Patent ID: 6510248
Filing Date: 2003-01-21
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A decoding device for decompressing code words that have been compressed according to a run-length method, by which repeated pixels of an image data are presented by one of a plurality of code word patterns, from code word pattern 1 through code word pattern Q, each code word pattern comprises: (i) a first portion which contains 0 to N-m bits to indicate the number of bits reserved in a second portion, where N is number of bits if a data stream being decoded and m is the number of bits taken up by a pixel data; (ii) a second portion contains a plurality of bits the value of which corresponds to the number of repeated pixels as represented by the code word, if the first portion takes up N-m bits, then no space is reserved for the second portion; and (iii) a third portion which contains m bits representing the pixel data;said decoding device comprises:(a) a shifter for receiving and shifting an input data stream according to a new_shift_number and outputing Q+1 number of N-bit data streams, said N-bit data streams include an unmodified data stream and Q number of modified data streams each according to a respective code word pattern, said new_shift_number is initialized at zero; (b) Q+1 number of code comparators to respectively receive said Q+1 number of N-bit data streams, wherein each of said code comparators compares a respective input N-bit data stream with a predetermined code word table to see whether said N-bit data stream conforms to a code word pattern, if yes, then output a verification signal along with said input N-bit data stream; (c) a code type arbitrator which comprises a multiplexer to receive output signals from said Q+1 number of code comparators, and output the N-bit data stream received from the code word comparator which also outputs said verification signal; (d) a shift number generator connected to said code arbitrator to receive said N-bit data stream from said code arbitrator and generate a new_shift_number to said shifter according to the number of bits associated with the code word pattern of said N-bit data stream; and (e) a code interpreter also connected to said code arbitrator to receive to decode said N-bit data stream into pixels.