Information Technology - Computer Graphics and Image Processing - Image Processing and Interchange (IPI) - Functional Specification - Part 2: Programmer's Imaging Kernel System Application Program Interface

This part of ISO/IEC 12087 establishes the specification of the application program interface (API), called the Programmer's Imaging Kernel System (PIKS). ISO/IEC 12087-1 establishes the conceptual and architectural definitions of the Common Architecture for Imaging (CAI). ISO/IEC 12087-3 establishes the specification of the Image Interchange Facility (IIF).

PIKS is intended to provide a rich set of both low-level and high-level services on image and image-derived data objects. These services can be used as building blocks for a broad range of common imaging applications.

A conscious effort has been made by the developers of PIKS to create a standard that does not favor any particular computing system. Implementations of PIKS should be possible on computing systems ranging in architecture from general purpose computers to specialised hardware accelerators, ranging in size from personal computers to mainframe supercomputers, and ranging in connectivity from stand-alone machines to distributed computing networks.

Where applicable, PIKS relies on other APIs and data format standards to provide capabilities that are not unique to imaging. The following lists contain a summary of technological capabilities provided by PIKS and not provided by PIKS. However, it should be noted that PIKS functionality may be useful as a pre-processor or co-processor for many of the technologies in the Not provided by PIKS list.

Provided by PIKS: image analysis, image classification (basic), image enhancement, image interchange between PIKS and an application, image interchange between PIKS and the IIF, image manipulation primitives, image processing data object generation tools (e.g., image filter functions), image restoration, image visualization (basic), standard colour models.

Not provided by PIKS: audio, computer graphics, device control, image acquisition, image communication, image compression and decompression, image display, image transport between applications, image understanding, multimedia, pattern recognition, specific implementations, video, window systems.

NOTE: The Image Interchange Facility of ISO/IEC 12087-3 specifies image compression and decompression functionality and image transport between applications and between an application and PIKS.