Method for encoding digital information

Abstract

A method for encoding digital information to be transmitted from a first device to a second device, wherein the digital information is mapped according to a map of n rows and m columns which define a plurality of cells (nxm) and wherein each of said cells has a pixel value. The method is useful for compressing bitmapped images to be rendered by the simplest of graphics engines. Thus the method is particularly suited to the transmission of images to a relatively slow client on which the images are to be rendered in real time and on which any complex decompression would be too costly for such rendering. Raw compression ratios are comparable to those obtained with standard run-length encoding, but the number of drawing primitive calls required to render the compressed images directly is substantially less.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to a method for encoding digital information to be transmitted from a first device to a second device, wherein the digital information is mapped according to a map of rows and columns which define a plurality of cells and wherein each of said cells has a pixel value.[0002] In particular this invention relates to a method for compressing bitmapped images in order to transmit them from a fast computing device (server). to a relatively slow computing device (client).BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION[0003] It is known to encode a series of pixel values by using Runlength encoding (RLE) method.[0004] RLE method takes raw data, as for example a series of pixel values, and encodes the series as a series of (count value) pairs so that long sequences of the same value can be represented by a relatively small amount of data. For example, the series of values: 12 12 12 100 100 100 100 100 30 30 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 could be run-length encoded as:[0005] (3,12) (5,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This method achieves efficient compression and transmission of bitmapped images, reducing the number of drawing primitives required for real-time rendering on slow computers, outperforming standard run-length encoding in terms of speed and simplicity, while being adaptable for various image shapes and GUI updates.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, no specific implementation details or academic references are available from any of the sources consulted.

Moreover, the sources indicate that other efforts in this area use complex recursive algorithms which emphasise optimal solutions at the cost of long runtimes, and also that these other efforts are not geared for the transmission of images for real-time rendering by relatively slow computers.

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