Method and apparatus for shuffling image data into statistically averaged data groups and for deshuffling the data
First Claim
1. A method of conditioning data representing an image for recording the data onto a recording medium or for transmitting the data over a channel, said method comprising the steps of:
- dividing the image data into a multitude of contiguous image blocks, each image block being associated with a corresponding spatial location of a portion of said image and defining one or more characteristics of said portion at the respective spatial location; and
,shuffling said image blocks by selecting image blocks from preselected spatially diverse locations in the image as determined by a block selection pattern, wherein combined preselected image blocks in the resulting shuffled image contain a spatially equalized distribution of the information contained in the image.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a data compression process such as employed to compress video or other data, it is preferable not to compress the image data representative of the video image in a sequential format, or to take the data from the same area of the image. To equalize the information content of the data prior to compression, the present shuffling/deshuffling technique divides the video image into a multitude of image representing blocks, and selects a predetermined number of the image blocks from different spatial locations in the image, to form a succession of data sets representative of the video image information. That is, the selection of the image representing blocks is such that the information content (complexity) in each data set is similar to the information content in each other data set and further similar to the average information content of the entire video image. Thus, the subsequent quantizing factor used in the compression process will tend to be similar for successive data sets, thereby reducing any distortion introduced by the compression process. The image representing blocks may be formed of sequentially scanned blocks of the video image, or of transform coefficients representing similar blocks of the video image. The shuffled data is deshuffled by the inverse process.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method of conditioning data representing an image for recording the data onto a recording medium or for transmitting the data over a channel, said method comprising the steps of:
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dividing the image data into a multitude of contiguous image blocks, each image block being associated with a corresponding spatial location of a portion of said image and defining one or more characteristics of said portion at the respective spatial location; and
,shuffling said image blocks by selecting image blocks from preselected spatially diverse locations in the image as determined by a block selection pattern, wherein combined preselected image blocks in the resulting shuffled image contain a spatially equalized distribution of the information contained in the image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for shuffling data defining at least a portion of a video image, wherein the information contained in the video image varies from more complex through less complex areas of the image, comprising the steps of:
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representing said video image by a multitude of image blocks, each of which is associated with a corresponding spatial location of a contiguous portion of said video image and defines one or more characteristics of said portion at the respective spatial location; and scrambling a minimum plurality of said image blocks by assembling preselected image blocks from said more complex areas of the image with image blocks from said less complex areas, to form a group of image blocks containing a statistical average of the video image information, wherein said scrambled group of image blocks define the shuffled data. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. An apparatus for shuffling data representing at least a portion of an image, comprising:
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means for dividing the data representing the image into a preselected plurality of image representing blocks; and means for assembling groups formed of the image representing blocks selected from non-contiguous spatial locations in the data image in accordance with a predetermined block selection algorithm which statistically averages the image information contained in the assembled groups. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. The method for shuffling data representative of an image, comprising the steps of:
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dividing said data representative of the image into a multiplicity of image representing blocks of random complexities and having respective spatial locations within the image; and assembling groups of selected pluralities of said image representing blocks taken from predetermined non-contiguous spatial locations in the image such that all the image blocks in the image are selected once and each group of image representing blocks contains statistically averaged information substantially similar to the statistical average of the information contained in the image. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42)
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43. A method of shuffling data representing an image, comprising the steps of:
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dividing the data representing the image into a multiplicity of contiguous image blocks of random complexities ranging from high to low complexities, and having respective spatial locations within the image; and assembling a stream of said image blocks selectively derived in accordance with a predetermined algorithm, to combine non-contiguous image blocks of said high to low complexity from locations throughout the image such that the statistical average of the information contained in a random, statistically significant plurality of image blocks in said stream is substantially the same as the statistical average of the information contained in the image. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46)
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Specification