Method for compressing image signals

Claim 1

A method for compressing an image signal, which comprises the steps of: i) subjecting an original image signal made up of a series of image signal components representing an image to a component number decreasing process which comprises the steps of: a) electronically superimposing a plurality of block lines in parallel on an image, each block comprising a plurality of picture elements in said image, wherein each said picture element is associated with an image signal component, arranging said blocks continuously or at predetermined intervals, shifting said blocks such that the phases of the blocks located along a block line are shifted by at least a distance equal to a length of a single picture element from the phases of the blocks located along a neighboring block line such that said neighboring block lines are out of phase, and b) combining said image signal components that are associated with said plurality of picture elements within each said block through a predetermined process thereby determining a representative image signal component for each said block, said representative image signal component being indicative of all image signal components in each said block, ii) classifying said representative image signal components, which have been determined from said component number decreasing processing, into main components, which have been sampled at appropriate sampling intervals, and interpolated components other than said main components, and iii) subjecting said interpolated components to interpolation prediction encoding processing based on said main components.

Claim 2

A method for compressing an image signal, which comprises the steps of: i) subjecting an original image signal made up of a series of image signal components representing an image to a component number decreasing process which comprises the steps of: a) electronically superimposing a plurality of block lines in parallel on an image, each block comprising a plurality of picture elements in said image, wherein each said picture element is associated with an image signal component, arranging said blocks continuously or at predetermined intervals, shifting said blocks such that the phases of the blocks located along a block line are shifted by at least a distance equal to a length of a single picture element from the phases of the blocks located along a neighboring block line such that said neighboring block lines are out of phase, and b) combining said image signal components that are associated with said plurality of picture elements within each said block through a predetermined process thereby determining a representative image signal component for each said block, said representative image signal component being indicative of all image signal components in each said block, ii) classifying said representative image signal components, which have been determined from said component number decreasing processing, into main components, which have been sampled at appropriate sampling intervals, and interpolated components other than said main components, and iii) subjecting said interpolated components to interpolation prediction encoding processing based on said main components.