The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 02, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06K / ; G06K / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
358433 ; 382272 ;
Abstract
An image compression method for encoding gradation image data for use in, for example, a printer or a copying machine handling the gradation image. When a difference between two representative values in one block E)f the image data is less than a predetermined amount, a block code made up of a single piece of gradation data and one pixel array pattern is generated. When the difference is not less than the predetermined amount, the representative values are replaced by any of sixteen substitute values, and a block code is formed to include two gray scale data each of four bits and a single pixel array pattern, thereby realizing coding compression of the image information.