Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) is a protocol developed by the International Imaging Industry Association to allow the transfer of images from digital cameras to computers and other peripheral devices without the need of additional device drivers. The protocol has been standardized as ISO 15740. It is further standardized for USB by the USB Implementers Forum as the still image capture device class. USB is the default network transport media for PTP devices. USB PTP is a common alternative to the USB mass-storage device class (USB MSC), as a digital camera connection protocol. Some cameras support both modes. Description PTP specifies a way of creating, transferring and manipulating objects which are typically photographic images such as a JPEG file. While it is common to think of the objects that PTP handle as files, they are abstract entities identified solely by a 32-bit object ID. These objects can however have parents and siblings so that a file-system–like view of device contents can be created. History Until the standardization of PTP, digital camera vendors used different proprietary protocols for controlling digital cameras and transferring images to computers and other host devices. The term "Picture Transfer Protocol" and the acronym "PTP" were both coined by Steve Mann, summarizing work on the creation of a Linux-friendly way of transferring pictures to and from home-made wearable computers, at a time when most cameras required the use of Microsoft Windows or Mac OS device drivers to transfer their pictures to a computer. PTP was originally standardized as PIMA 15470 in 2000, while it was developed by the IT10 committee. Key contributors to the standard included Tim Looney and Tim Whitcher (Eastman Kodak Company) and Eran Steinberg (Fotonation). Storage PTP does not specify a way for objects to be stored – it is a communication protocol. Nor does it specify a transport layer. However, it is designed to support existing standards, such as Exif, TIFF/EP, DCF, and DPOF, and is commonly implemented over the USB and FireWire transport layers. Images on digital cameras are generally stored as files on a mass storage device, such as a memory card, which is formatted with a file system, most commonly FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32, which may be laid out as per the Design rule for Camera File system (DCF) specification. But none of these are required as PTP abstracts from the underlying representation. By contrast, if a camera is mounted via