Method and apparatus for segmenting data

摘要

An improved technique for compressing a color or gray scale pixel map representing a document using an MRC format includes a method of segmenting an original pixel map into two planes (12,14), and then compressing the data or each plane in an efficient manner is disclosed. The image is segmented by separating the image into two portions at the edges. One plane contains image data for the dark sides of the edges, while image data for the bright sides of the edges and the smooth portions of the image are placed on the other plane. A thresholding technique and apparatus for generating a bitmap is also disclosed that may be used to accomplish these tasks.