The project is for MAC OS X 10.5 and 10.6. The tool is to enable a folder of compressed image files to appear as uncompressed files in another folder/volume to any calling application. The files are to be virtualized such that they are only decompressed when called for display/read -- uncompressed data is not to be stored on disk. Read and write filesystem operations are to be implemented. Writing will take the uncompressed image and store a compression result. The compression libraries will be provided -- the compression work is minor, the virtualization is the main work. The image type to be used is 10-bit RGB DPX.

Compressed Folder on Disk
/Media/DPXfiles/base0001.dpx 1,232KB
/Media/DPXfiles/base0002.dpx 1,141KB
/Media/DPXfiles/base0003.dpx 1,347KB
...

Seen as Folder
/VirtualizedMedia/DPXfiles/base0001.dpx 8,102KB
/VirtualizedMedia/DPXfiles/base0002.dpx 8,102KB
/VirtualizedMedia/DPXfiles/base0003.dpx 8,102KB
...

All other files in a folder and to pass through as is, enabling a whole volume to be virtualized and only the the compressed dpx files to be presented/written differently. Using MacFUSE (http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/) seems to be a good candidate, but we are open to other development paths. The compression libraries are fast, so speed is important.