 Welcome to the ITU studio in Geneva where I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Isfand Sebastien who is former secretary-general of ECMA International, a key member of the original engineering team responsible for the development of the first edition of JPEG and also has close ties to ITU being a former CC ITT special rapporteur. Isfand, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. Now I'd like to start off by talking about something very special that has happened. The engineering team has been awarded an Emmy for their outstanding contribution to image coding. So looking here very much at JPEG. I wanted to ask you, how did it all start? First of all, congratulations. So first of all, thank you very much, not for me, but for the entire team. It was a large team and also several organizations who have cooperated with each other. Now I'd like to start off by asking you how did it all start and what's the story behind the development of JPEG 1 or also known as ITU-TT.81? Well, the story actually, it is a long story, so I try to be very brief. So it was in the beginning of 1986 when I saw TC97, SC2, etc. And also CCITT study group 8 have recognized that in the area of image coding, there is an absolutely common application and common interest to get together. Now from the CCITT study group 8 point of view, there were five or six different application areas or questions which had incorporated in some form or the other also images. On the ISO side, there were less, but basically it was video text, photographic mode, those types of things on the ISO side. So we had really a common goal to come together and actually also many of the members of the group, at least 60 or 70 percent of both sides that came from telecommunications, from the telecommunications side. So either manufacturers or operators. So we had a lot of common things and then we have decided, okay, so why don't we then join our forces and then develop together standard for continuous stone color images. So that was the starting point. Now for the common work between ITU and ISO, it already existed at the time several project in parallel, which I do not want to name. But one of them of this common project was this JPEG project. The problem was that at that point in time, there were no common rules for the joint working. And also there was no common template for the standard. So we were actually the first or before the first for the common rules who have designed our own rules and policies. And for the text, there was already the joint template format. So we have applied that. So this all started in 86. It was absolutely from both organization and informal group because the rules have not existed. And so I as a special report and also my partner from ISO, we were responsible to bring in the requirements from the ITU and the ISO site. Then this independent group, they worked, they came out in the end with a specification. And then we have taken the specification back to the ITU and also to your respective view to ISO. And then the formal approval process started and then it became standard in 1992. We were faster, long story. And then ISO came out one and a half year later because they had this traditional approval procedure. So this is in brief history of how it started to happen. It's difficult to think of a standard as well known as JPEG. The words JPEG and photograph have become perfect substitutes. In your view, what has been the secret to JPEG success? First of all, we didn't expect to be to be honest. So we thought, you know, that maybe this standard would be the first generation of that source. Maybe it would last for for six, seven years and then the next generation would come, which is true. It came, but the next generation was not as successful as this one. So there were a couple of components that, honestly speaking, we did not see. So the first component, which made it extremely successful, was incidentally, you know, the CCIT requirements side from this all different application that we came to a design, which was a toolbox type of design. So this toolbox element actually was so flexible that you could also apply it for medical images, for all different type of images, even motion JPEG images, et cetera. So it was extremely flexible, the design. This was one of the reasons. The second reason was that it was immediately, as the specification became available, picked up by an open source group by the so-called independent JPEG group. They have picked up the ISO version from ISO because it went into two different places. As I mentioned to you, and they have created within a year so much earlier than when we came out with our standard and ISO came out with the standard. Already a code, which they immediately put it on the internet. Everybody could download it. Everybody could implement it. Maybe not the best application, you know, but for a starter it was good. So that was the first skill application, the successful links with the open source community. The next one, which we also didn't see, is that the World Wide Web needed, from the very, very beginning, early 92 already, they needed a still picture coding standard. So they knew that this existed, so they have immediately taken it over. So the second was this. The third one was, which we absolutely didn't expect, that it would kill one of the components for killing the analog photography. And then, at the year 2000, then it turned out that it killed. So then everybody started to take pictures using JPEG. As I said, we didn't expect it. The next one, killer application, we also didn't expect, and that was with the smartphone. So with the Apple iPhone, et cetera. So there's suddenly, you know, this type of applications, and that's also social network, et cetera, et cetera. JPEG and the JPEG pictures were absolutely key. And so today, we have in that area, five billion mobile phones that are taking just the mobile phone, taking pictures and many more pictures than the analog cameras would. So really with that, you know, JPEG is absolutely dominated. JPEG one is absolutely dominating the still picture making or market. You say JPEG one. Yeah, that was the first in the series. So there's a whole family of JPEG, is that right? Yes, and they are still working on JPEG. Obviously, it is now very, very difficult to make that success again, because as I said, so this is a killer standard in that sense. But on certain segments, professional segments and new area and security feature, light field, et cetera, et cetera. So they are still working and actually together also with the ITU. So the ITU is still involved in it and but everything now is called JPEG. Like you said, JPEG is the most successful image coding standard on the market. What do you see for the future of JPEG one? This one will never disappear in my opinion, because every year, one trillion pictures are being created and this already for 20 years. So if you go back to the history of taking photography all the 150 years, then practically already the JPEG one standard for normal photography, et cetera, it is already dominating the area. So there are so many pictures that you cannot get rid of it anymore. You cannot convert it to a new format, whatever. And people are very much interested, of course, to see the ancestors and then how was it when I was young, et cetera, et cetera. So for this reason, in my opinion, I say that this is one of the so-called human heritage standards and the human heritage standard, especially it is connected to some content. It will, in my opinion, not go away. So you will have it in 100 years, 200 years. It's a different type of standard like, I don't know, 3G, 4G, 5G. So that one is being replaced, but this one not. JPEG one will live on and on. And I can say, obviously, wholeheartedly, that the ME is a great accolade. And I'm sure very well deserved. Thank you very much, indeed, for joining us in the studio and sharing these these lovely insights with us. And hopefully, as I say, we will catch up with you at some stage in the future. And you'll be able to tell me about some other success story, too. Yeah, so thank you very much. Thank you.