Visual realism and interactivity for the Internet

The World Wide Web (Web) has emerged as the preeminent way to publish and access information on networks, both publicly (the Internet) and within companies (intranets). Although nominally based on the HTML standard, there has been a steady stream of innovation in the domains of multimedia and interactivity that has greatly expanded Web capabilities. This paper describes two new open technologies-the FlashPix image file format and the Internet Imaging Protocol-and explains how, working together, they form the technological basis for visual realism and interactivity on the Web for 2D and 3D imaging as well as for virtual reality systems. It also describes three initiatives that Live Picture Inc., together with its partners, has undertaken with these two new technologies.