i3 - November/December 2017 - 48

Dr. Hiroshi Yasuda
PUBLISHER,
DIGITAL MULTIMEDIA
TWICE MAGAZINE
PIONEER
(1947
(1944
-0000)
-)

ew people have so
deeply impacted how
we visually reproduce
the world today as Dr. Hiroshi
Yasuda. As an original
participant of the development
of JPEG and chairman of
the International Standards
Organization (ISO) multimedia
coding standardization
subcommittee, Yasuda
shepherded the development
of multiple universal multimedia
compression formats.
Yasuda received his B.E.,
M.E. and Dr.E. degrees from
The University of Tokyo in 1967,
1969 and 1972, respectively,
then joined the Electrical
Communication Laboratories of
NTT in 1972. In 1969, he met an
engineering doctoral student
from Italy at The University of
Tokyo, Leonardo Chiariglione.
On March 7, 1986, Yasuda was
part of a small group that met in
Boston to form the precursor to
the Joint Photographic coding
Experts Group, or JPEG. Eight
months later, Yasuda pushed the
ISO and the CCITT (Consultative
Committee for International
Telephony and Telegraphy), to
formalize the organization in
Parsippany, NJ. As convener of
ISO SC2/WG8 and one of the
"parents" of the JPEG working
group, Yasuda made many
important contributions toward
the JPEG-1 standard.
Yasuda was one of three dozen
engineers to meet in Copenhagen
in June 1987 to narrow down

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48

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017

Under his chairmanship, ISO/ IEC
JTC1/SC29 was awarded a 1995 to 1996
Emmy/technical engineering award
for JPEG, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 from The
Television Academy of America.

10 proposed JPEG techniques
to three. In January 1988 in
Copenhagen, Yasuda helped to
decide on a single approach. For
the next few years, Yasuda helped
further refine and narrow down
technical methods to determine a
final JPEG international standard.
At a JPEG-related meeting
in Houston, TX, in May 1988,
Yasuda helped his friend, Dr.
Leonardo Chiariglione create a
group to formulate a universal
compression standard for
digital video - the Motion
Picture Experts Group (MPEG).
Yasuda offered to put some
Japanese engineers in touch with
Chiariglione. MPEG meetings
soon began to attract 300
members from 25 countries and

from more than 100 companies
in consumer electronics,
computers, broadcasters and
telecommunications.
Several other (often
competitive) multimedia coding
standard efforts began to
emerge in the mid- to late-1980s,
and Yasuda fought to bring
them all under a single existing
sub-committee umbrella.
In December 1991, Yasuda
succeeded and was elected
chairman of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29,
responsible for coordinating
the development of numerous
multimedia coding efforts and
the adoption of JPEG-1, MPEG-1
and MPEG-2 in 1992 and 1993.
Yasuda served as chairman
of SC29 until 1999, during

which time consumer digital
photography and digital video
were introduced and became
popular, thanks largely to
Yasuda's leadership in developing
universal multimedia standards.
After 25 years at NTT,
including a role as director at the
NTT Information Communication
Laboratories, he joined The
University of Tokyo in 1997,
serving as director of the Center
for Collaborative Research (CCR)
from 2003 to 2005, retiring in
March 2007. He also served as
the President of DAVIC (Digital
Audio Video Council) from
September 1996 to September
1998. In April 2007, he joined
Tokyo Denki University as its
general media center director.
After serving in several positions,
he was named university
president in 2016.
Yasuda has received
numerous awards including the
Achievement Award of IEICE (The
Institute of Electronic Information
and Communication Engineers)
in 1995, the 2000 Charles Proteus
Steinmetz Award from IEEE, and
the Medal with Purple Ribbon
from the Emperor of Japan in
spring 2009. He also wrote several
books on the standardization of
multimedia coding.
Under his chairmanship, ISO/
IEC JTC1/SC29 was awarded a
1995 to 1996 Emmy/technical
engineering award for JPEG,
MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 from The
Television Academy of America.

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