Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for encoding at least one video frame having a plurality of blocks including a current block, including determining motion vectors for each of at least some of blocks surrounding the current block, identifying surrounding blocks having that have the same motion vector and assigning the identified surrounding blocks to a plurality of groups, determining a number of blocks in at least two of the plurality of groups and selecting a motion vector to encode the current block based on the determined number of blocks in the at least two groups.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for encoding a video signal having at least one frame with a plurality of blocks including a current block, including generating, for at least a selected pixel in the current block, a predicted value for at least one pixel located in a row i and a column j of the current block using a processor and according to the following equation: Xij=Li+Aj?C; wherein Xij is the predicted value, Li is the value of a pixel to the left of the current block, Aj is the value of a pixel in a row above the current block and C is the value of a pixel in the row above and the column to the left of the current block and encoding the current block using the predicted value.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for encoding at least one video frame having a plurality of blocks including a current block, including determining motion vectors for each of at least some of blocks surrounding the current block, identifying surrounding blocks having that have the same motion vector and assigning the identified surrounding blocks to a plurality of groups, determining a number of blocks in at least two of the plurality of groups and selecting a motion vector to encode the current block based on the determined number of blocks in the at least two groups.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for encoding a video signal having at least one frame with a plurality of blocks including a current block, including generating, for at least a selected pixel in the current block, a predicted value for at least one pixel located in a row i and a column j of the current block using a processor and according to the following equation: Xij=Li?C; wherein Xij is the predicted value, Li is the value of a pixel to the left of the current block, is the value of a pixel in a row above the current block and C is the value of a pixel in the row above and the column to the left of the current block and encoding the current block using the predicted value.

Abstract: A method of compressing video data having at least one frame having at least one block and each block having an array of pixels is provided. The method transforms the pixels of each block into coefficients and creates an optimal transmission order of the coefficients. The method also optimizes the speed of processing compressed video data by partitioning the data bitstream and coding each partition independently. The method also predicts fractional pixel motion by selecting an interpolation method for each given plurality or block of pixels depending upon at least one metric related to each given block and varies the method from block to block. The method also enhances error recovery for a current frame using a frame prior to the frame immediately before the current frame as the only reference frame for lessening quality loss during data transmission. Enhanced motion vector coding is also provided.

Abstract: A method of compressing video data having at least one frame having at least one block and each block having an array of pixels is provided. The method transforms the pixels of each block into coefficients and creates an optimal transmission order of the coefficients. The method also optimizes the speed of processing compressed video data by partitioning the data bitstream and coding each partition independently. The method also predicts fractional pixel motion by selecting an interpolation method for each given plurality or block of pixels depending upon at least one metric related to each given block and varies the method from block to block. The method also enhances error recovery for a current frame using a frame prior to the frame immediately before the current frame as the only reference frame for lessening quality loss during data transmission. Enhanced motion vector coding is also provided.

Abstract: A method of image and video compression including data re-ordering to improve the performance of the core compression algorithm. In the inventive method, pixel values of at least part of an image are examined and then re-ordered into a new order that has greater compactability than the original pixel order. The re-ordered pixel values are then compressed, e.g., by block transform. In the particular case of a compression scheme employing a block transform, the inventive method reduces the complexity of the transform coefficients, resulting in more efficient compression. The method may be added to existing compression algorithms with only minor modifications to the bitstream and decoder architecture.

Abstract: A method of compressing video data having at least one frame having at least one block and each block having an array of pixels is provided. The method transforms the pixels of each block into coefficients and creates an optimal transmission order of the coefficients. The method also optimizes the speed of processing compressed video data by partitioning the data bitstream and coding each partition independently. The method also predicts fractional pixel motion by selecting an interpolation method for each given plurality or block of pixels depending upon at least one metric related to each given block and varies the method from block to block. The method also enhances error recovery for a current frame using a frame prior to the frame immediately before the current frame as the only reference frame for lessening quality loss during data transmission. Enhanced motion vector coding is also provided.

Abstract: The present invention is a system for serving and playing back a video stream spliced from a plurality of disparate video segments. The system has a video splicing server on the server side and a client application for playback on the client's side. The client application is a plug-in that enables the user's browser program, preferably Netscape and Internet Explorer, to play any known streaming media format. In order to view the streaming presentation, viewer will connect to a presentation server using the provided client software. The splicing server, which is used to create a seamless presentation, dynamically splices together disparate segments of the video presentation and feeds the client's side a sequence of pointers to these video segments, which are played by the provided client software in the order presented, resulting in a coherent show.

Abstract: This invention uses a novel synthesis of several different compression methods, some original and some known in the art, to achieve compression of digitized video image sequences. Images are color-reduced by a factor of two in both directions using a colorspace that requires minimal computation for reconstruction of RGB pixel values. Images are then transformed into a `token sequence` corresponding to a series of 4.times.4 blocks, using one of seven transformation methods, some dependent on previous frames and some dependent only on pixel values in neighboring blocks. The resulting token sequence is then compressed using known lossless methods, including Huffman coding.