Lossy technique for image and speech processing

Details Lossy technique for image and speech processing Lossy technique for image and speech processing

1996-04-25

2001-05-22

Mai, Tan V. (Department: 2121)

Electrical computers: arithmetic processing and calculating

Electrical analog calculating computer

Particular function performed

Reexamination Certificate

active

06237017

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to data compression/decompression and more particularly to a method and system for processing speech or image data using lossy techniques.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional image and speech processing techniques use complex digital logic. This complex digital logic usually consists of multipliers, adder/subtractors, and shift registers. Such devices are very precise and high precision can be maintained. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms used for image and speech processing use such devices in the implementation of image processing/image compression, high definition television (HDTV), and various other multimedia applications.
However, very precise arithmetic is not always needed in every speech and image processing/compression application. In some cases, simple analog devices and/or circuits can be used with some amount of signal loss
oise without adversely affecting the result of the processing/compression.
Image and speech processing/compression done in real time (on the fly), also require very high computing throughput and communication bandwidth. This, in turn, requires very high speed and specialized equipment. Since image processing/compression can take advantage of parallelism, a number of digital, parallel processing devices have been designed for processing/compression.
Real-time speech and image processing and compression can be achieved using analog techniques along with high bandwidth operational amplifiers (opamps). Opamps are devices which can be configured to perform multiplication, addition, subtraction, and other arithmetic operations with relative ease and minimal complexity.
FIGS. 1A and 1B
illustrate building block used to implement various steps of an image processing/compression algorithm
FIG. 1A
illustrates a very general image compression technique currently being used. Image data is captured by a camera/scanner and the sensed image data is digitized. A transformation function (such as a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)) is then applied to the digitized data by Transformation Module
10
. The coefficients of the transform are then quantized by Quantization Module
12
(i.e., divided by a predetermined number) in that fewer bits are required to code small numbers as compared to coding larger numbers. The quantizer output goes to an Entropy Coding Module
14
which uses, for example, a Huffman coding technique. The resulting processed/compressed data is then stored or transmitted as the compressed image.
The
FIG. 1B
illustrates the inverse process in which the stored or transmitted data is decompressed to get back the original image data. The system shown in
FIG. 1B
includes an Entropy Decoding Module
16
, an Inverse Quantization Module
18
and an Inverse Transform Module
20
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a very novel approach to the problem of data compression/decompression. The method and system of the present invention differ from conventional techniques in that analog circuits are used to perform the transformation and quantization functions. The capability to add, multiply, and quantize are intrinsic to the analog circuits and these characteristics can be exploited in calculations where approximations can be tolerated.
These and other features of the invention that will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention, taken together with the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4288858 (1981-09-01), Merola et al.
patent: 4335444 (1982-06-01), Blaschke
patent: 5126962 (1992-06-01), Chiang
patent: 5619444 (1997-04-01), Agranat et al.

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