Abstract: A method for detecting features in digital numeric data comprises obtaining digital numeric data comprising values corresponding to a plurality of sampling points over a domain space having at least one dimension, computing a plurality of scale-space data comprising filtering said digital numeric data using a filter bank, determining a plurality of feature regions each corresponding to a local extremum in scale and location of the scale-space data; and determining a feature region descriptor for each of said plurality of feature regions. The filter bank is a Cosine Modulated Gaussian filter bank in which the standard deviation parameter of the Gaussian equals 1 ? ? ln ? ( 2 ) 2 ? 2 b + 1 2 b - 1 multiplied by the cosine wavelength, in which b is in the range of 0.75 to 1.25, or said filter bank is an Nth-order Gaussian Derivative filter bank with N being in the range of 5 to 20.

Abstract: A method for detecting features in digital numeric data comprises obtaining digital numeric data comprising values corresponding to a plurality of sampling points over a domain space having at least one dimension, computing a plurality of scale-space data comprising filtering said digital numeric data using a filter bank, determining a plurality of feature regions each corresponding to a local extremum in scale and location of the scale-space data; and determining a feature region descriptor for each of said plurality of feature regions. The filter bank is a Cosine Modulated Gaussian filter bank in which the standard deviation parameter of the Gaussian equals 1 ? ? ln ? ( 2 ) 2 ? 2 b + 1 2 b - 1 multiplied by the cosine wavelength, in which b is in the range of 0.75 to 1.25, or said filter bank is an Nth-order Gaussian Derivative filter bank with N being in the range of 5 to 20.

Abstract: Embodiments of a method and apparatus for preparing a first node of a communications system for transmitting an encoded digital signal to a second node of the communication system is described for providing Terminal QoS. The encoded digital signal is generated from a digital signal, the first node providing the encoded digital signal and the first node having access to display parameters associated with the digital signal. The second node is for at least decoding the encoded signal within an execution time and for subsequent display, the encoding and/or decoding being defined by at least one encoding-decoding scheme in accordance with coding parameters. The coding parameters are determined for encoding-decoding in accordance with one or more first display quality measures of the decoded signal after decoding, one or more execution times of the decoding of the encoded digital signal, and one or more second display quality measures.

Abstract: A method for operating a terminal having at least one resource and executing at least one application in real-time, wherein the execution of the application requires execution of at least two tasks, comprises selecting operating points for each of the tasks from a predetermined set without knowing all implementation details. The method further comprises determining at least one implementation parameter for the selected quality-resource utilization operating point, wherein the determining is performed for each of the tasks, and wherein the determined implementation parameter is different than the quality and resource utilization, and executing the tasks with their determined implementation parameter.

Abstract: One embodiment includes a method for operating a terminal having at least one resource. The terminal is configured to execute at least one application in real-time. The execution of the application requires execution of at least two tasks. The method comprises selecting operating points for each of the tasks from a predetermined set without knowing all implementation details. The method further comprises determining at least one implementation parameter for the selected quality-resource utilization operating point, wherein the determining is performed for each of the tasks, and wherein the determined implementation parameter is different than the quality and resource utilization, and executing the tasks with their determined implementation parameter.

Abstract: Coding, transcoding and iterative filtering methods and apparatus are described wherein a 2D FIFO is used to implement CACLA processing, and wherein the processing methods are block-oriented. A block-by-block processed input image or input coded image, which is delayed in an arbitrary number of lines and columns, is provided such that the output image is produced in a block-by-block schedule at a reduced or minimal memory access and memory size cost. A 2D FIFO which is memory-efficient in image block coding and decoding applications is described. The 2D FIFO has an associated scheduling mechanism for enabling delay of a block-by-block coded input signal, such as an image, in an arbitrary number of lines and columns, such that the output image is produced in a block-by-block schedule.

Abstract: Embodiments of a method and apparatus for preparing a first node of a communications system for transmitting an encoded digital signal to a second node of the communication system is described for providing Terminal QoS. The encoded digital signal is generated from a digital signal, the first node providing the encoded digital signal and the first node having access to display parameters associated with the digital signal. The second node is for at least decoding the encoded signal within an execution time and for subsequent display, the encoding and/or decoding being defined by at least one encoding-decoding scheme in accordance with coding parameters. The coding parameters are determined for encoding-decoding in accordance with one or more first display quality measures of the decoded signal after decoding, one or more execution times of the decoding of the encoded digital signal, and one or more second display quality measures.

Abstract: A system and method for multi-level iterative filtering of a data structure, e.g., an image, wherein elements of the data structure form the zero layer in the zero level and the data layer in each subsequent level is given by the results of one iteration. First, the method of the present system includes subdividing each level into a plurality of regions, there being data dependency between the data in one data layer in one level and the data layers in any other level of a region. Second, the method includes filtering each level by lapped-region processing. Lastly., the method includes scheduling the data processing of each level to provide substantially regional synchronization of the filtering at each level. In one embodiment, the sequence for traversing the regions is selected so that outputs from processing the regions are scheduled to occur at substantially equal time intervals.

Abstract: Coding, transcoding and iterative filtering methods and apparatus are described wherein a 2D FIFO is used to implement CACLA processing, and wherein the processing methods are block-oriented. A block-by-block processed input image or input coded image, which is delayed in an arbitrary number of lines and columns, is provided such that the output image is produced in a block-by-block schedule at a reduced or minimal memory access and memory size cost. A 2D FIFO which is memory-efficient in image block coding and decoding applications is described. The 2D FIFO has an associated scheduling mechanism for enabling delay of a block-by-block coded input signal, such as an image, in an arbitrary number of lines and columns, such that the output image is produced in a block-by-block schedule.

Abstract: A method for operating a terminal having at least one resource and executing at least one application in real-time, wherein the execution of the application requires execution of at least two tasks, comprises selecting operating points for each of the tasks from a predetermined set without knowing all implementation details. The method further comprises determining at least one implementation parameter for the selected quality-resource utilization operating point, wherein the determining is performed for each of the tasks, and wherein the determined implementation parameter is different than the quality and resource utilization, and executing the tasks with their determined implementation parameter.

Abstract: A method of determining the motion vector of a block of a video frame with respect to a reference video frame. The video frame and reference video frame comprising pixels, wherein each pixel has a pixel value. The method comprises first determining a plurality of sets of error norms, wherein each error norm within one of the sets is related to a different position of the block in the reference video frame, wherein the error norms are calculated by a norm of an error which is given by functions of the pixel values of the block of the video frame and the reference video frame, and wherein each set of the plurality of sets is related to a different function. Second, the motion vector is selected with the smallest error norm.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for compressing digital data, such as the digital representation of a colored image. A scanning routine is described which aims to maintain the integrity of regions of the image that the human visual system also finds important. Pixel data from the image data includes color components, e.g., intensities of three or more colors such as red, green and blue or cyan, magenta and yellow. When the color components of the pixels are represented in color space, the axes of which are the three color components with the intensities thereof as variables, it has been found experimentally, particularly for artificial or synthetic images, that significant regions in the image tend to produce clusters of points in color space. In accordance with the invention, the color space is scanned by a space filling curve to convert the coordinates in color space into a one dimensional matrix such as a histogram. If certain types of space filling curves are used, e.g.