Patent ID: 7023476

Claim:
A compression system for compressing a sequence of digital data frames, wherein each of said digital data frames forms a column of n-bit greyscale numbers representative of luminance values detected at pixels of a line sensor on which a fixed line portion of a scene is imaged in a video camera, and wherein said sequence forms an array of rows of n-bit numbers, such compression system comprising: A. greyscale conversion means, for convening each of said digital data frames into a column of m-bit greyscale numbers, wherein the integer m is less than z thereby forming an array of rows of m-bit numbers; B. a counter means, which provides a count of the number of occurrences of equivalent m-bit greyscale numbers in adjacent frames in each row of said array of rows of m-bit numbers; C. a row reformatting means, for reformatting each row of said array of rows of m-bit numbers such that every row sequence of equivalent m-bit numbers is represented by one m-bit number value and the count thereof; and D. a memory reformatting means, for storing each reformatted row of said array of rows sequentially; whereby said compression system reduces the memory required to store said sequence of digital data frames representing the fixed line portion of the imaged visual field.