Patent · US Expired

Method and system using non-uniform image blocks for rapid interactive viewing of digital images over a network

US7116843B1 · kind B1 · utility

15Cited by
13References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 24, 2000
Grant dateOct 3, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 21, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F16/9574
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Apparatus and method for rapid interactive viewing of a digital image over a network. A client computer displays a view of an image. The image is originally resident on a server computer. The client computer maintains a cache, initially empty, of image blocks already obtained from the server. When the client computer is asked to render a view of a particular portion of the image at a particular resolution, it first ascertains if any image blocks in the image-block cache intersect the requested view. It then computes the residual area of the view resulting from subtracting out from the view the intersecting portions of cached image blocks, and, if the residual area is positive, downloads from the server computer a set of image blocks comprising the residual portion of the view at the given resolution.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.