May 9, 2006 – As part of the International Congress of Imaging Science, a few Xerox scientists presented their vision of “ubiquitous imaging” this week. The term is used to describe “a time when information and images are totally merged, and imaging is everywhere yet unobtrusive,” stated yesterday’s press release. The release used an example of an image of a bird that contained data to produce the bird’s song, preferred habitat, and feeding behaviors.
“The whole nature of imaging is changing,” said Siddhartha Dalal, vice president and manager of Xerox’s Imaging and Services Technology Center, in the release. “What the industry needs to work toward is a time when information and imaging are synonymous. My view is that automation will be driven not by a system or a device, but by the image itself.”
Dalal expects the images to become necessary in human interactions and will have the ability to “make decisions.” Xerox has a similar vision for documents; its digital documentation system makes documents “smarter” by adding data and filing it into a structure. Digital images are predicted to follow this same pattern.
“Information carried in an empowered image will enable it to arrange itself to display differently on the small screen of a mobile phone and the large screen of a monitor, or will enable a black-and-white image to transform itself into a color image,” the press release stated as examples. The concept of such robust images is still in early development, but such technology would be an innovative breakthrough.
