Updating HTML on page

I have a PHP script that queries a DB to get a list of image names. Then it processes each name and generate thumbnails and what not. What I want to do is have a page called (through the browser) which updates as the PHP process in the background is working. So when you first pull up the page it will say 'There are x images to process' and then dynamically update the page with a progress status. In its crudest form it should say something like 'Processing 1 of 5 images .' When that image is done, it should update the page with 2 of 5 . etc., etc. Ideally without refreshing the page each time. Is this where I need to figure out Ajax and incorporate it with PHP?