Qbit Announces Release of Z-Image, a Radical New Approach to Lossless Data Reduction

LAS VEGAS --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 5, 2005 Qbit, LLC, a Bethesda Maryland-based research and development company unveiled today at CES their new Z-Image(TM) product, a radical new approach to lossless data reduction that provides extremely high image compression. As reported today in Phillip Swann's "TVPredictions.com" (http://www.tvpredictions.com), market research firm In-Stat believe that the Qbit technology will have major and positive impact on the market for all forms of electronic consumer entertainment products and services. The company has been operating in "stealth" mode for over two years and has finished its first software-based enabling technology.

According to a recent "Media Alert" generated by Gerry Kaufhold at the In-Stat Group, "The market-place advantages of a lossless system with extremely high compression ratios are threefold. First, the final image quality is exactly as good as the original, uncompressed image, so it will look better than video that goes through a 'lossy' system. Second, less storage is required, so many more minutes of video, or many more digital still images, can be held on a memory card or micro-disc. Third, more 'payload' can be transmitted through any existing bandwidth, which means that many of today's wired and wireless networks that provide marginal performance for video will be able to deliver high-quality video without the need for upgrading or adding additional bandwidth. It's almost like magic!"

Qbit was founded by Dan Kilbank, an entrepreneur with advanced training in quantum physics and mathematics; Co-founders include John Sculley, former CEO of Apple and Pepsi, and Dennis Sullivan, a former member of the executive management team of Asymetrix (now Click2Learn), a Paul Allen company.

The first product from Qbit is Z-Image, which losslessly encodes and decodes original, raw, raster data. Z-Image is capable today of losslessly managing digital intermediate files for movie production and high-resolution medical and satellite images, which are multi-billion dollar markets. With its counterintuitive small footprint, Z-Image can be implemented in embedded systems, and will work in low-cost, high volume applications such as digital cameras, digital video camcorders, video telephone and video-enabled cell phones.

Z-Image compresses large satellite images at higher performance levels rendering images captured by intelligence and commercial sensors much more valuable than other currently available technologies. "Today, Z-Image is already achieving a 3 to 5x lossless encoding improvement using interframes, and 10x lossless using intraframes, and we're making it faster," said Dan Kilbank, founder and CEO of Qbit.

Upcoming lossless technology from Qbit will be able to work on any binary information, including analog or digital files. Possible uses for these upcoming Qbit algorithms may be the ability to send High Definition TV programming over standard ADSL telephone services, or any network of choice.

About Qbit

Qbit is a privately-held research and development company that is focused on creating and licensing software, and Verilog designs for hardware, that offer a radical new approach to lossless data reduction, providing extremely high compression of still images, video, audio, and data storage and transmission. Qbit's research and development in lossless compression and encryption has enormous benefits to consumer, commercial and government/military fields of use including; digital photography, satellite images, medical imaging, digital, audio, and high definition and video on demand (VoD), xDSL and other high-speed Internet transmission, data storage and transmission, and Voice-over IP (VoIP). The company is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.