to specify the quality level of images they need, hence extra data has to be transmitted unnecessarily. The response time can be improved if the requested images are delivered at the requested quality. This paper proposes a framework for multi-level browsers and network graphic user interfaces based on the notion that the users should be allowed to specify the level of quality of the image they need and suitable compression techniques should be employed to minimise needed image data before transmission. Images can be either precompressed at the desired quality levels or further compressed to reduce their volume before they are delivered.