Patent ID: 8204318

Claim:
An image compression apparatus for compressing images, the image compression apparatus comprising: a data buffer module for receiving pixel data to be compressed, the pixel data comprising a plurality of color data each which comprising Y bits (Y is an integer larger than two); a control module connected to the buffer module for determining whether upper N (N is an integer larger than one but smaller than Y) bits of each color data are all zero or not, the control modules generating a first data line select signal when determining the upper N bits of each color data are all zero and generating a second data line select signal when determining the upper N bits of each color data are not all zero; a bit selecting module connected to the data buffer module and the control module, the bit selecting module selecting lower Y-N bits in response to the first data line select signal and selecting upper Y-N bits in response to the second data line select signal; and a formatting module connected to the bit selecting module and the control module, the formatting module receiving selected data bits of each color data from the bit selecting module, and composing the first data line select signal or the second data line select signal with the selected data bits to yield formatted pixel data.