US5212565A — Method for reducing amount of stored digital imag…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 250 words

A digital image data compression method, comprising: digitizing an uncompressed image area data field including digitizing said image area data field in the form of 512×512 pixels, wherein each pixel carries a numerical weight of zero through fifteen so as to have sixteen levels and can be represented by four binary bits; sectioning the digitized, uncompressed image area data field into a plurality of data blocks including sectioning the digitized image area data field into sixty-four 64×64×4 bit blocks, wherein each block is spatially oriented for retaining the integrity of an original image, and sub-sectioning each of the sixty-four blocks by one of a plurality of schemes, wherein each of the sixty-four blocks is divided into integral sub-blocks, with each of the sub-blocks retaining its spatial orientation; compressing the plurality of data blocks for representing each block in terms of its predominant data values and non-redundant occurrences including selecting predominant data values from each block, and encoding the selected predominant data values and the data values that are identical to a selected predominant data value including assigning a data bit code to each of the selected predominant data values and assigning to data values that are identical to a predominant value a data bit code corresponding to that of the predominant value; and storing remaining uncoded data values and the coded data values in a variable length record so that each data location within the record corresponds to the location of the data in the uncompressed image area data field.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 250 words

A digital image data compression method, comprising: digitizing an uncompressed image area data field including digitizing said image area data field in the form of 512×512 pixels, wherein each pixel carries a numerical weight of zero through fifteen so as to have sixteen levels and can be represented by four binary bits; sectioning the digitized, uncompressed image area data field into a plurality of data blocks including sectioning the digitized image area data field into sixty-four 64×64×4 bit blocks, wherein each block is spatially oriented for retaining the integrity of an original image, and sub-sectioning each of the sixty-four blocks by one of a plurality of schemes, wherein each of the sixty-four blocks is divided into integral sub-blocks, with each of the sub-blocks retaining its spatial orientation; compressing the plurality of data blocks for representing each block in terms of its predominant data values and non-redundant occurrences including selecting predominant data values from each block, and encoding the selected predominant data values and the data values that are identical to a selected predominant data value including assigning a data bit code to each of the selected predominant data values and assigning to data values that are identical to a predominant value a data bit code corresponding to that of the predominant value; and storing remaining uncoded data values and the coded data values in a variable length record so that each data location within the record corresponds to the location of the data in the uncompressed image area data field.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 30 words

A method as described by claim 1, including: assigning a data bit code for each sub-block, said sub-block data bit codes having code bits and predominant pixel value code bits.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 27 words

A method as described by claim 2, including: assigning the data bit code for each sub-block in accordance with the assumption that all pixel values are identical.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 34 words

A method as described by claim 2, including: assigning the data bit code for each sub-block in accordance with the assumption that one pixel value predominates and that any remaining pixel values are random.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 34 words

A method as described by claim 2, including: assigning the data bit code for each sub-block in accordance with the assumption that two pixel values predominate and that any remaining pixel values are random.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 33 words

A method as described by claim 2, including: assigning the data bit code for each sub-block in accordance with the assumption that three pixel values predominate and the remaining pixel values are random.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 29 words

A method as described by claim 2, including: assigning the data bit code for each sub-block in accordance with the assumption that all of the pixel values are random.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 31 words

A method as described by claim 3, wherein: the first three bits of the sub-block data bit code represent the code and the final four bits represent the predominant pixel value.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 85 words

A method as described by claim 4, wherein: the first three bits of the sub-block data bit code represent the code; the next four bits represent the predominant pixel value; and each following bit pattern is such that if the pixel value is identical to the predominant value the pixel value is represented as a binary "1", and if the value is not identical to the predominant value the pixel value is represented as a binary "0" followed by the pixel's four bit predominant value.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 125 words

A method as described by claim 5, wherein: the first three bits of the sub-block data bit code represent the code; the next four bits represent a first predominant value; the following four bits represent a second predominant value; and each following bit pattern is such that if the pixel value is identical to the first predominant value then the pixel value is represented by a binary "1", if the pixel value is identical to the second predominant value then the pixel value is represented as a binary "01", and if the pixel value is not identical to one of said first and second predominant values, the pixel value is represented by a two bit code "00" followed by the pixel's four bit predominant value.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 90 words

A method as described by claim 6, wherein: the first three bits of the sub-block data bit code represent the code; the next four bits represent the first predominant pixel value; the following four bits represent the second predominant pixel value; the next following four bits represent the third predominant pixel value; and each following bit pattern is such that if the pixel value is unlike any of the predominant values the pixel value is represented by a two bit code "00" followed by the pixel's four bit predominant value.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 41 words

A method as described by claim 7, wherein: the first three bits of the sub-block data bit code identify the sub-block as one wherein all of the pixel values are random; and the following bits are the actual pixel predominate values.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	1996-05-17	1996-11-16	1997-05-18	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2000-05-17	2000-11-16	2001-05-18	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2004-05-17	2004-11-16	2005-05-18	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Method for reducing amount of stored digital image data without degrading a reconstituted image

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