Patent ID: 6373890
Filing Date: 2002-04-16
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A method of compressing color video data defining color video frames on a display device, the method comprising the steps of:providing a color video frame comprising a plurality of pixels, each pixel having an associated color; dividing the color video frame into blocks of pixels; comparing the colors present in one of the blocks with the colors in a corresponding block in a previous adjacent block; determining the number of colors present in the block, the number of colors present in the block determined to be zero where the difference between the colors present in the block and the colors in the corresponding block is less than a predetermined threshold value; sorting the determined colors present in the block by frequency of occurrence of each color; comparing each of the determined colors to each other determined color; ascertaining comparatively close colors from the comparison of each determined color in accordance with the threshold value; substituting the more frequently occurring color for the less frequently occurring color of two comparatively close colors; storing color data representative of each pixel in the block in accordance with the number of colors remaining in the block, including assigning a type parameter to the block of pixels, the type determined by the number of colors remaining the block; determining the number of color words necessary to define the number of colors remaining in the block from the type parameter; and assigning bit values representative of the colors remaining in the block to the color words.