Patent ID: 7684483

Claim:
A method for transmitting video signals over a network from a remote one of a plurality of remote computers to one of a plurality of user workstations, said method comprising the steps of: receiving a video signal from a remote computer; dividing said video signal into one or more blocks of pixels; generating a histogram of pixel values for each of said blocks; generating frequently occurring pixel values and infrequently occurring pixel values using said histogram; determining if the infrequently occurring pixel values should be mapped to the frequently occurring pixel values; converting said video signal to a compressed video signal by mapping said infrequently occurring pixel values to said frequently occurring pixel values based on said determining step, and; transmitting said compressed video signal to a user workstation, wherein said step of determining includes the steps of calculating a distance function between a infrequently occurring pixel value and a frequently occurring pixel value; comparing the computed distance function to a previously stored computed distance function; replacing the previously stored computer distance function with the computed distance function if it is eater than the computed distance function; repeating the steps of calculating, comparing and replacing distance functions for all frequently occurring pixel values against the infrequently occurring pixel value; updating the color map if the stored distance function is less than a threshold distance; repeating the step of repeating the steps of calculating, comparing and replacing distance functions for all frequently occurring pixel values against the infrequently occurring pixel value and updating the color map for all the infrequently occurring pixel values.