Method and apparatus for compressing and storing pixels
US5184124A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 2, 1991 |
| Grant date | Feb 2, 1993 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 2, 2011 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG09G2340/02
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for a processor or other system device to map processor words to an associated random access memory. In one case, processor words are mapped directly to RAM with no modification. In another case, 32-bit pixels (eight bits each of red, green, blue and alpha) are converted to or from 16-bit pixels (four bits each of red, green, blue and alpha) using an ordered dithering technique. The ordered dithering technique spatially distributes the information that would otherwise be lost by truncation. This is accomplished by replacing exact pixel values with their pseudo-random average. This reduces the required pixel storage requirements by half, while maintaining a higher image quality than would be achieved by truncation alone.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.