What are the plans about image module in Drupal 7?

Drupal 7 will come with a lot of new features and much better file handling. So I'd like to know what are the plans about Image in Drupal 7.

I work on a (D6) site and I try to find the long time solution of image handling. (Image nodes, galleries, inline images, teaser images etc.) Image module (with it submodules and image assist) seems to be the most complete solution, but it has some disadvantages (for example very limited views support).

I read in the book Drupal Multimadia plans about the merge of image module and imagefield. What about it? If it is true, will there be a way to upgrade to that new solution (in the case of flexinode and CCK there were no...)? Will be an Image assist like module for the D7 version of image? What about image and the planned media module? Etc.

Thanks for your answers!