An electronic camera back (1604) functions as an in-camera frame grabber. It may be attached to a camera body (1601) that focuses an image on a supported (1612) CCD chip (1607). The image is then read out and digitised, then compressed in a JPEG processor (1611) before being stored in a buffer (1605) ready for onwards transmission. Multiple images may be stored. Substantial compression of for example 20:1 is used for the purpose of capturing multiple machine-readable labels as compressed images from collections of merchandise (like tree trunks being loaded onto a ship) for later decoding by image analysis methods. An example 4096 x 4096 pixel CCD chip image is read out, compressed, and stored as about 600K bytes of data in about 6 seconds. Range finding an exposure compensating equipment such as lighting and neutral-density filters are options. Other applications include remote surveillance such as of aircraft at airfields using telecommunications to convey compressed image data.
