Volume Graphics uses Kakadu Software

Volume Graphics chose Kakadu by Kakadu Software Pty. Ltd. as new library for JPEG2000 image import and export throughout its software for the analysis and visualization of industrial computed tomography (CT) data such as VGSTUDIO MAX. 

The Brief

Volume Graphics was looking for a new encoding and decoding library for images in the JPEG2000 format to replace both the legacy Intel IPP/UIC library on Windows as well as the JasPer library on Ubuntu Linux and macOS. JPEG2000 is used throughout the software for image import and export, with the “Pack and go” function as an important use case. “Pack and go” readies a Volume Graphics project in a more compact form by compressing the images with JPEG2000. This way, a Volume Graphics project, which can have a size of several GB in uncompressed form, can more easily be shared. In general, compared to the traditional JPEG format, the wavelet-based JPEG2000 offers a number of advantages: It is more resilient in case of lost/incomplete information, offers a slightly higher compression and at the same time less visible artifacts, and supports multiple resolutions within one file.

The Kakadu Solution

Volume Graphics chose Kakadu by Kakadu Software Pty. Ltd. as new library for JPEG2000 because of its speed, robustness, and cross-platform support. Implemented in the software, Kakadu outperforms both the legacy Intel IPP/UIC and the open source OpenJPEG library when using it for compression and decompression tasks. Furthermore, in addition to speed and robustness, the cross-platform support was another reason for choosing Kakadu. The high performance is a result of the multi-threading capabilities that Kakadu offers. Starting with version 3.2.1 of all Volume Graphics applications, Kakadu also automatically determines the optimal number of threads.

The Results

The use of the new library has generally accelerated import and export ­– in many use cases the performance increase is clearly noticeable for the user.

About Volume Graphics

Volume Graphics develops leading software for the analysis and visualization of industrial computed tomography (CT) data. Companies around the world use software such as VGSTUDIO MAX, Volume Graphics’ high-end application, in research, development, production, quality control, and damage analysis. Volume Graphics helps companies to find out as much about their products as possible – and non-destructively at that. CT provides the basis for this, as CT scans reveal every aspect of an object.