Abstract: A method comprising obtaining a desired storage criterion for each of a plurality of products, the desired storage criteria including at least one condition, the at least one condition including a product temperature range; based on the product temperature range setting for each product at least one alert temperature range; calculating a current temperature of each of the plurality of products located in a compartment at a current time; calculating future temperatures of each of the plurality of products at a plurality of future times based on the current temperatures and expected changes between the current time and the plurality of future times; and for each of the plurality of products raising an alert if the current or calculated future temperature exceeds the product temperature range for that product.

Abstract: A Hybrid Compressor and method of compressing a tile of pixels within an image are disclosed. An Edge Processor of the Hybrid Compressor analyzes pixel runs of the tile and generates boundary data defining one or more regions comprising pixels of substantially identical color. A Palette Processor of the Hybrid Compressor generates data defining a color value for each region. An Image Processor of the Hybrid Compressor generates a representation of pixels not included in the one or more regions.

Abstract: A method (100), an apparatus, and a computer program product for automatically producing a compact representation of a colour document are disclosed. In the method, a digital image of a colour-document page is segmented (110) into connected components in one-pass, block raster order. The digital image of the page is partitioned into foreground and background images using layout analysis (120) based on compact, connected-component statistics of the whole page. At least one portion of the background image where at least one portion of the foreground image obscures the background image is inpainting (520) in one-pass block raster order. The foreground and background images are combined (130) to form a compact document. A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for segmenting a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method of compressing a current image of a sequence of images. The current image is transformed with a predetermined transform to provide a set of transform coefficients, which are divided into blocks. An encoding termination condition is determined for at least one block, and the block is encoded in a series of coding passes. In a current coding pass, a performance measure is predicted, and encoding is terminated if the performance measure satisfies the encoding termination condition. Different color components may be given different weightings.

Abstract: Methods, computer program products and apparatuses are disclosed for processing images to detect and/or remove halftone. In one aspect, a portion of an image comprising a plurality of color channels is selected for processing (210), a frequency domain representation of the selected portion is generated for each color channel (220), data relating to predetermined regions in the frequency domain representations is processed (230), and halftone present in the selected portion is detected based on a result of the processing the data (240).

Abstract: A Hybrid Compressor (304) and method (500) of compressing a tile (2200) of pixels within an image are disclosed. An Edge Processor (404) of the Hybrid Compressor (304) analyses pixel runs (403) of the tile (2200) and generates boundary data defining one or more regions comprising pixels of substantially identical colour. A Palette Processor (411) of the Hybrid Compressor (304) generates data defining a colour value for each region. An Image Processor (416) of the Hybrid Compressor (304) generates a representation of pixels not included in the one or more regions.

Abstract: A method (100), an apparatus, and a computer program product for automatically producing a compact representation of a colour document are disclosed. In the method, a digital image of a colour-document page is segmented (110) into connected components in one-pass, block raster order. The digital image of the page is partitioned into foreground and background images using layout analysis (120) based on compact, connected-component statistics of the whole page. At least one portion of the background image where at least one portion of the foreground image obscures the background image is inpainting (520) in one-pass block raster order. The foreground and background images are combined (130) to form a compact document. A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for segmenting a digital image comprising a plurality of pixels are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method (300) of encoding an image into an image code-stream. The method (300) generates a reduced resolution representation of the image and encodes the reduced resolution representation in accordance with a multi-resolution format to form an encoded reduced resolution representation of the image. The encoded reduced resolution representation is embedded into a first portion of the image code-stream and a compressed representation of the image is encoded into a further portion of the image code-stream.

Abstract: A method of compressing a current image of a sequence of images is disclosed. Firstly, the current image is transformed with a predetermined transform such as the DWT to provide a set of transform coefficients (step 2202). The method then retrieves (step 2303), for at least one transform coefficient of a current image, a predetermined number of bits, preferably two, of a corresponding transform coefficient of a previously compressed image of the sequence. The corresponding transform coefficient is truncated at a truncation bitplane and the retrieved bits are the least significant bits of the truncated corresponding transform coefficient. The transform coefficient of the current image is set to a new value that is a function of the retrieved bits (step 2306) and bits of the transform coefficients of the current image are stored for use in compressing one or more subsequent images of the sequence (step 2208).

Abstract: The method performs a two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform on an image. The image comprises a plurality of blocks of pixels. The method generates (340) a current output block of subband data corresponding to a current block. The current output block is generated before either a one-dimensional discrete wavelet row or column transformation of a next block of pixels is completed, using intermediate lifting values stored (310, 350) during the generation of a plurality of previous blocks of subband data.

Abstract: A method of retrieving an image for display is disclosed. The image is stored in a compressed wavelet-based format having blocks encoded substantially independently. Initially, a representation (1300) of the image is provided at a first (low) resolution (1302). The user can then select a portion (1308) of the representation for reproduction at a predetermined, generally a second (higher), resolution. A first set of blocks is then identified (1322) corresponding to the selected portion(1310), which are then retrieved, decompressed and rendered to display. A second set of blocks (associated with the first set of blocks) is then identified (1326–1340), retrieved and decompressed. The rendered first set of blocks is then modified using the decompressed second set and displayed at the predetermined/second resolution.

Abstract: A method of compressing data is disclosed including applying a transform to the data to produce transformed data having a series of parts; entropy encoding the magnitude of the transformed data of at least one of said parts; and separately encoding the value of said transformed data. Preferably said entropy encoding utilizes the number of non-zero coefficients surrounding a spatial location of a corresponding transformed data value and the entropy encoding can include encoding the number of leading zeros in transformed data values. The method further includes quantizing transformed portions of said data to integer values including a sign bit and a predetermined number of coefficient bits. Ideally, the preferred embodiment includes wavelet transforming the data with each of the sub-band components of the wavelet transform being separately entropy encoded. The present invention is ideally suited to the compression of image data.

Abstract: A method of reconstructing an image, where the input image data is preferably part I or part II compliant JPEG2000 coded data, or pixel data of the original image. The method selects (810) an output resolution R, and then determines a number of sub-passes to extract from each block code based on the selected resolution. The method then extracts (830) the determined sub-passes and the remaining sub-passes are discarded. The method then reconstructs 840 the image from the extracted sub-passes. The reconstructed image can be in the form of the selected resolution of the original image, or it can be in the form of compressed image data of the selected resolution of the original image.

Abstract: The method generates a compressed digital image from a original image. The compressed digital image allows random access to portions of the compressed image at a number of resolutions. The original image is first transformed (103) by a multi-level DWT to form a non redundant multiple resolution frequency domain representation of the image. The representation comprises a DC subband and a plurality of high frequency subbands arranged as levels, where each level represents a frequency contribution between adjacent resolutions and where each subband comprises a plurality of tiles. The DC subband is then entropy encoded (104) into the bitstream. The high frequency subbands are next entropy encoded (108,109, and 110) into the bitstream in level order (105,113,114) and tile order (107,111).

Abstract: A method inverse discrete wavelet transforms subband data in segments and maintains a state between segments. The method selects one of a plurality of different computational procedures for performing the inverse DWT by testing the state and the subset of the current segment of subband data to determine if a current segment can be inverse transformed with a reduced computation procedure. If the test is positive the method performs the inverse DWT using the reduced computation procedure; otherwise the method performs the inverse DWT of the segment using another procedure.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for recovering image memory capacity, in relation to an image which has been encoded using a linear transform according to a layer progressive mode into L layers, L being an integer value greater than unity, the L layers being stored in an image memory having a limited capacity. The method comprises defining a Quality Reduction Factor (700), being a positive integer value, identifying at least one of the L layers corresponding to the Quality Reduction Factor, and discarding (702) said at least one of the L layers in progressive order in accordance with the Quality Reduction Factor, thereby recovering said memory capacity.

Abstract: A method of encoding an digital image (502) by a discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to a predetermined level of decomposition on a block by block basis, each block (1501, 1504, 1506) having a specified size in number of coefficients, is disclosed. The image is divided into tiles, each having dimensions required to produce the number of coefficients in a first dimension of the transformed block at the predetermined level of decomposition, and less than the number of coefficients in a second dimension of the transformed block. At a particular DWT level, tiles are decomposed. HH, HL and LH subband coefficients are accumulated to form blocks of specified size, and these are encoded to a bit stream (402). A predetermined number of associated LL subband coefficients are similarly accumulated, the process performed recursively per DWT level until the predetermined decomposition level is attained, and the corresponding LL subband coefficients encoded to the bit stream (402).

Abstract: In a digital filtering device adopting wavelet transformation, a memory occupancy level of processed data is decreased. An image is divided into a plurality of first blocks each consisting of W pixels by H pixels. Wavelet transformation is performed on each of the first blocks in order to produce sub-frequency band blocks LL, LH, HL, an HH. Sub-frequency band blocks LL produced from the first blocks are grouped in order to produce second blocks having the same size as the first blocks. Wavelet transformation is performed again on the second blocks.

Abstract: A digital signal is transformed in at least two different frequency bands according to at least two different resolutions. The signal is divided into first blocks all having the same predetermined first number of samples. Each of the first blocks is transformed into a plurality of second blocks, any second block under consideration having a second respective number of samples which depends on the resolution of the second block under consideration, and containing samples selected according to their frequency. Second blocks issuing from the transformation of different first blocks are grouped in order to form third blocks all having the same predetermined third number of samples which is at least equal to the largest of the second numbers.

Abstract: The method of encoding divides the image into a number of blocks, which are then transformed (200), in accordance with a linear transform, into blocks of transform coefficients. The transform coefficients are rearranged (202) into a set of groups, wherein subsets of the groups of coefficients are capable of being inversed transformed to reproduce the image or a resolution thereof. The groups (203) are then encoded in turn. In the method of decoding, a user first selects a resolution mode and the method decodes (300) a predetermined number of groups in response to said resolution mode. The method then rearranges (301) the decoded groups to form blocks of transform coefficients, wherein the arrangement is determined in response to the resolution mode. The method then inverse transforms said rearrangement (303), if necessary, wherein the inverse transform is dependent on the resolution mode and combines the blocks of pixels to reconstitute the image or a resolution thereof.