: Strack, R.

Abstract
Image data is used in widely differing application areas and many diverse requirements are placed upon it. The image data may represent many differing properties and/or data may be organized in various ways. Thus, there are many different uses of image data. Knowledge of the precise properties of a particular use enables the most appropriate encoding scheme to be employed for storage or transfer of the image data. Many of these encodings habe been designed with a particular use in mind and without regard to a more general framework. It is believed that, by looking at the whole field of images and image communication, a framework encompassing the various requirements con be derived. AMICS gives the opportunity, though its work to develop an Image Communication Open Architecture (ICOA), to characterize images, leading to the production of a framework, which identifies the operations on images, and to relate these operations to the required standards. The resulting ICOA enables to relate the various standards and standardization activities both in the imaging area and in the wider area of image communication and to identify the necessary support tools.