IMAGE VIEWER

By

TUSIIME DAVID SIMON S09B23/802

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A Project Proposal Submitted to the Faculty of science and Technology for the Study Leading to a Project in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science of Uganda Christian University.

Supervisor

Mr. Kubanja Martin

Department of Information Technology Faculty of Science and Technology, Uganda Christian University

December 2011.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction As individuals rely more on computers to help them carry out their work many individuals have resorted to using computers in order to view images and store them as opposed to printing them and putting them into albums. There is a growing trend in the creation of software that can help computer users view images on computer however this growing trend of image viewers has been mostly based on image editing rather than quick access and viewing of images which should rather be one of the key functions of image viewers. 1.1 Background

Today individuals take pictures for different purposes especially to help them remember what happened on various important occasions in their life time. Due to the different changes in technology individuals have adopted digital photography because of its ease of use and the technology that is now available on the market. However many pictures today are taken and are never printed out simply because they can be viewed on screens utilizing application software for example image viewers to look at these images. Currently many image viewing softwares have been developed in order to help users view images, however most image viewers have been developed with much emphasis on the

functions that help one process an image leaving out functions that help the user quickly access and view images at will. 1.2 Problem Statement

Various image viewing softwares have been developed to date, however most image viewers do not provide a simple way to access and view images readily, this has made users fail to quickly access images when needed for viewing. This can be solved by
developing a system that enables easy access and viewing of images.

1.3.1

Main Objective The main objective of this study is to develop image viewing application software that enables an individual to easily access and view images readily.

1.3.2

Specific Objectives i)
ii)

To analyze and review already existing image viewing software. To design a prototype of the image viewing software that enables easy access and viewing of images.

iii)

To carry out testing and validation of the prototype developed.

1.4

Scope This project is going to be limited to making accessing and viewing of images easier. Of which a few image formats will be employed when carrying out this research and these formats will include GIFF, PNG and JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) image formats will be employed.

1.5

Significance

This project is undertaken with the aim of making accessing and viewing of images simpler this will help ease the work of individuals especially those who interact with images daily for example those working in photo studios. It is meant to enable individuals manage their images with ease and be able to locate all their images easily. This image viewing software is meant to deliver timely and quick procedures which can enable a computer user locate and view images in real-time. It is meant to boost businesses of individuals especially those that do image processing by providing them with a simplified way of managing their businesses since it will cater for easy storage and backup of images.

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction This chapter will provide a historical overview of the theory and the research literature, with a special emphasis on what has already been done about the research. 2.1 Common Definitions Some of the common terms that are commonly used in image viewing include the following terms that are defined below. A pixel is the smallest addressable screen element on a display screen or the smallest unit of a picture that can be replaced or controlled. [1] Image Resolution:

This describes the amount detail that the image holds this can be measured in various ways but the most common way is to use two integer numbers where the first number is the number of pixel columns (width) and the second is the number of pixel rows (height). [2] Manipulating Images: This refers to the process of utilizing the different properties that an image has in order to obtain a certain display of the image. Image format: This refers to the different forms in which an image can be stored and some of the formats include GIF, JPEG AND TIFF image formats.

2.2

History of image viewers Image viewer application software is a computer program that enables a user to view images that are stored on the computer. Many image viewers have been developed to date and some of them also provide different functions which can be categorized as view functions and other extra functions that help one modify an image to suit fit what they desire a good case study could be the IrfanView image viewer. The IrfanView image viewer came to life in 1995 after the production of windows 1995 operating system and this was due to the need of individuals to view their images on computers. Since then the IrfanView image viewer has gone through a number of stages which can be summarized by looking at the different features that were added with the

different stages and trying to categorize them in order to come up with the different stages of evolution of image viewers.

2.3

The evolution of image viewers. The IrfranView viewer has gone through various evolutions and these are also evident in other image viewing softwares that are available today. The first evolution phase of image viewers: The first version of the IrfranView image viewer 1.70 had the capability of viewing TIFF image formats which were uncompressed and this was version. The next version 1.80 added on capabilities of viewing PCX and RLE in addition to viewing gray scale TIFF images and the development trend for the next version was mostly dwelling on simply viewing images. [3] The second evolution phase of image viewers: The release of the version 1.95 brought about a change in the development trend of image viewer and this new generation of the image viewer was about simple manipulation of images for example the version 1.95 was able to enable users to flip and rotate images and also copy them to other directories in a computer. The version 1.98 had capabilities to enable users to resize images and zoom in and out of an image for clearer viewing. The third phase of image viewers: This trend of development went on and then gave birth to more complex ways of manipulating images for example cutting and copying of portions of images this was evident in version 2.80 of the IrfranView image viewer and more image formats were created and supported for example EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), CLP (Windows Clipboard file) and CAM(Casio digital camera) formats, this trend of development has however gone on until now with more image formats being created and developed and more ways of manipulating images have be developed however most image viewer programmers have concentrated more on creating various functions that help make image viewing and manipulation easier but they have not catered for easy access of images and spontaneous viewing of images and thus the procedure employed in order for individuals to access images is relatively the same thus there is need to create an image viewer which will enable quick viewing and access of images.

2.4

Deductions It can be observed that the trend of development of the IrfanView image viewer and other image viewing software has been based more on manipulating images leaving out quick access of images which would have rather been a key aspect in the development of image viewers. This trend can be broken by coming up with an image viewer that is mainly based on quick access and viewing of images rather than manipulation of images and thus the need to develop an image viewer that relies more on quick access and viewing of images.

CHAPTER THREE METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction This chapter shows the different phases that will lead to the completion of the project and the different techniques that are going to be employed in order to come up with the facts about what already exists and what can be done to solve the problem. The water fall method of system development will be employed while creating this system and it comprises the following stages. [4]

3.2 Requirements phase. This stage involves mostly data collection where by some data collection techniques will be employed in order to be able identify the problem and thus create a working solution for it. And some of these methods include: 3.2.1 Questionnaires These will involve strategic questions that will focus on finding out what has already been done and also generate ideas about what can be done in order to solve the existing problem. 3.2.2 Written documents This will involve looking at different publications from different people who have already done research about image viewing and this will include text books, journals and newspapers.

3.3 Analysis phase. The data collected will be analyzed by looking at the different ideas suggested by the individuals interviewed and the research carried out the researcher intends to select a number of workable ideas that would help come up with a good design of the image viewer proto type.

3.4

Design phase

The unified modeling language approach will be used to come up with the required design for the project and this will include 3.4.1 Use case diagrams

This involves diagrammatic illustration of use case diagrams which will show the different users of the system and how they will interact with the system this will give a good idea about how the system works.[4]

3.4.2

Data flow diagrams

This will illustrate how data moves between the different users of the system and this will help to show how the system works and expose the mechanisms that will be employed while creating the system.[4] 3.5 System implementation, testing and validation phase

The system will be installed on windows 7 operating system and it will be analyzed to see as to whether it actually does what it is required to do this will prove if the system can be recommended for use. The Netbeans 7.1 java development tool will be employed in the development of the system and it will help very much when trying to debug and correct the errors that will be generated while developing the image viewer.

CHAPTER FOUR SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

4.0 Introduction This chapter involves analyzing the data collected and understanding the information needs of the end users who are going to use the system. The data collected is going to be analyzed by observation and hence coming up with a system that will enable quick access and viewing of images. 4.1 Study of the current system Under the study of the current system an analysis of the windows photo viewer is going to be done in order to explain how most image viewers operate clearly showing the loop holes that are in this image viewer. The windows photo viewer is developed in within the windows operating system. When one starts the operating system you cannot readily access the windows photo viewer. It can only be accessed when you right click on an image and select preview on the pop up menu generated. One can then be able to browse through images copy, print, email, burn and open the current picture with another application using the menus provided. It loads an image from the selected folder in order to enable the viewer to view the image however it does not allow a person to select photos from another folder when viewing images quickly so one has to use the windows start bar in order to quickly access an image and view it. 4.1.2 Strength of the current system The current system has the following advantages it is capable of viewing It also supports jpeg, PNG and gif image formats. It can help a user to zoom into an image and concentrate on a particular spot.

4.1.2

Weaknesses of the existing system It is limited to installation on only the windows operating system and this makes its use limited only to windows operating system users. Most of its functions deal with viewing an image on a computer but dont help a user to open an image from another location and view it readily when viewing images.

4.2

The Proposed System The proposed system is made up of various components which work together in order to achieve a common goal. The system will be capable of fetching a picture from any location in the computer or removable storage device and it will be able to then display it in a window in order to enable the user to view it readily. Therefore the new system will be able to fetch an image from a location in a computer and a load image option and quick search image option will be used to get images from different locations of the computer in order to view them readily.

4.3

Requirements This involves interacting with the proposed users of to know what they would want the system to do and looking at the data obtained in order to identify the system requirements which include the functional and non-functional prerequisites that will be very vital for the development of a system and these can either be in form of hardware, software or technical expertise required for the system to operate.

4.3.1

User requirements The users will expect the system to be able to search for images and load images from any location of the computer without having to use the start menu in order to access images from the computer and additional information will be obtained from the expected system users in order to complete the system.

4.3.1.1 Functional requirements The system is required to be able to identify a file type and be able to display images of the formats jpeg, gif and PNG image formats. It should have a search option in order to enable the system user to look for images from the computer and be able to view them. 4.3.1.2 Non-functional requirements The program will take on the java default color for its interface depending on the operating systems specifications and resolution of the screen. The system will display a user friendly interface in order to enable the proposed users to interact with the system easily. 4.4 System requirements These are the minimum specifications that a machine must have in order to be able to run the software being developed and these include: The machine should have at least 1GB of RAM and Duo core processor of at least 1GHZ.

It should be running at least windows XP operating system and it should have java virtual machine running on it. The system should also have at least 15 gigabytes of hard disk memory.

4.5

System design (Architectural design)

Start

user

-load an image -view an image -print an image -search for an image

Stop

4.6

Data flow diagram for my system

User

P1Upload Image

Images stored on disk

Image from storage

D 1

Computer hard disk or storage Image from storage

P3 Print Image

Image displayed

P 2 View Image

image displayed

P4 Email

Images on the hard disk

P5 Search

REFERENCES: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel [November, 22, 2011].

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_resolution [November, 22, 2011].

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/viewwer/Comparison_of_image_viewers.htm. [November, 18, 2011].

[4] Paul and Harvey Deitel. Java How to Program, 9th ed. Vol. 1 New York: Prentice
Hall, 2011, pp.475.

WORK PLAN Activities Topic Selection Concept Paper writing Proposal Writing Design Coding/implementation Testing the system Prototype Real System and Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb march

Presentation system to the Academic Panel