Patent ID: 7751635

Claim:
A method of compressing image data into a fixed size memory, the image data being encoded using a discrete cosine transformation and arranged into a plurality of scans of bitstream data, the plurality of scans being ordered from a perceptually most significant scan to a perceptually least significant scan, the method comprising the steps of: determining whether the scans are a DC most significant scan or not; determining whether the scans are active or inactive based on an attribute associated with each of the scans, the attribute being separate from the scan and identifying whether the scan is either active or inactive, wherein the active scan is to be encoded and the inactive scan is not to be encoded; encoding, if the scans are a DC most significant scan, the determined active scans of bitstream data encoded using the discrete cosine transformation and discarding the determined inactive scans without encoding the inactive scans, wherein said encoding comprises entropy encoding the current scan of bitstream data, if the attribute of the current scan is active, and otherwise proceeding to a next scan of bitstream data; transferring the encoded scan bitstream data to the fixed size memory; and setting, if the fixed size memory becomes full, the attribute of a currently least significant scan of the active scans to inactive.