The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is to spearhead the development of a standard that is designed to specify methods and metrics for measuring and testing camera-phone image quality.

The IEEE P1858 -- Draft Standard for Camera Phone Image Quality (CPIQ) -- development project, will enable consumers to more easily and accurately compare and choose camera phones.

With the launch of the IEEE P1858 working group, IEEE is building on the CPIQ initiative of the International Imaging Industry Association (I3A). IEEE has acquired I3A’s CPIQ program and other assets, and the new IEEE effort involves many of the same corporate members that contributed to I3A’s five-year-old activity.

“IEEE is the obvious choice to take CPIQ to the next level. The overlap in membership between IEEE and I3A will allow for continuity in work toward a globally relevant CPIQ standard,” says Lisa Walker, president of I3A.

Although they may possess identical image-resolution capabilities, camera phones produce vastly different quality images. Vendors and consumers lack sufficient standardized metrics to compare one handset to the next. IEEE P1858 is designed to create a CPIQ rating system that will help consumers identify the camera phones that best meet their needs.

More information can be found here.

-- by Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design