Image Processing System for Legacy Display Compatibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image encoding technologies face challenges in efficiently converting and displaying high-resolution images on legacy displays with lower resolution formats without requiring decoding, while maintaining image quality and aspect ratio.
Innovation Solution
The system employs a process that encodes high-resolution images into a format suitable for various display formats, including legacy displays, by interpolating pixels and redistributing values to create a lower resolution representation that can be displayed immediately, while retaining additional data for reconstructing the original high-resolution image on capable displays.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If high-resolution images are encoded into a format suitable for legacy displays by interpolating pixels and redistributing values, then compatibility with legacy displays is improved, but image quality and resolution are degraded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the encoded image data into two distinct components: a first set of pixel values that can be displayed immediately on legacy displays, and a second set of pixel values that contain additional high-resolution information. This segmentation allows the same encoded data to serve both legacy displays (using the first set) and advanced displays (using both sets combined), thereby resolving the contradiction between compatibility and image quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds an additional dimension to the image data structure by incorporating a second set of pixel values that extends beyond the conventional display resolution. This dimensional expansion enables the encoded image to carry more information than traditional formats, allowing legacy displays to ignore the extra data while advanced displays can utilize it to reconstruct higher-resolution images, thus maintaining both compatibility and quality.
2Manufacturing precision
If additional data is retained for reconstructing the original high-resolution image, then image fidelity is improved, but data transmission and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the first set of pixel values (sufficient for legacy displays) and the second set of pixel values (providing high-resolution enhancement) into a single unified encoded image structure. This merging allows both data sets to coexist in one file or stream, enabling flexible playback where legacy displays use only the first set while advanced displays utilize both sets together, thereby achieving high fidelity without proportionally increasing overall data volume.
3Adaptability or versatility
If high-resolution images are converted to lower resolution formats for legacy displays, then display compatibility is improved, but loss of information occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary encoding that anticipates future high-resolution display needs by embedding a second set of pixel values within the encoded image structure. This preliminary action ensures that when the image is later decoded on advanced displays, the original high-resolution information is already present and can be reconstructed without loss, eliminating the need for separate high-resolution source files.
Data Source
AI summary
A relatively higher resolution digitized image organized as a plurality of first kernel arrays, each with a plurality of pixels, is transformed into a corresponding relatively-smaller second kernel array of a relatively-lower-resolution image and an associated set of remaining pixels. Down-sampled pixels of the second kernel array are generated from linear interpolation of original pixels of the first kernel array. Associated interpolation coefficients incorporate perturbations to locations of the down-sampled pixels that are symmetric with respect to centers of the first and second kernel arrays. Down-sampled pixels of the second kernel array can be recombined with the associated set of remaining pixels to reconstruct the relatively higher resolution digitized image substantially without loss of associated information, or used directly to reconstruct an approximation thereof, with associated encoding and decoding processes adapted to reduce the susceptibility of image reconstruction errors caused by subsequent image compression.