Method and system for transferring a bit-mapped image using vertical and horizontal rules

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein the scanning step includes: partitioning the bit-mapped image into a plurality of horizontal stripes, each horizontal stripe being comprised of a plurality of rows of image elements; creating data columns through said horizontal stripe, each data column comprised of vertically aligned image elements within said rows of image elements comprising said horizontal stripe; ANDing the image elements in a selected one of said data columns with each other; and identifying said rectangular area based upon the outcome of said ANDing step.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 wherein the bit-mapped image is organized into a plurality of rows of image elements and the scanning step includes: partitioning each of the rows into a plurality of row data sections, each row data section comprised of a predetermined plural number of image elements; ANDing the image elements within one of the row data sections with each other; repeating the ANDing step for each of said row data sections; and recognizing the rectangular area based upon the outcome of the ANDing steps.

Claim 5

A computer storage medium including executable instructions for causing a computer to transfer a bit-mapped image to a receiving device that recognizes rule descriptors representing rules and re-creates the rules based on the rule descriptors, each rule including a rectangular area of identical image elements and having a position, a height defined by a number of rows of identical image elements, and a width defined by a number of columns of identical image elements, each rule descriptor including indications of the position, height, and width of the rule represented by the rule descriptor, the computer instructions causing the computer to: scan the bit-mapped image to identify rectangular areas of like image elements in the bit-mapped image; for each rectangular area identified, represent the rectangular area as a rule with a rule descriptor that includes indications of the position, length, and width of the rectangular area in the bit-mapped image; for each portion of the bit-mapped image not represented as a rule, transfer bit-by-bit the image elements of the portion to the receiving device; and for each rectangular area represented as a rule, transfer to the receiving device the rule descriptor for the rule representing the rectangular area, whereby the receiving device re-creates the bit-mapped image by displaying the rectangular areas represented by rules in response to receiving the rule descriptors and displaying the portions not represented by rules in response to receiving the image elements of those portions.

Claim 6

A computer storage medium including executable instructions for causing a computer to transfer a bit-mapped image to a receiving device that recognizes rule descriptors representing rules and re-creates the rules based on the rule descriptors, each rule including a rectangular area of identical image elements and having a position, a height defined by a number of rows of identical image elements, and a width defined by a number of columns of identical image elements, each rule descriptor including indications of the position, height, and width of the rule represented by the rule descriptor, the computer instructions causing the computer to: scan the bit-mapped image to identify rectangular areas of like image elements in the bit-mapped image; for each rectangular area identified, represent the rectangular area as a rule with a rule descriptor that includes indications of the position, length, and width of the rectangular area in the bit-mapped image; for each portion of the bit-mapped image not represented as a rule, transfer bit-by-bit the image elements of the portion to the receiving device; and for each rectangular area represented as a rule, transfer to the receiving device the rule descriptor for the rule representing the rectangular area, whereby the receiving device re-creates the bit-mapped image by displaying the rectangular areas represented by rules in response to receiving the rule descriptors and displaying the portions not represented by rules in response to receiving the image elements of those portions.

Claim 7

The computer storage medium of claim 4 wherein computer instructions for scanning the bit-mapped image include computer instructions for causing the computer to: partition the bit-mapped image into a plurality of horizontal stripes, each horizontal stripe being comprised of a plurality of rows of image elements; create data columns through said horizontal stripe, each data column comprised of vertically aligned image elements within said rows of image elements comprising said horizontal stripe; AND the image elements in a selected one of said data columns with each other; and identify said rectangular area based upon the outcome of said ANDing step.

Claim 8

The computer storage medium of claim 4 wherein computer instructions for scanning the bit-mapped image include computer instructions for causing the computer to: partition each of the rows into a plurality of row data sections, each row data section comprised of a predetermined plural number of image elements; AND the image elements within one of the row data sections with each other; repeat the ANDing step for each of said row data sections; and identify the rectangular area based upon the outcome of the ANDing steps.

Claim 11

The method of claim 7 wherein the identifying step includes: partitioning the bit-mapped image into a plurality of horizontal stripes, each horizontal stripe being comprised of a plurality of rows of image elements; creating data columns through said horizontal stripe, each data column comprised of vertically aligned image elements within said rows of image elements comprising said horizontal stripe; ANDing the image elements in a selected one of said data columns with each other; and identifying said rectangular area based upon the outcome of said ANDing step.

Claim 12

The method of claim 7 wherein the bit-mapped image is organized into a plurality of rows of image elements and the identifying step includes: partitioning each of the rows into a plurality of row data sections, each row data section comprised of a predetermined plural number of image elements; ANDing the image elements within one of the row data sections with each other; repeating the ANDing step for each of said row data sections; and recognizing the rectangular area based upon the outcome of the ANDing steps.

Claim 13

The method of claim 7, further comprising: transmitting the location, width, and height of each rectangular area to a receiving device; transmitting the value of each image element that is not in one of the identified rectangular areas; and recreating the bit-mapped image at the receiving device.

Claim 14

The method of claim 10 wherein the receiving device is a printer.

Claim 15

The method of claim 7 wherein the step of storing the location, width, and height of each identified rectangular area includes, for each identified rectangular area, storing location coordinates of image elements at two opposite corners of the rectangular area.

Claim 16

The method of claim 7 wherein the step of storing the location, width, and height of each identified rectangular area includes, for each identified rectangular area, storing a height value, a width value, and location coordinates for an image element of the rectangular area.

Claim 17

The method of claim 7 wherein the identifying step includes identifying a rectangular area only if the rectangular area has plural image elements vertically and plural image elements horizontally.

Claim 18

The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving device is a printer.

Claim 19

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of representing each identified rectangular area as a rule with a rule descriptor includes, for each identified rectangular area, representing the rectangular area with location coordinates of image elements at two opposite corners of the rectangular area.

Claim 20

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of representing each identified rectangular area as a rule with a rule descriptor includes, for each identified rectangular area, representing the rectangular area with a height value, a width value, and location coordinates for an image element of the rectangular area.

Claim 21

The method of claim 1 wherein the scanning step includes identifying a rectangular area only if the rectangular area has plural image elements vertically and plural image elements horizontally.

Claim 22

The computer storage medium of claim 4 wherein the computer instructions for causing the computer to represent each identified rectangular area as a rule with a rule descriptor include computer instructions that, for each identified rectangular area, cause the computer to represent the rectangular area with location coordinates of image elements at two opposite comers of the rectangular area.

Claim 23

The computer storage medium of claim 4 wherein the computer instructions for causing the computer to represent each identified rectangular area as a rule with a rule descriptor include computer instructions that, for each identified rectangular area, cause the computer to represent the rectangular area with a height value, a width value, and location coordinates for an image element of the rectangular area.

Claim 24

The computer storage medium of claim 4 wherein the computer instructions for causing the computer to scan the bit-mapped image include computer instructions that cause the computer to identify a rectangular area only if the rectangular area has plural image elements vertically and plural image elements horizontally.