Patent Abstract:
This invention solves problems due to employing error degraded data in digital processing. It particularly solves multi-generation problems wherein transform data degrade during each inverse transform and forward transform cycle even without any processing due to the rounding and clipping errors. It provides methods, systems and devices for reduced-error processing of transform-coded data. After inverse transformation of transform data, high-precision numbers are manipulated. The converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range steps are executed at any stage in the manipulation to obtain integer representation of the inverse transformed data such as for displaying of the data. However, further processing including forward transforming back to the transform domain is executed on the high-precision numbers. Thus, the rounding and clipping errors are not present in the processed data. Although advantageous to many applications employing digital transformed data, the invention is particularly advantageous for use in digital studios during editing of MPEG-coded, JPEG-coded and wavelet-coded video and audio data.

Full Description:
CROSS REFERENCES 
   The present application is related to the following applications even dated herewith: Ser. No. 09/186,245, entitled, “Transform-domain correction of real-domain errors,” by inventors J. Mitchell et al., and Ser. No. 09/186,249, entitled, “Error reduction in transformed digital data,” by inventors M. Bright et al., which are incorporated herein in entirety by reference. 
   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   This invention relates to transform coding of digital data, specifically to real domain processing of transform data. More particularly, this invention relates to reduced-error digital processing of inverse transformed data. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Transform coding is the name given to a wide family of techniques for data coding, in which each block of data to be coded is transformed by some mathematical function prior to further processing. A block of data may be a part of a data object being coded, or may be the entire object. The data generally represent some phenomenon, which may be for example a spectral or spectrum analysis, an image, an audio clip, a video clip, etc. The transform function is usually chosen to reflect some quality of the phenomenon being coded; for example, in coding of audio, still images and motion pictures, the Fourier transform or Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) can be used to analyze the data into frequency terms or coefficients. Given the phenomenon being coded, there is generally a concentration of the information into a few frequency coefficients. Therefore, the transformed data can often be more economically encoded or compressed than the original data. This means that transform coding can be used to compress certain types of data to minimize storage space or transmission time over a communication link. 
   An example of transform coding in use is found in the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) international standard for still image compression, as defined by  ITU - T Rec. T. 81 (1992)  ISO/IEC  10918-1:1994 , Information technology—Digital compression and coding of continuous - tone still images, Part  1 : Requirements and Guidelines . Another example is the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) international standard for motion picture compression, defined by ISO/IEC 11172:1993 , Information Technology—Coding of moving pictures and associated audio for digital storage media at up to about  1,5 Mbits/s. This MPEG-1 standard defines systems for both video compression (Part 2 of the standard) and audio compression (Part 3). A more recent MPEG video standard (MPEG-2) is defined by ITU-T Rec. H.262 ISO/IEC 13818-2: 1996  Information Technology—Generic Coding of moving pictures and associated audio—Part  2 : video . A newer audio standard is ISO/IEC 13818-3: 1996  Information Technology—Generic Coding of moving pictures and associated audio—Part  3 : audio . All three image international data compression standards use the DCT on 8×8 blocks of samples to achieve image compression. DCT compression of images is used herein to give illustrations of the general concepts put forward below; a complete explanation can be found in Chapter 4  “The Discrete Cosine Transform  ( DCT )” in W. B. Pennebaker and J. L. Mitchell,  JPEG: Still Image Data Compression Standard , Van Nostrand Reinhold: New York, (1993). 
   Wavelet coding is another form of transform coding. Special localized basis functions allow wavelet coding to preserve edges and small details. For compression the transformed data is usually quantized. Wavelet coding is used for fingerprint identification by the FBI. Wavelet coding is a subset of the more general subband coding technique. Subband coding uses filter banks to decompose the data into particular bands. Compression is achieved by quantizing the lower frequency bands more finely than the higher frequency bands while sampling the lower frequency bands more coarsely than the higher frequency bands. A summary of wavelet, DCT, and other transform coding is given in Chapter 5 “Compression Algorithms for Diffuse Data” in Roy Hoffman,  Data Compression in Digital Systems , Chapman and Hall: New York, (1997). 
   In any technology and for any phenomenon represented by digital data, the data before a transformation is performed are referred to as being “in the real domain”. After a transformation is performed, the new data are often called “transform data” or “transform coefficients”, and referred to as being “in the transform domain”. The function used to take data from the real domain to the transform domain is called the “forward transform”. The mathematical inverse of the forward transform, which takes data from the transform domain to the real domain, is called the respective “inverse transform”. 
   In general, the forward transform will produce real-valued data, not necessarily integers. To achieve data compression, the transform coefficients are converted to integers by the process of quantization. Suppose that (λ i ) is a set of real-valued transform coefficients resulting from the forward transform of one unit of data. Note that one unit of data may be a one-dimensional or two-dimensional block of data samples or even the entire data. The “quantization values” (q i ) are parameters to the encoding process. The “quantized transform coefficients” or “transform-coded data” are the sequence of values (a i ) defined by the quantization function Q: 
                   a   i     =       Q   ⁡     (     λ   i     )       =     ⌊         λ   i       q   i       +   0.5     ⌋               (   1   )               
where [x] means the greatest integer less than or equal to x. The resulting integers are then passed on for possible further encoding or compression before being stored or transmitted. To decode the data, the quantized coefficients are multiplied by the quantization values to give new “dequantized coefficients” (λ i ′) given by
 λ i   ′=q   i   a   i .  (2) 
   The process of quantization followed by dequantization (also called inverse quantization) can thus be described as “rounding to the nearest multiple of q i ”. The quantization values are chosen so that the loss of information in the quantization step is within some specified bound. For example, for audio or image data, one quantization level is usually the smallest change in data that can be perceived. It is quantization that allows transform coding to achieve good data compression ratios. A good choice of transform allows quantization values to be chosen which will significantly cut down the amount of data to be encoded. For example, the DCT is chosen for image compression because the frequency components which result produce almost independent responses from the human visual system. This means that the coefficients relating to those components to which the visual system is less sensitive, namely the high-frequency components, may be quantized using large quantization values without perceptible loss of image quality. Coefficients relating to components to which the visual system is more sensitive, namely the low-frequency components, are quantized using smaller quantization values. 
   The inverse transform also generally produces non-integer data. Usually the decoded data are required to be in integer form. For example, systems for the playback of audio data or the display of image data generally accept input in the form of integers. For this reason, a transform decoder generally includes a step that converts the non-integer data from the inverse transform to integer data, either by truncation or by rounding to the nearest integer. There is also often a limit on the range of the integer data output from the decoding process in order that the data may be stored in a given number of bits. For this reason the decoder also often includes a “clipping” stage that ensures that the output data are in an acceptable range. If the acceptable range is [a,b], then all values less than a are changed to a, and all values greater than b are changed to b. 
   These rounding and clipping processes are often considered an integral part of the decoder, and it is these which are the cause of inaccuracies in decoded data and in particular when decoded data are re-encoded. For example, the JPEG standard (Part 1) specifies that a source image sample is defined as an integer with precision P bits, with any value in the range 0 to 2**P−1. The decoder is expected to reconstruct the output from the inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) to the specified precision. For the baseline JPEG coding P is defined to be 8; for other DCT-based coding P can be 8 or 12. The MPEG-2 video standard states in Annex A (Discrete cosine transform) “The input to the forward transform and the output from the inverse transform is represented with 9 bits.” 
   For JPEG the compliance test data for the encoder source image test data and the decoder reference test data are 8 bit/sample integers. Even though rounding to integers is typical, some programming languages convert from floating point to integers by truncation. Implementations in software that accept this conversion to integers by truncation introduce larger errors into the real-domain integer output from the inverse transform. 
   The term “high-precision” is used herein to refer to numerical values which are stored to a precision more accurate than the precision used when storing the values as integers. Examples of high-precision numbers are floating-point or fixed-point representations of numbers. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   In light of the problems described above regarding inaccuracies caused by digital processing techniques and by such things as rounding and clipping after the inverse transform of transform data, one aspect of this invention provides a method for processing transform data in the real domain. This method reduces the undesired errors in the data produced by such things as rounding to integers and clipping to an allowed range after the inverse transform. In an embodiment, this method includes: performing the inverse transform of the transform data such that the real-domain data produced are in the form of high-precision numbers; processing these high-precision numbers; and converting the processed high-precision numbers to integers and clipping to an allowed range only after the processing stage is complete. 
   It is another aspect of this invention to provide a method for processing transform-coded data in the real domain which reduces the undesired errors in the data produced by the converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range after the inverse transform. In an embodiment, the method includes: performing the inverse quantization of the transform-coded data; performing the inverse transform of the transform data thus produced, such that the real-domain data produced are in the form of high-precision numbers; processing these high-precision numbers; and converting the processed high-precision numbers to integers and clipping to an allowed range only after the processing stage is complete. 
   Still another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for processing transform-coded data in the real domain to produce new transform-coded data, which reduces the error produced by converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range after the inverse transform. In an embodiment, this method includes: performing the inverse quantization of the transform-coded data; performing the inverse transform of the transform data thus produced, such that the real-domain data produced are in the form of high-precision numbers; processing these high-precision numbers; performing the forward transform on the processed high-precision numbers; and performing quantization on the new transform data. If the errors in the forward and inverse transforms and in the processing are sufficiently small, there will be no undesirable errors produced in the new quantized transform-domain data. 
   There is no requirement that the input data to the methods described herein need come from a single data source. Thus, this invention is not restricted to the real-domain processing of data from a single source, but also applies to real-domain processing of data from multiple sources, such as the merging of images or audio data. 
   The quantization described in the background is the linear quantization used in international image data compression standards such as JPEG and MPEG. There is no requirement that the quantization be linear. Any mapping that reduces the number of transform data levels in a deterministic way can be used with this invention. The quantization step has been described mathematically with a division in Equation (1). Actual embodiments may use a lookup table or a sequence of comparisons to achieve similar results. 
   It is a further aspect of the invention to provide apparatus, a computer product and an article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a computer to perform the methods of the present invention. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES 
     These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon further consideration of the following detailed description of the invention when read in conjunction with the drawing figures, in which: 
       FIG. 1(   a ) is a block diagram showing a method for performing an inverse transform; 
       FIG. 1(   b ) is a block diagram showing a system for performing an inverse transform; 
       FIG. 2(   a ) is a block diagram showing a method for decoding transform-coded data; 
       FIG. 2(   b ) is a block diagram showing a system for decoding transform-coded data; 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram showing a method for the real-domain processing of transform data; 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram showing a method for performing an inverse transform followed by a forward transform, and demonstrating the multi-generation problem; 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram showing a method for decoding and re-encoding transform-coded data, and demonstrating the multi-generation problem; 
       FIG. 6  is a block diagram showing a method for performing an inverse transform, real-domain data manipulation and a forward transform, and demonstrating the multi-generation problem; 
       FIG. 7(   a ) is a block diagram showing a method for performing real-domain processing of JPEG DCT-coded image data, which exhibits the multi-generation problem; 
       FIG. 7(   b ) is a block diagram showing a system for performing real-domain processing of JPEG DCT-coded image data, which exhibits the multi-generation problem; 
       FIG. 8(   a ) gives the JPEG example luminance quantization matrix; 
       FIG. 8(   b ) gives the JPEG example chrominance quantization matrix; 
       FIG. 8(   c ) is a numerical example of how real-domain rounding can cause significant errors in 8×8 block DCT coded data; 
       FIG. 8(   d ) is a numerical example of how real-domain truncation can cause significant errors in 8×8 block DCT coded data; 
       FIG. 8(   e ) is a series of graphs illustrating how real-domain clipping can cause errors in one-dimensional discrete cosine transform-coded data; 
       FIG. 8(   f ) and  FIG. 8(   g ) are a numerical example of how real-domain clipping can cause significant errors in 8×8 block DCT coded data; 
       FIG. 9  is a block diagram showing a method performing multiple iterations of the process described in  FIG. 5 , and exhibiting the multi-generation problem; 
       FIG. 10  is a block diagram showing a method for performing multiple iterations of real-domain manipulations, and exhibiting the multi-generation problem; 
       FIG. 11(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example of a method for reduced-error processing of transform data in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 11(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example of a system for reduced-error processing of transform data in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 12(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example of a method for performing an inverse transform followed by a forward transform, such that this process is lossless in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 12(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example of a system for performing an inverse transform followed by a forward transform, such that this process is lossless in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 13(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example of a method for performing real-domain manipulation of transform data with reduced error followed by a forward transform in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 13(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example of a system for performing real-domain manipulation of transform data with reduced error followed by a forward transform in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 14(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example of a method for reduced-error processing of transform-coded data in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 14(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example of a system for reduced-error processing of transform-coded data in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 15(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example of a method for decoding and re-encoding transform-coded data such that this process is lossless in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 15(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example of a system for decoding and re-encoding transform-coded data such that this process is lossless in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 16(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example of a method for performing real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 16(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example of a system for performing real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 17(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example embodiment of a method for performing real-domain processing of JPEG-coded image data, such that undesired errors in the new transform-coded data are reduced or eliminated in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 17(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example embodiment of a system for performing real-domain processing of JPEG-coded image data, such that undesired errors in the new transform-coded data are reduced or eliminated in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 18(   a ) is a block diagram showing an example of a method for performing multiple iterations of the real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error, where each iteration is as described in  FIG. 16(   a ) in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 18(   b ) is a block diagram showing an example of a system for performing multiple iterations of the real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error, where each iteration is as described in  FIG. 16(   b ) in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 19(   a ) shows the same 8×8 block numerical starting point of  FIG. 8(   c ) using the high-precision numbers as input to the forward transform instead of the rounded numbers; 
       FIG. 19(   b ) shows the same 8×8 block numerical starting point of  FIG. 8(   d ) using the high-precision numbers as input to the forward transform instead of the truncated numbers; 
       FIG. 19(   c ) shows the same 8×8 block numerical steps as  FIG. 8(   f ); and 
       FIG. 19(   d ) shows the numerical results when the output of the inverse DCT with rounding, but before clipping, is input to the forward transform followed by quantization. 
   

   DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM 
   This invention provides methods, systems, and computer products which reduce or eliminate errors introduced by the processing of digital data. Firstly, the source of the error is analyzed and described. This is followed by a presentation of the invention concepts for error reduction and elimination. It is particularly noted that data manipulation and/or processing as employed here-to-before used digital techniques contaminated by the continued introducing of errors by the respective implementation of digital processing. These techniques employed for years are responsible for an inability to maintain original data precision and the continued deterioration of the data representing the phenomenon as more processing is performed. This is particularly detrimental when a process is performed on data which contain errors imparted on the data by previous processes. This results in the continued impairment of the data which thereby becomes less and less useful as more and more processes are performed thereupon. 
   The seriousness of the problem as realized by the inventors of the present invention is described forthwith. It is noted that in the figures presented herein, optional steps are often shown with dashed lines and/or boxes. 
   It is noted that the concepts of the present invention are useful in almost any digital processing technology. However, the subsequent description is mostly related to image data. This is because of the general availability and continued usage of image data compression standards which are employed worldwide. These standards require the introduction into the digital data of the errors to be described and the continued employment and processing of the error contaminated data. These standards basically teach away from the present invention. Thus image technology is a good example for describing the present invention. 
     FIG. 1(   a ) shows an inverse transform method  100 . Transform-domain data ‘A’  110  are acted on by the inverse transform  120 , which produces high-precision real-valued data  130 . The high-precision data  130  are converted to integers and clipped  140  to produce integer real-domain data  150 . In some cases, the integer-valued data are optionally sent to an output device  160 . 
     FIG. 1(   b ) shows an inverse transform system  105 . Transform-domain data ‘A’  115  are acted on by the inverse transformer  125 , which produces high-precision real-valued data  135 . The high-precision data  135  are input to the integer converter and clipper  145  to produce integer real-domain data  155 . In some cases, the integer-valued data are optionally input to an output device  165  such as a display monitor, a television set, or an audio player. 
     FIG. 2(   a ) shows a method  200  for decoding transform-coded (i.e. quantized) data. The integer transform-coded data ‘B’  210  are inverse quantized  220  (i.e. dequantized) with quantization values as in Equation (2) above. The result of the dequantizing step may then be passed as input to the inverse transform  120 , and decoding proceeds as in  FIG. 1(   a ). 
     FIG. 2(   b ) shows a system  205  for decoding transform-coded (i.e. quantized) data. The integer transform-coded data ‘B’  215  are input to the inverse quantizer  225  with quantization values as in Equation (2) above. The result of the dequantizing step is passed as input to the inverse transformer  125 , and decoding proceeds as in  FIG. 1(   b ). 
   One aspect of the present invention is concerned with the manipulation of both transform data and transform-coded data. The words “manipulation” and “processing” are used interchangeably herein. Manipulation may be employed in order to achieve many different results. For example, image data must often be processed before printing by scaling and/or rotation. Data from two sources can be merged as is performed in chroma-keying of images or mixing of audio data. Manual manipulation of data is often needed for editing or color correction. Such manipulation of transform data are often performed on the integer real-domain data which results from the transform decoding of  FIG. 1(   a ) and/or  FIG. 2(   a ). 
   A process for manipulation of transform data  300  is shown in  FIG. 3 . Integer data  150  undergo some form of manipulation  310 . If this manipulation  310  does not produce integer output, the manipulated output  340  is again converted to integers and clipped  320 . The resulting integer data  330  may be stored, transmitted, and/or optionally sent to an output device  160 . Because the stage of clipping and converting to integers  140  is performed before the manipulation which accepts integer input  150 , the resulting errors cause the data output from the manipulation  340  to contain at least small inaccuracies. 
   It is noted that there is no requirement in the data manipulation processes described above, for the input data to come entirely from one source. For example, many types of data manipulation involve the merging of data from two or more sources. This includes manipulations such as mixing of audio data or merging of images. The processes illustrated in the figures and described generally apply equally well to such types of manipulation. Thus the “input data” used for any of the processes described may in practice come from more than one input source. 
   It is often the case that data after manipulation are to be re-encoded to the transform domain. It is desirable that the process of decoding and re-encoding, when no manipulation is performed on the real-domain data, should be lossless. That is, the data, when the forward transform operation uses the same transform type operation as the inverse transform type of transform operation, should result in exactly the same transform-domain data as was present initially. However, errors are introduced by the converting to integers and clipping to the allowed range as is illustrated in  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  shows the integer data  150  used as input to the forward transform device  410 , which accepts integer-valued data as input. The resulting transform data ‘A 1 ’  420  are different from the original transform data ‘A’  110  which were the input to the inverse transform. This is because the conversion to integers and the clipping process  140  have introduced errors into the process. The problem caused by the changes in data after each iteration, or “generation”, of this process is herein called the “multi-generation problem”. 
   The multi-generation problem is also illustrated for transform-coded data in  FIG. 5 . Here the new transform-domain data  420  are quantized  510  to produce new transform-coded data ‘B 1 ’  520 . It is important to realize that the quantized data can only change if the errors produced are larger than half a quantization step:
 
 Q (λ i +ε)= Q (λ i ) if |ε|&lt;0.5 q   i   (3)
 
where ε is the error produced in this transform coefficient. This is because each of the λ i  is already a multiple of the quantization value, since they have been produced by dequantization as in Equation (2). Thus it is advantageous to control the errors so that they are sufficiently small. When the errors are sufficiently small, the new transform-coded data will be exactly the same as the original transform-coded data. The maximum possible error introduced by the conversion to integers by rounding is half the error introduced by truncating during the conversion.
 
     FIG. 6  shows a case wherein image manipulation is performed on the data and the resulting modified data are then re-transformed back to the transform domain. The integer data  150  are manipulated as was shown in  FIG. 3  to produce new integer-valued data  610 . These new integer-valued data  610  are used as the input to the forward transform  410  to produce new transform data ‘A 2 ’  620 . The fact that the process described above without any manipulation produces changes in the transform data  110  shows that when manipulation is performed there are undesired changes in the transform data  110  in addition to those which result from the desired manipulation. 
   An example of a method which embodies the process shown in  FIG. 6 , is shown in  FIG. 7(   a ). The method  700  illustrated performs real-domain manipulation on coded data such as JPEG-coded image data. The coded data ‘C’  710  are entropy decoded  720 , which is defined for JPEG-coded data in the JPEG standard. The entropy decode step  720  decompresses the data into quantized DCT coefficients. These quantized coefficients are inverse quantized  730  and passed to the inverse transform, which in this system is the two-dimensional 8×8 inverse DCT  740 . The resulting real-valued image data are rounded to integers and clipped  750  to the allowed range (e.g. [0,255]) to produce integer-valued image data  754  in the allowed range. 
   If it is necessary to show the data before manipulation, for example when the image manipulation is an interactive process, the image can optionally be sent to a display device  758 . The image is then manipulated  762  to produce some desired change. If the result of the manipulation is non-integer data then the image data may be converted to integers and clipped to the range e.g. [0,255]  768 . In this way the image data  772  may again be displayed  758 . The new real-domain image data  772  are passed to the forward DCT  776  and the resulting DCT coefficients are quantized  780  to produce new quantized DCT coefficients  784 . These coefficients  784  are then entropy encoded  788  to produce new coded data ‘C 1 ’  792  which are different from the original coded data ‘C’  710 . Now the new coded data ‘C 1 ’  792  incorporates not only the desired changes made to the image by the image manipulation  762 , but also the errors resulting from the converting and clipping stages  750  and  768 . It would be advantageous to eliminate or reduce these errors. 
   An example of a system which embodies the process shown in  FIG. 6 , is shown in  FIG. 7(   b ). The system  705  performs real-domain manipulation on coded data. The coded data ‘C’  715  are input to the entropy decoder  725 , which is defined for JPEG-coded data in the JPEG standard. The entropy decoder  725  decompresses the data into quantized DCT coefficients. These quantized coefficients are input to the inverse quantizer  735  and the output passed to the inverse transformer, which in this system is the two-dimensional 8×8 inverse DCT-er  745 . The resulting real-valued image data are rounded to integers and clipped  755  (e.g. to the range [0,255]) to produce integer-valued image data  759  in the allowed range. 
   If it is necessary to show the data before manipulation, for example when the image manipulation is an interactive process, the image can optionally be sent to a display  763 . The image is operated on by a manipulator  767  to produce some desired change. If the result of the manipulation is non-integer data then the image data may be passed to another integer converter and clipper  773 . In this way the image data  777  may again be displayed  763 . The new real-domain image data  777  are passed to the forward DCT-er  781  and the resulting DCT coefficients are input to the quantizer  785  to produce new quantized DCT coefficients  789 . These coefficients  789  are then input to the entropy encoder  793  to produce new coded data ‘C 1 ’  797  which are different from the original coded data ‘C’  715 . Now the new coded data ‘C 1 ’  797  incorporates not only the desired changes made to the image by the image manipulator  767 , but also the errors resulting from the integer converter and clippers  755  and  773 . 
     FIG. 8(   a ) shows the JPEG example luminance quantization matrix  804  for 8×8 DCT luminance blocks.  FIG. 8(   b ) gives the JPEG example chrominance quantization matrix  814  for 8×8 DCT chrominance blocks. The smallest quantization value in  FIG. 8(   a ) is  10 . The smallest quantization value in  FIG. 8(   b ) is  17 . Since the maximum possible error from rounding is  0 . 5  for each of 64 samples, the largest error in the unquantized forward transform coefficients from conversion to integers by rounding is 4 (shown in  FIG. 8(   c )) for JPEG. For the quantization matrices shown in  FIGS. 8(   a ) and  8 ( b ) this size error is less than half of all of the values and will disappear during quantization. However, for high quality applications such as high end printing or digital studio editing, the quantization matrix values are much smaller. In some cases, the DC (upper left corner) term is as small as 1 to preserve maximum quality. Then the rounding errors are significant. 
   The maximum possible error from truncating is just under 1 for each sample. This almost doubles the error in the unquantized forward transform coefficients. For the quantization matrix in  FIG. 8(   a ) eight quantization values are small enough for this error to potentially change the transform-coded data. 
   A numerical example showing the multi-generation problem is given in  FIG. 8(   c ). In this example the transform used is the 8×8 DCT as used in the JPEG still is image compression standard. A set of transform-domain coefficients  822 , of which only one (the constant, or DC, term) is non-zero, are operated on by the inverse transform to produce an block of real-domain data  824 . In this case the data consist of 64 values which are all equal to 128.5. Note that the JPEG level shift of 128 for 8 bit data has been applied. The real-domain data are rounded to the nearest integers  826 , which in this case means that each value is rounded up to 129. The forward transform is then applied to produce new transform-domain coefficients  828 . It can be seen that the resulting new transform coefficients  828  are significantly different from the initial transform coefficients  822 . This is a highly undesirable result. 
   This example also applies to transform-coded data if the DC quantization value is set to 1, 2, or 4. Then the transform coefficients  822  would be produced from transform-coded values of 4, 2, or 1 respectively. The quantization of the new transform coefficients  828  would change the resulting DC quantization values to 2, 4, or 8 respectively. 
   Another numerical example showing the multi-generation problem is given in  FIG. 8(   d ). Again the transform used is the 8×8 DCT as used in the JPEG still image compression standard. A set of transform-domain coefficients  832 , of which only one (the constant, or DC, term) is non-zero, are operated on by the inverse transform to produce a block of real-domain data  834 . In this case the data consist of 64 values which are all equal to 128.875. Note that the JPEG level shift of 128 for 8 bit data has been applied. The real-domain data are truncated to the nearest integers  836 , which in this case means that each value is reduced to 128. The forward transform is then applied to produce new transform-domain coefficients  838 . It can be seen that the resulting new transform coefficients  838  are significantly different from the initial transform coefficients  832 . This is a highly undesirable result. 
   Having demonstrated the errors caused by real-domain rounding or truncating when converting to integers, we now show how real-domain clipping can cause errors.  FIG. 8(   e ) shows an example of real-domain clipping  850 . This example uses the one-dimensional DCT to illustrate the problem.  FIG. 8(   d ) shows a bar chart  854  displaying one block of data consisting of eight samples. The data displayed has only two frequency components: a constant, or DC, component which is indicated by the dotted line; and an alternating, or AC, component which gives an alternating wave pattern symmetrical about the dotted line. The magnitudes of these components, namely the respective DCT coefficients, are high-precision numbers. When quantization is performed, these DCT coefficients are rounded to the nearest quantization level. The data after transform-domain quantization are shown in the bar chart  858 . In the example shown, the DC coefficient has a small quantization value and so quantization does not change the DC level significantly. The AC coefficient shown has a large quantization value and so is changed significantly by quantization. This example shows the AC component almost doubling in magnitude due to quantization. These quantization values reflect, for example, those used when compressing chrominance image data. Thus the data represented after quantization have parts which have negative values. This shows how transform-domain data which, after inverse transforming, give real-domain negative values can be produced by original real-domain data which do not contain negative values. 
   Bar chart  862  shows the data produced from that in chart  858  after real-domain clipping. Those negative parts of the real data have been changed to 0. This results in the DC coefficient of the data increasing and hence leads to error being introduced. Because the quantization value for the DC coefficient is generally small, the error is large enough to cause a change in the quantized data as given in Equation (3). 
   To further illustrate the possibility of error introduced by real-domain clipping, a numerical example 870 is shown in  FIGS. 8(   f ) and  8 ( g ). This example employs the system illustrated in  FIG. 5 . This example uses the two-dimensional 8×8 DCT as used for transform coding of images to illustrate the problem described above. The initial quantized DCT coefficients are shown in matrix  874 . All but two of the coefficients are 0; the two non-zero coefficients are the DC coefficient and one high-frequency coefficient. The coefficients, after dequantizing using the quantization matrix shown in  FIG. 8(   a ), are shown in matrix  878 . When the inverse DCT is performed on these transform data and the level shift of 128 added, real data are produced as shown in matrix  882 . The data shown in matrix  882  have already been rounded to integers but have not been clipped to an allowed range. It can be seen that these real data include several negative values. After clipping, the real data  882  produce clipped real data as shown in matrix  886 . These data are identical to  882  except that each negative value has been replaced by 0. The forward DCT is then applied to the real-domain data to give new rounded transform data  890 . It can be seen that the new transform data are significantly different from the previous transform data  878 . When quantization is performed using the quantization matrix shown in  FIG. 8(   a ), new transform-coded data  894  are produced. The resulting changes in the transform data are large enough to produce changes in the transform-coded data after quantization. This is a highly undesirable result. 
   In many situations, the process of decoding, manipulation and re-encoding of data needs to be done multiple times. In these situations each iteration of this process is referred to as a “generation”. The errors described above, caused by converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range in the real domain, accumulate as multiple iterations are performed and may result in significant degradation of the data. It is realized that the foregoing are only representative examples of errors introduced by rounding (or truncating) and/or clipping. Other examples having more or less error developed are possible. 
   The problem is usually even worse following multiple generations of decoding and re-encoding as shown in  FIG. 9 . Initial transform-coded data ‘D 0 ’  910  is dequantized and inverse transformed  920 , converted to integers and clipped to an allowed range  930  to produce integer-valued real-domain data  940 . The real-domain data  940  are passed to the forward transform and quantized  950  to give new transform-coded data ‘D 1 ’  960 . This whole process is iterated several times, and after some number ‘n’ of iterations the final transform-coded data ‘Dn’  970  is produced. Because of errors in each step the final data ‘Dn’  970  may be very different from the original data. 
   A case showing the problem significantly worsened due to multiple generations of real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data is shown in  FIG. 10 . In addition to the steps shown in  FIG. 9 , some form of manipulation  310  is performed on the real-domain data, followed by converting to integers and clipping  320 . After the forward transform and quantization, the resulting quantized transform coefficients  1010  contain some error as in  FIG. 5 . After ‘n’ generations, the final transform quantized coefficients  1020  may have quite large undesired errors. 
   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
   An example embodiment of a method for processing transform data with reduced error  1100  is illustrated in  FIG. 11(   a ). Transform data ‘A’  110  are passed through an inverse transform  120  to produce high-precision real-domain data  130 , as in  FIG. 1(   a ). If it is necessary to pass the real-domain data to an output device  160  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data before manipulation for any other reason, the steps of converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range  140  is done before manipulation without affecting the high-precision real-domain data. The desired manipulation  1110  of the real-domain data is performed using a method which accepts high-precision data as input and produces high-precision data  1120  as output. This manipulation method  1110  performs conceptually the same processing on the data as the manipulation on integers  310  described above in  FIG. 3 , but operates instead on high-precision data. If it is necessary to pass the manipulated real-domain data to an output device  160  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data after manipulation for any other reason, the steps of converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range  140  are done after manipulation without affecting the high precision of the processed data. 
   An example embodiment of a system for processing transform data with reduced error  1105  in accordance with the present invention is illustrated in  FIG. 11(   b ). Transform data ‘A’  115  are passed through an inverse transformer  125  to produce high-precision real-domain data  135 , as in  FIG. 1(   b ). If it is necessary to pass the real-domain data to an output device  165  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data before manipulation for any other reason, the integer converter and clipper  145  operates before manipulation without affecting the high-precision real-domain data. The manipulator  1115  operates on the real-domain data accepting high-precision data as input and producing high-precision data  1125  as output. This manipulator  1115  performs conceptually the same processing on the data as the manipulation on integers  310  described above in  FIG. 3 , but operates instead on high-precision data. If it is necessary to pass the manipulated real-domain data to an output device  165  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data after manipulation for any other reason, the integer converter and clipper  145  operates after manipulation without affecting the high precision of the processed data. 
   An example of an embodiment of the present invention employing a method for performing inverse transform followed by forward transform steps  1200  is illustrated in  FIG. 12(   a ). Transform data ‘A’  110  are passed through an inverse transform  120  to produce high-precision real-domain data  130 , as in  FIG. 1(   a ). If it is necessary to pass the real-domain data to an output device  160  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data for any other reason, the steps of converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range  140  are done without affecting the high-precision real-domain data. The high-precision data  130  are used as input to the forward transform  1210 , which accepts real-valued data as input. The resulting transform data ‘A 3 ’  1220  are identical to the original transform data ‘A’  110  which were the input to the inverse transform  120  if the forward transform  1210  is the inverse of the inverse transform since the errors from rounding and clipping are not present in the transform data ‘A 3 ’. The forward transform  1210  will produce different transform data ‘A 3 ’  1220  when a different forward transform is used. This allows conversion between transforms without the errors from rounding and clipping being present in the forward transform input. 
   An example of an embodiment of the present invention employing a system with an inverse transformer followed by forward transformer  1205  is illustrated in  FIG. 12(   b ). Transform data ‘A’  115  are passed through an inverse transformer  125  to produce high-precision real-domain data  135 , as in  FIG. 1(   b ). If it is necessary to pass the real-domain data to an output device  165  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data for any other reason, the integer converter and clipper  145  operates without affecting the high-precision real-domain data  135 . The high-precision data  135  are used as input to the forward transform  1215 , which accepts real-valued data as input. The resulting transform data ‘A 3 ’  1225  are identical to the original transform data ‘A’  115  which were the input to the inverse transformer  125  if the forward transformer  1215  implements the inverse of the inverse transform since the errors from rounding and clipping are not present in the transform data ‘A 3 ’. The forward transformer  1215  will produce different transform data ‘A 3 ’  1225  when a different forward transformer is used. 
     FIG. 13(   a ) shows a method for performing real-domain manipulation of transform data with reduced error  1300 . This method is formed by extending the method  1100  described in  FIG. 11(   a ). In this case, the high-precision data  1120  are passed as input to a forward transform  1210  which accepts high-precision data as input, to produce new transform data ‘A 4 ’  1310  without rounding and/or clipping errors. 
     FIG. 13(   b ) shows a system for performing real-domain manipulation of transform data with reduced error  1305 . This method is formed by extending the system  1105  described in  FIG. 11(   b ). In this case, the high-precision data  1125  are passed as input to a forward transformer  1215  which accepts high-precision data as input, to produce new transform data ‘A 4 ’  1315  without rounding and/or clipping errors. 
   A method for performing real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error is illustrated in  FIG. 14(   a ).  FIG. 14(   a ) shows integer transform-coded data ‘B’  210  are dequantized  220  and the output passed through an inverse transform  120  to produce high-precision real-domain data  130 , as in  FIG. 2(   a ). If it is necessary to pass the real-domain data  130  to an output device  160  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data  150  before manipulation for any other reason, the steps of converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range  140  are done before manipulation without affecting the high-precision real-domain data  130 . The desired manipulation  1110  of the real-domain data is then performed using a method which accepts high-precision data as input and produces high-precision data  1410  as output. This manipulation  1110  performs conceptually the same processing on the data as the manipulation on integers  310  described above in  FIG. 3 , but operates instead on high-precision data. If it is necessary to pass the manipulated real-domain data to an output device  160  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data after manipulation for any other reason, the steps of converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range  140  are done after manipulation  1110  without affecting the high precision of the processed data  1410 . 
   A system for performing real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error is illustrated in  FIG. 14(   b ).  FIG. 14(   b ) shows integer transform-coded data ‘B’  215  input to an inverse quantizer  225  and passed through an inverse transformer  125  to produce high-precision real-domain data  135 , as in  FIG. 2(   b ). If it is necessary to pass the real-domain data  135  to an output device  165  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data  155  before manipulation for any other reason, the integer converter and clipper  145  operates on the data before manipulation without affecting the high-precision real-domain data  135 . The desired manipulation of the real-domain data is then performed using a manipulator  1115  which accepts high-precision data as input and produces high-precision data  1415  as output. This manipulator  1115  performs conceptually the same processing on the data as the manipulation on integers  310  described above in  FIG. 3 , but operates instead on high-precision data. If it is necessary to pass the manipulated real-domain data to an output device  165  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued data after manipulation for any other reason, the integer converter and clipper  145  operates on the non-integer data  1415  after manipulation  1115  without affecting the high precision of the processed data  1415 . 
   An example embodiment of a method for real-domain conversion of transform-coded data  1500  is shown in  FIG. 15(   a ). The high-precision data  130  are used as input to the forward transform  1210 , which accepts real-valued data as input. The output of the forward transform  1210  is quantized  1510 . Depending upon the desired system implementation, the forward transform operation  1210  may employ a different transform than that used in the inverse transform operation  120 . For example, the inverse transform  120  may use the inverse DCT transform whereas the forward transform  1210  may use the Fourier transform. The resulting integer transform-coded data ‘B 2 ’  1520  are identical to the original integer transform-coded data ‘B’  210  which were the input to the inverse quantize step  220  if the forward transform operation  1210  is the inverse of the inverse transform operation  120  and the quantization values used in the inverse quantization step  220  and the quantization step  1510  are identical. It is noted that the forward transform  1210  will produce different integer transform-coded data ‘B 2 ’ when a different forward transform is used. Similarly, use of different quantization values in the inverse quantization  220  and quantization  1510  also produces different integer transform-coded data  1520 . This method thus allows conversion between transforms and quantization matrices without the errors from rounding and clipping being present in the forward transform  1210  input  130 . 
   The conversion between quantization matrices may be for coarser or finer quantization. For converting data from the JPEG international standard to the MPEG international standard, the quantization is likely to be coarser. The higher quality JPEG independent images are needed during the editing process. The coarser, more compressible, MPEG images are used to achieve the desired bandwidth objectives. On the other hand, in recompressing JPEG images after significant hand editing, the quantization is likely to be finer in order to preserve the changes. 
   An example embodiment of a system for real-domain conversion of transform-coded data  1505  in accordance with the present invention is shown in  FIG. 15(   b ). The high-precision data  135  are used as input to the forward transformer  1215 , which accepts real-valued data as input. The output of the forward transformer  1215  is input to the quantizer  1515 . Depending upon the desired system implementation, the forward transformer  1215  may produce a different transform than that used in the inverse transformer  125 . For example, the inverse transformer  125  may use the inverse DCT transform whereas the forward transformer  1215  may use the Fourier transform. The resulting integer transform-coded data ‘B 2 ’  1525  are identical to the original integer transform-coded data ‘B’  215  which was the input to the inverse quantizer  225  if the forward transformer  1215  produces the inverse of the inverse transformer  125  and the quantization-values used in the inverse quantizer  225  and the quantizer  1515  are identical. It is noted that the forward transformer  1215  will produce different integer transform-coded data ‘B 2 ’ when a different forward transform is produced. Similarly, use of different quantization values in the inverse quantizer  225  and quantizer  1515  also produces different integer transform-coded data  1525 . This system thus allows conversion between transforms and quantization matrices without the errors from rounding and clipping being present in the forward transformer  1215  input  135 . 
   A method for performing real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error  1600  is formed by extending the method  1400  described in  FIG. 14(   a ) as is illustrated in  FIG. 16(   a ). The high-precision data  1410  are passed as input to a forward transform  1210  which accepts high-precision data as input. The output values from the forward transform are quantized  1510  to produce new transform-coded data ‘B 3 ’  1610 . 
   A system for performing real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error  1605  is formed by extending the method  1405  described in  FIG. 14(   b ) as is illustrated in  FIG. 16(   b ). The high-precision data  1415  are passed as input to a forward transformer  1215  which accepts high-precision data as input. The output values from the forward transformer are input to the quantizer  1515  to produce new transform-coded data ‘B 3 ’  1615 . 
   An example embodiment of a method for real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error  1700  is shown in  FIG. 17(   a ). The chosen embodiment is a method for real-domain manipulation of coded images, which are transform-coded using the DCT. Coded data ‘C’  710  are decoded by a lossless entropy decode step  720  to produce quantized DCT coefficients. These coefficients are dequantized  730  and passed through an inverse DCT  740  to produce high-precision real-domain data  1710 . If it is necessary to pass the image before manipulation to a display device  758  which takes integer-valued input, or to produce integer-valued data  754  before manipulation for any other reason, the steps of converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range  750  are performed before manipulation  1720  without affecting the high-precision real-domain image data  1710 . The desired manipulation  1720  of the image is then performed using a method which accepts high-precision data as input and produces high-precision data  1730  as output. If it is necessary to pass the manipulated image data to a display  758  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued image data  1750  after manipulation for any other reason, the steps of converting to integers and clipping to an allowed range  1740  are performed after manipulation  1720  without affecting the high precision of the processed image data  1730 . The high-precision image data  1730  are passed as input to a forward DCT  1760  which accepts high-precision data as input. The output values from the forward transform  1760  are quantized  780  to produce new integer DCT coefficients  1770 . These coefficients  1770  are encoded by a lossless entropy encode step  788  to produce new coded data ‘C 2 ’  1780 . If the forward and inverse transforms and the manipulation system are sufficiently accurate so that the error they introduce is less than half a quantization step, as described in Equation (3) given above, no error at all is introduced to the DCT coefficients. 
   An example invention embodiment of a system for real-domain manipulation of transform-coded data with reduced error  1705  is shown in  FIG. 17(   b ). The chosen embodiment is to implement a method for real-domain manipulation of coded images such as JPEG-coded images, which are transform-coded using the DCT. Coded data ‘C’  715  are decoded by a lossless entropy decoder  725  to produce quantized DCT coefficients. These coefficients are sent to a inverse quantizer  735  and then passed through an inverse DCT-er  745  to produce high-precision real-domain data  1715 . If it is necessary to pass the image before manipulation to a display device  763  which takes integer-valued input, or to produce integer-valued data  759  before manipulation for any other reason, the integer converter and clipper  755  produces integer-valued data in the allowed range before manipulation  1725  without affecting the high-precision real-domain image data  1715 . The manipulator  1725  which performs the desired manipulation of the image accepts high-precision data as input and produces high-precision data  1735  as output. If it is necessary to pass the manipulated image data to a display  763  which takes integer-valued input, or to generate integer-valued image data  1755  after manipulation for any other reason, the optional integer converter and clipper  1745  produces integer-valued data  1755  after the operation of the manipulator  1725  without affecting the high precision of the processed image data  1735 . The high-precision image data  1735  are passed as input to a forward DCT-er  1765  which accepts high-precision data as input. The output values from the forward DCT-er  1765  are sent to the quantizer  785  to produce new integer DCT coefficients  1775 . These coefficients  1775  are encoded by a lossless entropy encoder  793  to produce new coded data ‘C 2 ’  1785 . If the forward and inverse transforms and the manipulation system are sufficiently accurate so that the error they introduce for each coefficient is less than half a quantization step, as described in Equation (3) given above, no additional error is introduced to the DCT coefficients. 
   A method for performing real-domain manipulations of transform-coded data with reduced error in multiple steps  1800 , alternating the manipulation steps with forward transforming and quantizing steps and inverse transform and quantizing steps, is illustrated in  FIG. 18(   a ). In general each manipulation may perform another operation on the data. For example for digital studio editing, the first manipulation might color correct the image. The second manipulation might merge the color corrected image with a background using the chroma-keying method. The third manipulation might add highlights to the image. The fourth manipulation might crop the image to convert from the 16:9 width to height aspect ratio of movies to the 4:3 aspect ratio of television. For the printing of images the first manipulation might rotate the image 90 degrees to orient the image with the printing direction. The second manipulation might merge several independent images into one composite image. A third manipulation might do a color conversion. 
   As shown in  FIG. 18(   a ) transform-coded data ‘D 0 ’  910  are dequantized and passed through an inverse transform  920  to produce high-precision real-domain data  1810 . If it is necessary to produce integer-valued data for any reason, the high-precision data  1810  may be converted to integers and clipped to an allowed range  1820  without affecting the high precision of the real-domain data  1810 . The desired manipulation  1110  of the real-domain data is then performed using a method which accepts high-precision data  1810  as input and produces high-precision data  1840  as output. If it is desired to produce an integer-valued of this output data, the high-precision data  1810  may be converted to integers and clipped to an allowed range  1830  without affecting the high precision of the output data. The high-precision output data are passed as input to a forward transformer and quantizer  1850  to produce new transform-coded data ‘F 1 ’  1860 . The process of inverse quantizing and inverse transforming, manipulation and forward transforming and quantizing may be repeated multiple times with the manipulation  1870  being different upon each iteration. After multiple steps, final transform-coded data ‘Fn’  1880  are produced with rounding and/or clipping errors reduced or eliminated. Outputs resulting from any of the convert to integer and clip steps may be sent to an output device  1890  with or without a multiplexor. 
   An example invention embodiment of a system for performing real-domain manipulations of transform-coded data with reduced error in multiple stages  1805 , alternating the operation of a manipulator with the operation of a forward transformer and quantizer and the operation of an inverse quantizer and inverse transformer, is illustrated in  FIG. 18(   b ). Transform-coded data ‘D 0 ’  1815  are fed to an inverse quantizer and inverse transformer  1819  to produce high-precision real-domain data  1823 . If it is necessary to produce integer-valued data for any reason, the high-precision data  1823  may be operated on by the integer converter and clipper  1827  without affecting the high precision of the real-domain data  1823 . The manipulator  1115  then operates on the real-domain data  1823  to produce the desired manipulation and produces high-precision data  1845  as output. If it is desired to produce integer-values of this output data, the high-precision data  1845  may be input to an integer converter and clipper  1835  without affecting the high precision of the output data. The high-precision output data are passed as input to a forward transformer and quantizer  1855  to produce new transform-coded data ‘F 1 ’  1865 . The steps of inverse quantizing and inverse transforming, manipulation and forward transforming and quantizing may be repeated multiple times with the manipulator  1875  being different upon each iteration. After multiple iterations, final transform-coded data ‘Fn’  1885  are produced with real-domain rounding and/or clipping errors reduced or eliminated. In a particular embodiment the output from any or all of the integer converter and clipper modules is fed to the output device  1895 . For coded image data the output device may be a display or television set. For coded audio data the output device may be a player and/or recorder. 
   A numerical example showing how the present invention solves one aspect of the multi-generation problem is given in  FIG. 19(   a ). A set of transform-domain coefficients  822 , of which only one (the constant, or DC, term) is non-zero, are operated on by the inverse transform to produce an block of real-domain data  824 . In this case the data consist of  64  values which are all equal to 128.5. Note that the JPEG level shift of 128 for 8 bit data has been applied. The forward transform is then applied to produce new transform-domain coefficients  1910 . It can be seen that the new transform coefficients  1910  are identical to the initial transform coefficients  822 . This is due to the rounding error not being present in the data sent to the forward DCT. 
   Another numerical example showing how the present invention solves another aspect of the multi-generation problem is given in  FIG. 19(   b ). A set of transform-domain coefficients  832 , of which only one (the constant, or DC, term) is non-zero, are operated on by the inverse transform to produce an block of real-domain data  834 . In this case the data consist of 64 values which are all equal to 128.875. Note that the JPEG level shift of 128 for 8 bit data has been applied. The forward transform is then applied to produce new transform-domain coefficients  1938 . It can be seen that the new transform coefficients  1938  are identical to the initial transform coefficients  832 . This is due to the truncation error not being present in the data sent to the forward DCT. 
   Having demonstrated how using the high-precision numbers removes the errors caused by real-domain rounding or truncating, we now show how real-domain clipping errors are also avoided. The same numerical starting point and first three steps used in  FIG. 8(   f ) are shown in  FIG. 19(   c ). The initial quantized DCT coefficients are shown in matrix  874 . All but two of the coefficients are 0; the two non-zero coefficients are the DC coefficient and one high-frequency coefficient. The coefficients after dequantizing are shown in matrix  878 . The quantization matrix used is shown in  FIG. 8(   a ). When the inverse DCT is performed on these transform data, real data are produced as shown in matrix  882 . The data shown in matrix  882  have already been rounded to integers but have not been clipped to an allowed range. 
     FIG. 19(   d ) shows the results of the forward DCT applied to the real-domain data to give new rounded transform data  1944 . When quantization is performed, new transform-coded data  1948  are produced. In this example, the changes in the transform data are not large enough to produce changes in the transform-coded data after quantization. 
   Examples of the manipulation between generations include merging two or more transform-coded data sets. For transform-coded image data sets, the merging may be needed because multiple small images need to be collected into one bigger picture. Fan-folded advertising brochures typically are composed of multiple individual pictures. Today&#39;s highest end laser printers print more than one page at a time. In such cases, the images generally do not overlap, but may not have the same quantization, positioning relative to the reference grid such as the 8×8 block structure for JPEG DCTs, or orientation. By composing the final picture in the real domain, standard processes can be used for each subimage. Then the composite image can be re-compressed for eventual decompression for on-the-fly printing. 
   Similarly, digital editing can include many special effects requiring several independent manipulations performed serially. Digital movies often use the fade-in/fade-out special effect to perform a smooth transition between two key scenes. Such special effects may follow independent processing of each scene. Thus, multiple generations of decompression and recompression are often needed in the editing to produce the composite of the special effects. 
   Chroma-keying involves two independent video data streams. In one video stream the background has been captured. In the other video stream the foreground, often composed of action involving live actors, has been filmed against a blank single color such as a deep blue or black background. Then the blank pixels in the foreground image are replaced with pixels from the background video. Since the pixels are being mixed at a single-pixel level, the images need to be combined in the real domain. The errors introduced by converting to integers and clipping are highly undesirable for such digital studio applications. These errors are reduced or eliminated by implementing the present invention. 
   Another application example for use of the present invention is in the high-end digital graphics market which uses digital images with sometimes more than 100 megapixels. Glossy advertising brochures and the large photographic trade show booth backdrops are just two examples of the use of such high quality digital imagery. High-quality lossy JPEG compression are sometimes used to keep the transmission and storage costs down. As such images are decompressed and recompressed to allow changes and modifications such as adding highlights, correcting colors, adding or changing text and image cropping, unintentional changes are a problem that is solved with the use of the concepts of the present invention. 
   The above examples for the concepts of the present invention are usual for image and video transform data. The wide use of the Internet has shown the value of JPEG and MPEG compressed image data. When JPEG images are to be printed, then manipulations such as a change of scale or a change of orientation may be required. In addition, a transformation to another color space followed by recompression will allow the print-ready versions of the image to be stored. Use of the present invention overcomes the problem inherent in propagating the errors from the rounding and clipping. 
   Audio coded data also needs to be decompressed, mixed with special sound effects, merged with other audio data, edited and processed in the real domain with reduced errors. Similar implementations are performed for other industrial, commercial, and military applications of digital processing employing a transform and an inverse transform of data representing a phenomenon when the data is stored in the transform domain. These are thus other representative applications wherein use of the present invention is highly advantageous. 
   It is further noted that this invention may also be provided as an apparatus or a computer product. For example, it may be implemented as an article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a computer to perform the methods of the present invention. 
   It is noted that although the description of the invention is made for particular arrangements of steps, the intent and concept of the present invention are suitable and applicable to other arrangements. It will be clear to those skilled in the art that other modifications to the disclosed embodiments can be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7