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:
May. 07, 2002
Filed:
Apr. 17, 1997
Rafael Lisitsa, Bellevue, WA (US);
Gregory Stepanets, Redmond, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A system for the efficient decoding of data encoded with variable length codes uses an N-bit buffer as an index to a data look-up table or other suitable data structure. The encoded data is stored in an encoded data storage area and extracted N bits at a time. The N bits are used as an index or indicator to a location within the data look-up table. The contents of the data look-up table in the indicated location correspond to one or more decoded tokens and also provide an indication of the number of data bits from the N-bit buffer that were used to represent the decoded tokens. A pointer is incremented by the number and indicates a location within the encoded data storage area where the next N bits will be extracted and stored in the buffer. If the N-bit buffer is greater than or equal to the maximal length for the variable codes, at least one valid token is guaranteed as a result of a single data look-up operation. However, a data look-up operation typically results in a plurality of decoded tokens. In one embodiment, the decoding system is used for facsimile operation and may include additional data in the data look-up table to permit rapid decoding of two dimensional facsimile codes.