scope:

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 standalone 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 capabilites 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.