Apparatus and method for compressing data while retaining image integrity

摘要

Apparatus and method for compressing sequentially related data while fully preserving the informational content of the data. In a preferred form, digital format video image data individualized by pixel is compressed by defining a reference value for a first pixel position, encoding successive pixel values based on offsets from the reference value, and counting the pixels so encoded. Compression is obtained by having the bit count of the encoding be less than the original bit count associated with each pixel value. The reference value or encoding range is adjusted as necessary to retain the informational content of the original image data. The invention also find usage in a multimedia context, where the encoding is based upon a temporal relationship of single or multiple pixels. Full preservation of the original information content is retained throughout.