Apple, Microsoft and Sony partners to create a standard photo data
Some of the biggest names in the industry hardware and software dedicated to photography team on a new project to create a metadata standard for images.
The Metadata Working Group has advanced the first specifications for the integration of metadata in image files. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Sony, Canon and Nokia are founding members of this group.
The aim of this project is to create an interoperable standard for data, which can then be used by software processing and indexing images to help the organization and classification based on photos criteria such as location, date and subject.
A major challenge for photographers pros and for the general public
This metadata system is particularly important for professional photographers, photo archives which often include thousands of images. However, with the gradual transition to digital family photo albums, metadata become an issue increasingly important for the general public.
“The lack of interoperability of metadata led to a significant frustration for the general public as professional photographers, and our companies have spent considerable resources to try to resolve this problem,” said Josh Weisberg, director of Rich Media Group at Microsoft , And chairman of Metadata Working Group.
“The gathering of industry leaders around the theme of interoperability of metadata is already a great achievement that we hope will lead to the creation of a technology easier to use for photographers.”
The first published specifications put forward guidelines for companies on the storage and playback of metadata, as well as methods to avoid conflicts between different standards.
