Patent ID: 6314208
Filing Date: 2001-11-06
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
Variable quantization apparatus for an image encoder system having an interconnected transformer, quantizer, and entropy encoder, comprising:variable quantization means operatively connected to the transformer and the quantizer responsive to a plurality of blocks of data from the transformer to determine the characteristics of a plurality of blocks of digital pixel data inputted to the transformer by computing an image related metric for each block of the plurality of blocks of data;quantization factoring means connected to said variable quantization means for providing a predetermined lossy quantization factor for each metric; andsaid variable quantization means including means for causing the quantizer to apply a lossy quantization factor to each block of the plurality of blocks of data based on said metric to provide a predetermined size block of quantized data and to provide a plurality of blocks of quantized data to the entropy encoder whereby the plurality of blocks of quantized data have a minimum size for said image.