Patent ID: 8107527

Claim:
A method of progressively encoding and transmitting visual data, comprising: acquiring image information updates for a region of visual data, the region of visual data defined by a plurality of blocks of pixel data, wherein individual blocks of the plurality are associated with individual change histories for their respective pixel data; retrieving stored region information for the region of visual data, the retrieved information including a recent encoded state for each block in the plurality; determining available network bandwidth; determining encoding parameters for each block in the region of visual data from the retrieved region information and the available network bandwidth; encoding the plurality of blocks; updating the retrieved region information in accordance with the determined encoding parameters; and transmitting the encoded blocks across a computer network, wherein determining encoding parameters comprises determining an initial encoding quality level for pixel values that have changed, and wherein determining encoding parameters comprises determining an incremental encoding quality level for blocks that have been previously encoded, have not reached a lossless encoded state and have unchanged pixel values.