JAI

Java Advanced Imaging (JAI) offers extended image processing capabilities beyond those found in Java 2D. For example, geometric operations include translation, rotation, scaling, shearing, transposition, and warping. Pixel-based operations utilize lookup tables and rescaling equations but can be applied to multiple sources, then combined to get a single outcome. Modifications can be restricted to regions in the source, statistical operations are available (e.g., mean and median), and frequency domains can be employed.

An intended application domain for JAI is the manipulation of images too large to be loaded into memory in their entirety. A TiledImage class supports pixel editing based on tiles, which can be processed and displayed independently of their overall image.

Image processing can be distributed over a network by using RMI to farm out areas of the image to servers, with the results returned to the client for displaying.

JAI employs a pull imaging model, where an image is constructed from a series of source images, arranged into a graph. When a particular pixel (or tile) is required, only then will the image request data from the necessary sources. These kinds of extended features aren't usually required for gaming and aren't used in this book.

More information on JAI can be found at its home page: http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai/.