System and method for the lossless progressive streaming of images over a communication network

• US 20020159653A1
• Filed: 04/17/2001
• Published: 10/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IDX Investment Corporation (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: IDX Investment Corporation (General Electric Company)
• Inventors: Dekel, Shai, Goldberg, Nitzan
• Granted Patent: US 7,024,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/282
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3873 defined only by a limited number of coordinate points or parameters, e.g. corners, centre; for trimming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/115 Selection of the code volume for a coding unit prior to coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/129 Scanning of coding units, e.g. zig-zag scan of transform coefficients or flexible macroblock ordering [FMO]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/146 Data rate or code amount at the encoder output
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/147 according to rate distortion criteria rate-distortion as a criterion for motion estimation H04N19/567
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/186 the unit being a colour or a chrominance component
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/1883 the unit relating to sub-band structure, e.g. hierarchical level, directional tree, e.g. low-high [LH], high-low [HL], high-high [HH]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/36 Scalability techniques involving formatting the layers as a function of picture distortion after decoding, e.g. signal-to-noise [SNR] scalability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/63 using sub-band based transform, e.g. wavelets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/635 characterised by filter definition or implementation details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234345 the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4621 Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4728 for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region

Abstract

Disclosed is a lossless image streaming system for the transmission of images over a communication network. The system eliminates the necessity to store a compressed version of the original image, by losslessly streaming ROI data using the original stored image. The imaging system of the present invention also avoids the computationally intensive task of compression of the fall image. When a user wishes to interact with a remote image, the imaging server performs a fast preprocessing step in near real time after which it can respond to any ROI requests also in near real time. When a ROI request arrives at the server, a sophisticated progressive image encoding algorithm is performed, but not for the full image. Instead, the encoding algorithm is performed only for the ROI. Since the size of the ROI is bounded by the size and resolution of the viewing device at the client and not by the size of the image, only a small portion of the full progressive coding computation is performed for a local area of the original image.

Claims

1. A system for transmitting a digital image over a communication network, comprising:

(a) an image storage device for storing a digital image;

(b) a client computer coupled to the communication network, wherein the client computer generates and transmits across the communication network coordinates defining a region of interest within the digital image;

(c) a server computer, coupled to the communication network and the image storage device, wherein the server computer performs the steps of;

(i) pre-processing the digital image through a lossless wavelet transformation;

(ii) receiving the coordinates from the client computer; and

(iii) progressively transmitting to the client computer the region of interest within the digital image defined by the coordinates.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to a selected quality threshold.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to lossless quality.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the client computer reverse transforms the region of interest received from the server computer, to form a lossless reproduction of the digital image.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein client computer displays the lossless reproduction of the digital image on a web browser resident on the client computer.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer performs the pre-processing step through a lossless wavelet transformation comprising two non-identical one-dimensional transforms.

7. A system for transmitting a digital image over a communication network, comprising:

(a) an image storage device for storing a digital image;

(b) a client computer coupled to the communication network, wherein the client computer generates and transmits across the communication network coordinates defining a region of interest within the digital image;

(c) a server computer, coupled to the communication network and the image storage device, wherein the server computer performs the steps of;

(i) pre-processing the digital image through a lossless wavelet transformation;

(ii) generating wavelet coefficients corresponding to the digital image;

(iii) generating half-bit flags, each half-bit flag corresponding to a wavelet coefficient;

(iv) receiving the coordinates from the client computer;

(v) progressively transmitting to the client computer the region of interest within the digital image defined by the coordinates, based on the wavelet coefficients and the corresponding half-bit flags.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to a selected quality threshold.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to lossless quality.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the client computer reverse transforms the region of interest received from the server computer, to form a lossless reproduction of the digital image.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein client computer displays the lossless reproduction of the digital image on a web browser resident on the client computer.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the server computer performs the pre-processing step through a lossless wavelet transformation comprising two non-identical one-dimensional transforms.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to a selected quality threshold.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to lossless quality.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of reverse transforming at the client computer the region of interest received from the server computer, to form a lossless reproduction of the digital image.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of displaying at the client computer the lossless reproduction of the digital image on a web browser resident on the client computer.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the pre-processing step is performed through a lossless wavelet transformation comprising two non-identical one-dimensional transforms.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to a selected quality threshold.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to lossless quality.

22. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of reverse transforming at the client computer the region of interest received from the server computer, to form a lossless reproduction of the digital image.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of displaying at the client computer the lossless reproduction of the digital image on a web browser resident on the client computer.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the pre-processing step is performed through a lossless wavelet transformation comprising two non-identical one-dimensional transforms.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to a selected quality threshold.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to lossless quality.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the client computer reverse transforms the region of interest received from the server computer, to form a lossless reproduction of the digital image.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein client computer displays the lossless reproduction of the digital image on a web browser resident on the client computer.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the server computer performs the pre-processing step through a lossless wavelet transformation comprising two non-identical one-dimensional transforms.

13. A method for transmitting a digital image from a server computer to a client computer, wherein the client computer generates coordinates defining a region of interest within the digital image, and transmits the coordinates to the server computer, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) storing a digital image within an image storage device;

(b) pre-processing the digital image through a lossless wavelet transformation;

(c) receiving the coordinates at the server computer from the client computer; and

(d) progressively transmitting from the server computer to the client computer the region of interest within the digital image defined by the coordinates.

19. A method for transmitting a digital image from a server computer to a client computer, wherein the client computer generates coordinates defining a region of interest within the digital image, and transmits the coordinates to the server computer, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) storing a digital image within an image storage device;

(b) pre-processing the digital image through a lossless wavelet transformation;

(c) receiving the coordinates at the server computer from the client computer; and

(d) generating wavelet coefficients corresponding to the digital image;

(e) generating half-bit flags, each half-bit flag corresponding to a wavelet coefficient;

(f) receiving the coordinates at the server computer from the client computer; and

(g) progressively transmitting from the server computer to the client computer the region of interest within the digital image defined by the coordinates, based on the wavelet coefficients and the corresponding half-bit flags.

25. A server computer for transmitting a digital image to a client computer, wherein the client computer generates and transmits to the server computer coordinates defining a region of interest within the digital image, the server computer comprising:

(a) an image storage device for storing the digital image;

(b) a processor for performing the steps of;

(i) pre-processing the digital image through a lossless wavelet transformation;

(ii) receiving the coordinates from the client computer; and

(iii) progressively transmitting to the client computer the region of interest within the digital image defined by the coordinates.

31. A server computer for transmitting a digital image to a client computer, wherein the client computer generates and transmits to the server computer coordinates defining a region of interest within the digital image, the server computer comprising:

(a) an image storage device for storing the digital image;

(b) a processor for performing the steps of;

(i) pre-processing the digital image through a lossless wavelet transformation;

(ii) generating wavelet coefficients corresponding to the digital image;

(iii) generating half-bit flags, each half-bit flag corresponding to a wavelet coefficient;

(iv) receiving the coordinates from the client computer;

(v) progressively transmitting to the client computer the region of interest within the digital image defined by the coordinates, based on the wavelet coefficients and the corresponding half-bit flags.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to a selected quality threshold.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the server computer progressively transmits the region of interest to lossless quality.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the client computer reverse transforms the region of interest received from the server computer, to form a lossless reproduction of the digital image.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein client computer displays the lossless reproduction of the digital image on a web browser resident on the client computer.

36. The system of claim 31, wherein the server computer performs the pre-processing step through a lossless wavelet transformation comprising two non-identical one-dimensional transforms.