Abstract: A method and system for combining digital data signals representing digitized images to implement a DSK operation in one mixing stage. The system requires only one mixing circuit, rather than two as in conventional DSK systems. In preferred embodiments, the DSK operation processes an input video signal having pixels a.sub.k, an input video signal having pixels b.sub.k, a stream of single-color pixels B, and a fade control signal .beta., to generate a stream of output pixels u.sub.k =(1-.beta.)v.sub.k +.beta.B, where v.sub.k =(1-.alpha.)a.sub.k +(.alpha.)b.sub.k, and .alpha. is a key signal which can have a different value for each pixel a.sub.k. The value of .alpha. can be constant for an entire frame of input pixels a.sub.k or can have a different value for each individual pixel a.sub.k. Typically, the value of .beta. is constant for each frame of input pixels a.sub.k. Preferred embodiments of the system employ a single mixing circuit, which receives five input data streams: first pixels a.sub.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transforming image data by recursively interleaving the data to generate blocks of component image coefficients having form suitable for subsequent quantization, motion estimation, and/or coding. In preferred embodiments, the transformed data are in optimal form for coding by conventional circuitry in accordance with the conventional JPEG or MPEG compression algorithm. In preferred embodiments, the invention includes two memory arrays (each having capacity to store one or more N.times.M image data blocks), and an analyzer connected between the memory arrays. The analyzer receives horizontal vectors (such as full rows) of an image data block stored in the first memory, transforms each horizontal vector into two vectors (each comprising half as many words as the horizontal vector), interleaves the two vectors, and writes the resulting interleaved data (an orthogonal representation of the horizontal vector) into a row of the second memory.