METHOD FOR DIGITAL TRANSMISSION AND DISPLAY OF WEATHER IMAGERY

• US 20080040038A1
• Filed: 03/07/2006
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: David Southard, Frederic Gouin, Lowell Bell, Michael Aucoin, Theodore Cannaday
• Original Assignee: David Southard, Frederic Gouin, Lowell Bell, Michael Aucoin, Theodore Cannaday
• Inventors: Cannaday, Theodore, Southard, David, Bell, Lowell, Aucoin, Michael, Gouin, Frederic
• Granted Patent: US 7,379,816 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/300
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/951 ground based
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/119 Adaptive subdivision aspects, e.g. subdivision of a picture into rectangular or non-rectangular coding blocks
• 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 19/94 Vector quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A method for creating minimal data representing a source image is presented. The source image is divided into a grid of cells. A color is selected for each cell corner based on sampling an area defined by the cell corner. An indication of the selected color is stored in an array dependent on the co-ordinates of the cell corner in the source image.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for creating minimal data representing a source image, comprising the steps of:

dividing the source image into a grid of cells;

selecting a color for each cell corner based on sampling an area defined by the cell corner; and

storing an indication of the selected color in an array dependent on the co-ordinates of the cell corner in the source image.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

marking a region of critical importance in the source image.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the region of critical importance is dependent on flight path and current position of an aircraft.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein a dimension of a cell is dependent on distance of the cell from the region of critical importance.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein each cell in the grid of cells is a square.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein upon detecting a plurality of colors at a cell corner, the color value of highest value is selected for the cell corner.

7. A weather imagery system which creates minimal data representing a source image comprising:

means for dividing the source image into a grid of cells;

means for selecting a color for each cell corner based on sampling an area defined by the cell corner; and

an array which stores an indication of the selected color dependent on the co-ordinates of the cell corner in the source image.

8. A computer implemented method for generating an image from minimal data, comprising the steps of:

populating an array for the image by reading color values of cell corners from a received data stream and assigning the values to the array;

duplicating source cells used to create the minimal data; and

rendering the cells dependent on the received values for the corners of the cell.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of rendering further comprising the steps of:

testing each cell for transition zones;

upon detecting a transition zone, computing temporary mid-points and treating the cell as being divided.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of rendering further comprising the steps of:

selecting a color value for a cell based on the result of an interpolation function performed based on the color values of the corners of the cell.

11. A computer implemented method for transmission and display of a source image comprising the steps of:

selecting an array of sample points defining a voronoi region in a source image;

computing a representative value from image pixels in each voronoi region;

quantizing the representative values;

compressing the quantized values;

transmitting the compressed values over a communications medium to a display system;

reconstructing the array of sample points in the display system; and

reconstructing the source image based on the array of sample points.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the step of compressing is performed using a lossless compression algorithm.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the lossless algorithm is a 2.33 bit compression algorithm.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the lossless algorithm is a one-byte run length encoding compression algorithm.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the lossless algorithm is a knowledge based compression algorithm.

16. A computer implemented method of delivering graphical weather images through a satellite to an aircraft comprising the step of:

automatically transmitting an updated graphical weather image for display to the aircraft based on flight plan, the updated graphical weather image covering an expected position of the aircraft, the expected position being predicted based on the flight plan.

17. A computer implemented method of delivering graphical weather images through a satellite to an aircraft comprising the steps of:

determining an expected position of the aircraft based on a flight plan; and

automatically transmitting to the aircraft an updated graphical weather image covering the expected position of the aircraft.