Methods, medium, and machines which compress, enhance,
encode, transmit, decode, decompress and display
digital video images. Real
time compression is achieved by sub-sampling each frame of a video
signal, filtering the pixel values, and encoding.
Real time transmission is achieved due to high levels of effective compression. Real time decompression is achieved by decoding and decompressing the encoded data to display high quality images. A
receiver can alter various setting including, but not limited to, the format for the compression, image size,
frame rate, brightness and contrast. In a Doppler improvement aspect of the invention,
Doppler velocity scales are incorporated into
grayscale compression methods using two bits. Variable formats may be selected and Doppler encoding can be turned on and off based on the
image content. A separate plane compression aspect of the invention provides for distinguishing between regions of an image, separating and masking the original image into
multiple image planes, and compressing each separated
image plane with a
compression method that is optimal for its characteristics. From a video
stream, separate image streams can be compressed with different methods, and the separate image streams can be stored or transmitted at different rates. Alternatively, frame differencing can be applied to the separated streams. Regions may be distinguished by
user input or by automated analysis of the characteristics of various regions of an image, such as the presence of Doppler enhanced pixels.