Patent ID: 7170941

Claim:
An apparatus for temporal compression of a sequence of images comprising: (a) an interface for receiving said sequence of images; (b) a spatial compressor for generating spatially compressed image fields from said sequence of images; (c) a data compression decoder for generating data decompressed image fields from said spatially compressed image fields; (d) a temporal processor for generating temporally processed image fields from said data decompressed image fields, wherein said temporal processor iteratively generates a differenced image field by taking a difference between a current image field and an accumulated image field; generates a clipped image field by dividing said differenced image field by a clipping factor; generates a high precision image field by multiplying said clipped image field by a higher precision factor; and generates a new accumulated image field by summing said accumulated image field with said higher precision image field; (e) a data compression encoder for generating data compressed image fields from said temporal processed image fields; and (f) a data formatter for generating formatted compressed image fields from said data compressed image fields, wherein said formatted compressed image fields include key image fields and difference image fields.