International Business Machines Corporation

Netspeak Corporation

Mark A Pietras

Arturo A Rodriguez

Steven M Hancock

Andres J Saenz

Robert F Kantner, Jr

Leslie Robert Wilson

Charles T Rutherfoord

Bruce D Lucas

Vaughn Scott Iverson

Shane D Mattaway

Glenn W Hutton

Keith C Kelly

Bradley Dale Noe

Kenneth Morse

Michael Kelly

Arturo A Rodriquez

A finite state machine is implemented by encapsulating the portions of a state table, which are associated with each state in a state object. Each state object is instantiated when the associated state is entered and destroyed when the state is exited. Since memory is only allocated at runtime when an object is instantiated and in existence, the amount of memory required to implement the state table is minimized. The state class from which the state object is instantiated can be subclassed. In accordance with normal object-oriented class design, a subclass inherits the state table of its parent class. However, the subclass allows table rows to be added and table rows present in the parent class to be overwritten in the subclass. The state table in each state class includes methods that are called when the class is created and destroyed.

Method for designing object-oriented table driven state machines

A method of and apparatus for performing blitter operations is performed in two parts. First, a description of the to-be-performed data transfer is analyzed and a computer instruction sequence is generated therefrom. The instruction sequence may include the appropriate instructions to implement scaling, clipping, and color conversion of a source image, as implicated by the blitter description. Second, the computer instruction sequence is executed an appropriate number of times, again depending upon the blitter description. One of the described embodiments transforms a blitter description that describes a target image in terms of visible rectangles into a description that describes the target image as having at least one line-type, in which the line-type comprises at least one pixel run, characterized by visible and non-visible states. The line-type description is then utilized by a code-generating logic to generate the appropriate instructions. The apparatus for performing the blitter operations may be implemented as an interface library, thus allowing client programs, including interactive games, to use the advantages of the invention to perform rapid screen updates.

Method and apparatus for color space conversion, clipping, and scaling of an image during blitting

A technique for initiating communications from a web browser to a destination on either a packet-switched data network or a circuit-switched communication network includes a communication utility capable of interacting with a browser utility and responsive to address information obtained from a website for establishing a communication link with the website with the other destination defined by the address information. In one embodiment, the address information may comprise either an Internet protocol address, an E-mail address, or a traditional telephone number. The communication utility further enables sharing of URL data so that once a communication link is established, the parties may examine the same website pages simultaneously while communicating over a point-to-point communication link.

Method and apparatus for establishing communications from browser application

A digitized image compression system employs several different compression techniques to compress the luminance and chrominance information and encodes the selected technique &ldquo;on the fly&rdquo; by inserting selected escape and header codes into the encoded data stream. More particularly, during compression, each image is divided into non-overlapping contiguous regions, referred to hereinafter as blocks and image data is compressed on a block-by-block basis. Each encoded block begins with a one-byte header that indicates, in conjunction with a previous escape code, the compression technique which was used to encode the block. Therefore, interpretation of the encoded data is a hierarchical process: the escape codes indicate a stream interpretation mode which, in turn, determine the meaning of header values which follow and the header values, in turn, determine the meaning of the encoded data in each block. The majority of image blocks are divided into quadrants and each block header is arranged as a sequence of four two-bit codes which indicate the encoding used for the four quadrants within the associated block. However, certain combinations of encoding that are unlikely to occur within the same block are inserted into the image data stream as the &ldquo;escape codes&rdquo; which designate the stream interpretation mode.

Hybrid video compression/decompression system

A system and method for generating a universal palette and for mapping the color space for an original image into the universal palette for compression. The universal palette utilizes a one byte three color format type allowing reservation of shades for a presentation layer of an operating system for the digital computer. The three color components for a pixel in an original image are then mapped to a specific palette having the one byte format. Mapping depends in part, upon the original component values. Where a color component does not correspond closely to a color component in the universal palette, it will have a value falling between first and second color values in the universal palette. The component is mapped to either the first or second color value on a pseudo-probablistic basis.

System and method for generating a universal palette and mapping an

An digital video image processing system employs codes of various lengths to encode the luminance information within the digital video images. The inventive method and apparatus divides a video image into non-overlapping regions containing a plurality of pixels with luminance values. Within each region, the method computes the total luminance variation across the region, the direction of greatest luminance change within the region, the base, or lowest, luminance value within the region and the location and type of luminance transition within the region. Depending on the variation of the luminance values within a region and on the quality desired in the decoded image, the computed information is used to encode the luminance values in short, medium, or long codes. The luminance codes may be predetermined and unchanging or they may vary from image to image or within given images.

Luminance transition coding method for software motion video

Disclosed is a system and a method for compressing digitized color video data by generating codes into a pattern of tables for regions in frames of the video data exhibiting certain patterns. An image frame in a video data stream has a plurality of pixels assigned digitized color and luminance data. The image frame is divided into a plurality of non-overlapping elementary units, with each elementary unit comprising a plurality of pixels. For elementary units exhibiting change from the prior frame in time, elementary units having pixels with differing digitized color and luminance data are selected for pattern matching. Each pixel of an elementary unit selected for pattern matching is mapped to a pattern value. A pattern value is the same for all pixels sharing the same color and luminance data in an elementary unit. The pattern values are then grouped based on relative position in the elementary unit into offsets into associated sets of pattern match tables and error condition tables. The pattern match tables and error condition tables all relate to a single table of patterns. Entries from the offsets into each associated set of pattern match and error condition tables are then accumulated to generate indicia of pattern matches. The indicia are then compared to select a pattern which best matches the elementary unit within a preselected error tolerance. An offset into a table of patterns for the matched pattern is then generated to provide the desired code.

System and method for pattern-matching with error control for image and

An image-compression/decompression system employs a variable spatial-frequency encoder to encode the chrominance information contained within a video image. The system divides the video image into non-overlapping regions and partitions each region into sub-regions. Within each region, the system computes a weighted average of the chrominance values in each sub-region, and compares the weighted average value associated with each sub-region to the weighted average values associated with the other sub-regions within the region. If differences between the average values are less than a predetermined threshold amount, the system assigns a single chrominance encoded value to the entire region. If, on the other hand, the differences between the weighted average values is more than the predetermined threshold amount, the system assigns individual chrominance values to each of the sub-regions.

Variable spatial frequency chrominance encoding in software motion video

A personal computer system has source of input video data containing digitized pixel color values, and a display operated with palette quantized colors including non-linear palette quantized colors. A conversion table is stored in the system for converting blocks of pixel color values into palette colors, the conversion table comprising a plurality of error diffusion arrays covering the color range of pixel color values. Each array in the conversion table corresponds to a different color value, each array being accessed using said corresponding color value as an index into said table. Each array in the table has 'n' fields respectively containing palette color values ordered in accordance with an order matrix by sorted luminance values.

Data processing method and apparatus for converting color image data to

Systems and methods that enable digital video compression techniques to manage and control artifact presence in each compressed frame of the video clip. Wherein specific embodiments are applicable to interframe and intraframe video compression methods and can be used in the compression of digital images and digital video clips. Other embodiments are employable in digital video compression and are applicable to interframe compression methods. A mechanism to increase the amount of video compression, while maintaining video quality that may otherwise be sacrificed with such increases in video compression, by threshold value management to accommodate the human eye's ability to more readily discern local image features or artifacts at central image locations or focused-upon areas, while tolerating, to a greater extent, artifacts dispersed elsewhere in the image.

System and method for video compression with artifact dispersion control

Hybrid compression processes for digital color video data that enables software only playback of the compressed digital video in low-end computers, wherein intraframe and interframe compression techniques are brought together through a sequence of procedures that analyze local frame regions, integrate unique processes with block truncation coding compression, and adopt the advantages of visual pattern image coding for color video. The process determines the appropriate encoding of each local frame region with one of various compression techniques, based upon its image properties. The compression methods retain the fidelity of the original video data to provide high quality video during decompression and reconstruction of high motion and textured video clips, while simultaneously providing sufficient compression and ease of decoding for software-only decompression thereby exhibiting properties that enable good quality video to be displayed in low-end computers.

Hybrid video compression system and method capable of software-only

A system and method of compressing original video data expressed in a plurality of digitally coded frames which enable decompression and playback of resulting compressed video data at one of a plurality of frame rates while maintaining temporal fidelity of the frames displayed. Compression includes selecting a plurality of rate streams for the compressed video data, including a highest rate stream including all of the frames of the original video data and a lowest rate stream including a subset of regularly spaced frames of the original video data. Then the initial frame in the original video data is spatially compressed and the resulting compressed data placed in the compressed video data. The initial frame is also saved as a base frame for all rate streams for subsequent temporal compression of the original video data. As frames are retrieved from the original video data in sequence, temporal compression based on frame differencing techniques between the retrieved frame and the base is carried out, with difference frames being stored to the compressed video data. Each difference frame is placed in the resulting compressed video data for later decompression and reproduction.

System and method for frame differencing video compression and

A frame-differencing based method for coding and decoding color video data suitable for real-time, software-only based decompression and playback in low-end personal computers wherein the computational demands required of a computer microprocessor to implement the method are readily met by microprocessors such as an Intel 80386SX microprocessor running at 16 Mhz. Frame-to-frame differences are detected in a manner analogous to human perception of luminance data, rather than by the differences in the actual numerical video data. This permits greater compression of data without added computational complexity to the decompression process. Image analysis techniques are employed to ameliorate the appearance of the video. A lossless coding method that unifies two separate compressed data entities is used to obtain a greater amount of compression and simultaneously to reduce the computational complexity of the decompression process.

System and method for frame-differencing video compression/decompression

A method of quantitatively measuring fidelity of a reproduced image reconstructed from a compressed data representation of an original image is disclosed. The method comprises, responsive to user selection, for establishing a global assessment mode or a local assessment mode. In the global assessment mode changes in luminance of the reproduced image from the original image and changes in color in first and second color difference values of the reproduced image from the original image are used score fidelity. Changes in luminance are measured using a dynamic range, nonlinear transform equation. In the local assessment mode, and responsive to user selection, the reproduced image and the original image are segmented and corresponding pairs of segments from the reproduced image and the original image are identified. Scoring of fidelity of the reproduced image to the original image is done by comparing corresponding pairs of segments in color, luminance, shape, displacement and texture.

Growing community of inventors

Boynton Beach, FL, United States of America

Mark A Pietras