Patent ID: 7372485

Claim:
In a digital imaging system, a method for distributed digital image processing, the method comprising: recording luminosity information at a first device, for representing an image that has been digitally captured at the first device; without performing color interpolation at the first device, generating compressed luminosity information at the first device by applying a wavelet transform compression to individual color planes that comprise the luminosity information, followed by applying quantization and compression to the luminosity information; packaging said compressed luminosity information, in a plurality of data packets suitable for progressive transmission of image data corresponding to varying levels of photographic significance, with header information identifying the individual color planes that comprise the luminosity information; progressively transmitting a first set of data packets from said plurality of data packets of said compressed luminosity information to a second device, while remaining data packets from said plurality of data packets are maintained at the first device; restoring said luminosity information from said first set of data packets of said compressed luminosity information at the second device; converting said luminosity information at the second device into a color image, including performing color interpolation at the second device, corresponding to the progressively transmitted data packets received by the second device; and in response to receipt of a second set of data packets from the remaining data packets, said second set of data packets corresponding to a higher level of photographic significance, converting a lower-quality representation of the image into a higher-quality representation by synchronizing said lower-quality representation with said higher-quality representation at the second device.