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Published: January 15, 2017 | Source: Google | Author: Mark Campbell

Google creates a new compression tool loads images with 75% less bandwidth

Google creates a new compression tool loads images with 75% less bandwidth

Google creates a new compression tool loads images with 75% less bandwidth

 
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has created a new image compression tool called RAISR, which they say can cut bandwidth consumption by 75% when loading images from the internet.  
 
Right now this new compression technique is limited to Google Plus, though Google does plan on bringing this feature to other applications. 
 
This tool was created using AI and machine learning, RAISR analyses images and creates smaller versions with less pixels, the algorithm then finds out how to enhance these smaller versions. Over time the AI has learned how to use this information, which was collected over thousands of smaller images, to learn patterns that will allow it to enhance other pixelated images.  
 
Google plans on using this tool to lower data consumption by compressing existing images, allowing them to be enhanced by the user’s device to create a higher resolution version. This allows the image to be sent to a device quicker using less bandwidth, lowering the data use by both Google and the end-user, while making the delivery of the image seem faster. 
 
 
      By using RAISR to display some of the large images on Google, we’ve been able to use up to 75 percent less bandwidth per image we’ve applied it to.
 

  

Google creates a new compression tool loads images with 75% less bandwidth

 

If this tool is applied to more applications Google will be able to dramatically improve the perceived speed of any internet connection speed, allowing more detailed images to be delivered with less data. If applied to services like Twitter or Facebook this could have a dramatic effect on the perceived speed of either site, all while dramatically reducing data consumption. 

Right now we do not know where Google plans on using this new technology, though Google plans on announcing broader plans of this technology soon. 

At this time, we can see no reason why this technology cannot be applied to video or other forms of images, as we have already seen with similar projects like “Magic Pony“, that AI-driven enhancement technologies can greatly enhance video, even in real-time on livestreams or services like YouTube. 

 

You can join the discussion on Google’s new RAISR image enhancement/compression tool on the OC3D Forums. 

 

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