Abstract: A system and method for generating a lattice of points that respects features in a digital image. The method comprises a process for initializing the lattice, and a process for optimizing the configuration of that lattice with respect to the image features. The optimization process operates by adjusting points of the lattice to extremize a composite function of the spatial coordinates of the lattice points. The lattice points are interpreted as atoms. Each lattice point contributes a potential function to an atomic potential field. The image represents another potential field. The composite function is a weighted sum of the atomic and image potential fields evaluated at the lattice points.

Abstract: A system and method for generating a lattice of points that respects features in a digital image. The method comprises a process for initializing the lattice, and a process for optimizing the configuration of that lattice with respect to the image features. The optimization process operates by adjusting points of the lattice to extremize a composite function of the spatial coordinates of the lattice points. The lattice points are interpreted as atoms. Each lattice point contributes a potential function to an atomic potential field. The image represents another potential field. The composite function is a weighted sum of the atomic and image potential fields evaluated at the lattice points.

Abstract: A system and method for generating a lattice of points that respects features in a digital image. The method comprises a process for initializing the lattice, and a process for optimizing the configuration of that lattice with respect to the image features. The optimization process operates by adjusting points of the lattice to extremize a composite function of the spatial coordinates of the lattice points. The lattice points are interpreted as atoms. Each lattice point contributes a potential function to an atomic potential field. The image represents another potential field. The composite function is a weighted sum of the atomic and image potential fields evaluated at the lattice points.

Abstract: A system and method for generating a lattice of points that respects features in a digital image. The method comprises a process for initializing the lattice, and a process for optimizing the configuration of that lattice with respect to the image features. The optimization process operates by adjusting points of the lattice to extremize a composite function of the spatial coordinates of the lattice points. The lattice points are interpreted as atoms. Each lattice point contributes a potential function to an atomic potential field. The image represents another potential field. The composite function is a weighted sum of the atomic and image potential fields evaluated at the lattice points.

Abstract: The widely used JPEG standard algorithm for two-dimensional image compression may be adapted for compression of arrays of any dimension and data type, specifically for arrays of seismic data. Because the JPEG algorithm processes, more or less independently, small subsets (8.times.8 blocks) of larger images or arrays of data, such adaptations are particularly useful in applications that cannot maintain a large, uncompressed, multi-dimensional array in computer memory. JPEG-like methods enable compression and decompression of large arrays by iteration over sub-arrays that are small enough to reside in memory. These algorithms lead to the concept of a compressed virtual memory. Special care must be taken in JPEG-like algorithms to avoid blocking artifacts, which are discontinuities between blocks of data that are compressed and decompressed independently. Fortunately, computationally efficient methods for suppressing these artifacts are well known.