Patent ID: 6771822
Filing Date: 2004-08-03
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
An imaging system comprising:an image acquisition subsystem for acquiring frames of uncompressed image data; memory storing said acquired frames of uncompressed image data; a display subsystem for displaying images derived from said acquired frames of uncompressed image data; a first user-operable input device for selecting one of said acquired frames of uncompressed image data from said memory; a second user-operable input device having respective positional states for selecting any one of a multiplicity of levels of data compression; a variable compression manager that converts each new positional state of said second user-operable input device into a respective data compression value representing a respective selected level of data compression; a data compressor which compresses the uncompressed image data in said selected frame as a function of each data compression value received from said variable compression manager to produce a respective frame of compressed image data; and a display processor for controlling said display subsystem to display each frame of compressed image data, wherein said variable compression manager causes said selected acquired frame of uncompressed image data to be sent from said memory to said data compressor each time a new data compression value is sent to said data compressor, and further causes each successive frame of compressed image data to be sent from said data compressor to said memory, where each successive frame of compressed image data is written over the previous frame of compressed image data.