FORM 2
The Patent Act 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
The Patent Rules  2005

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(SEE SECTION 10 AND RULE 13)

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

“METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMIC COMPRESSION OF IMAGES”
APPLICANTS:
Name : HCL Technologies Limited
Nationality : Indian
Address : HCL Technologies Ltd.  50-53 Greams
Road Chennai – 600006  Tamil Nadu  India

The following Specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:
TECHNICAL FIELD
[001] The embodiments herein relate to the field of image compression  and more particularly to a temporal image compression technique for related and unrelated still images.

BACKGROUND
[002] Most of the consumer/embedded devices  such as digital cameras  smart phones  tablets  handy cams  surveillance systems  and other devices exhibit digital image capture capabilities with limited storage capacity. Due to increase in demand of digital photography and ever growing resolutions  the digital images may require more storage space. When the storage space of these devices gets full  further images cannot be stored. A user may release the storage space by deleting or transferring some of the images to other devices or may add/replace the existing storage with another storage device. However  such processes may be time consuming and expensive due to requirement of additional hardware components.
[003] In light of above discussion  there remains a need of a robust method and system for compressing digital images so that surveillance systems and other consumer/embedded devices can store more number of images at a reasonable system size and cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[004] Accordingly the invention provides a method for temporal compression of one or more images. The method includes receiving the one or more images  performing temporal compression on the one or more images  and generating one or more compressed images. Further  the method includes storing the one or more compressed images.
[005] In an embodiment  the one or more images include a still image  a dynamic image  and a sequence of images in a video. The one or more images further include one or more related images and one or more unrelated images. In an embodiment  a size of the one or more compressed images is less than a size of the one or more images. The temporal compression includes a H.264  MPEG2  and MPEG4 scheme.
[006] Accordingly the invention provides a system for temporal compression of one or more images. The system includes a communications module configured to receive the one or more images and a controller module configured to perform the temporal compression on the one or more images and generate one or more compressed images. Further  the system includes a storage module configured to store the one or more compressed images.
[007] These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood  that the following descriptions  while indicating preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof  are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof  and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[008] The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following detailed description with reference to the drawings  in which:
[009] FIG. 1 illustrates generally  among other things  a functional overview of a system for temporal compression of one or more images  according to the embodiments disclosed herein;
[0010] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrates generally  among other things  component of the system as shown in the FIG. 1  according to the embodiments disclosed herein;
[0011] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrates generally operations performed for temporal compression of the one or more images  according to the embodiments disclosed herein; and
[0012] FIG. 4 illustrates a computing environment implementing the method and system as disclosed in the embodiments herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0013] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly  the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
[0014] The embodiments herein disclose a method and system for temporal compression of still images. The method includes receiving one or more images from a user. The one or more images described herein can be related images (such of same data format) or unrelated images (such as of different data formats). A temporal compression technique can be performed on the received one or more images to generate one or more compressed images. The one or more compressed images can be significantly less in size than a size of the original one or more images.
[0015] The proposed system and method is robust  in expensive  and reliable for compressing the digital images and reducing its storage size to a large extent such that more number of images can be stored at a reasonable system size and cost. The present system and method provides a minimal and non-noticeable lossy compression such that a user (or any untrained eye) cannot notice any difference in quality of the compressed image when compared with the original. Further  the user can easily attach the compressed images (or reduce sized images) and send across a communications network which can further saves bandwidth of the communications network.
[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates generally  among other things  a functional overview 100 of a system 102 for temporal compression of one or more images  according to the embodiments disclosed herein. The system 102 can be configured to include/couple with components such as camera  display unit  input/output devices  and the like to capture and manage the images. In an embodiment  the system 102 can be configured to interface with various remote devices 104 such as to receive  store  transfer  manage  display  view  provide  and the like  the one or more images over a communications network 106. In an embodiment  the remote devices 104 described herein can include external cameras  surveillance systems  remote computers  hand held devices  or any other consumer electronic devices. In an embodiment  the communications network 106 described herein can include a wireless communications network  a wire line communications network  a cellular network  the Internet  Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) network  combination thereof  or any other communications network.
[0017] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrates generally  among other things  component of the system 102 as shown in the FIG. 1  according to the embodiments disclosed herein. The system 102 can be configured to include a communications module 202  a controller module 204  a storage module 206  and an input/output module 208. Further  the system 102 can include/couple to other modules (not shown) such as a camera module  user interface module  display module  and the like to capture and mange digital images via the system 102.
[0018] In an embodiment  the communications module 202 described herein can be configured to transmit/receive one or more images over the communications network 106. The communications module 202 can be configured to allow a user to select/provide the one or more images for compression. Further  the communications module 202 can include capabilities to interact/communicate with various remote devices 104 over the communications network 106 to automatically receive the images.
[0019] In an embodiment  the controller module 204 can be configured to include a conventional image compression technique algorithm  preferably a temporal compression technique/algorithm to compresses the one or more images. The temporal compression technique described herein can include a H.264  MPEG2  MPEG4  and any other standard scheme. In an embodiment  the controller module 204 can be configured to include any type of compression technique capable of processing a minimal and non-noticeable lossy compression of the one or more images and resulting in a significantly lesser size compressed images. Since the compression hardware and software components are well known to persons of ordinary skill in the art  so the units  blocks  steps  acts  components  and aspects which are germane to this invention are only described. In an embodiment  the temporal compression technique described herein can be used to compress both related and unrelated images. In an embodiment  the term “related images” described herein can include the images of same data format. In an embodiment  the term “unrelated images” described herein can include the images of different data formats or any other type of images. The one or more images described herein can be still images  sequence of images from video  dynamic images  or any other type images.
[0020] In an embodiment  the controller module 204 can be configured to perform the temporal compression on the one or more received/selected images. The controller module 204 can be further configured to generate one or more compressed images based on the temporal compression performed on the one or more images. In an embodiment  the one or more compressed images generated by the controller module 206 can require a significantly lesser storage space than the storage space required for the original one or more images. The main advantage of performing temporal compression on the images is to significantly reduce the images storage space so that the user can store more number of images in the system 102. In an embodiment  the one or more compressed images can include a minimal and non-noticeable lossy compression  which may be difficult (or mostly not possible) for the user (or an untrained eye) to notice any difference in quality of the compressed images.
[0021] In an embodiment  the storage module 206 can be configured to store the one or more compressed images. The stored images can be imported/ exported from/to the remote devices 104 over the communications network 106. Further  the storage module can be configured to include instructions and other data required to process the temporal algorithm on the images.
[0022] In an embodiment  the input/output module 208 can be configured to provide input and output interface to the user(s). The input/output module 208 can be configured to include interfaces to various channels  modules  components  remote devices  and units of the system 102 such as to capture/mange images  receive input data  output/display data  and the like.
[0023] FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrates generally operations or method 300 performed for temporal compression of the one or more images  according to the embodiments disclosed herein. In an embodiment  at 302  the method 300 includes receiving one or more images for compression. In an example  the system 102 can allow the user to select the one or more images or the system 102 can automatically receive the one or more images from any local or remote devices.
[0024] In an embodiment  at 304  the method 300 includes performing temporal compression on the one or more images. In an example  the controller module 204 can allow the user to perform temporal compression on the images. The temporal compression described herein can include a H.264  MPEG2  MPEG4  and any other standard scheme.
[0025] In an embodiment  at 306  the method 300 includes generating one or more compressed images. In an example  in response to performing the temporal compression  the controller module 204 can generate the one or more compressed images. The one or more compressed image can require a significantly lesser storage space than that of the original one or more images. The one or more compressed images can include a minimal and non-noticeable lossy compression  which may be difficult (or mostly not possible) for the user (or an untrained eye) to notice any difference in quality of the compressed images.
[0026] In an embodiment  at 308  the method 300 includes previewing the one or more compressed images. In an example  the controller module 204 can allow the user to review the one or more compressed images such that the user can reject  delete  or store the compressed images.
[0027] In an embodiment  at 310  the method 300 includes storing the one or more compressed images. In an example  the storage module 206 can store the one or more images  which can be further imported or exported by the local/remote devices over the communications network 106.
[0028] The various steps  blocks  or acts described with respect to the FIG. 3 can be performed in sequential order  in random order  simultaneously  parallel  or a combination thereof. Further  in some embodiments  some of the steps can be omitted  skipped  or added without departing from the scope of the invention.
[0029] FIG. 4 illustrates a computing environment implementing the method and systems as disclosed in the embodiments herein. As depicted the computing environment 402 comprises at least one processing unit 404 that is equipped with a control unit 406 and an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) 408  a memory 410  a storage unit 412  plurality of networking devices 414 and a plurality Input output (I/O) devices 416. The processing unit 404 is responsible for processing the instructions of the algorithm. The processing unit 404 receives commands from the control unit 406 in order to perform its processing. Further  any logical and arithmetic operations involved in the execution of the instructions are computed with the help of the ALU 408.
[0030] The overall computing environment 402 can be composed of multiple homogeneous and/or heterogeneous cores  multiple CPUs of different kinds  special media and other accelerators. The processing unit 404 is responsible for processing the instructions of the algorithm. Further  the plurality of processing units 404 may be located on a single chip or over multiple chips.
[0031] The algorithm comprising of instructions and codes required for the implementation are stored in either the memory unit 410 or the storage 412 or both. At the time of execution  the instructions may be fetched from the corresponding memory 410 and/or storage 412  and executed by the processing unit 404.
[0032] In case of any hardware implementations various networking devices 414 or external I/O devices 416 may be connected to the computing environment to support the implementation through the networking unit and the I/O device unit.
[0033] The embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented through at least one software program running on at least one hardware device and performing network management functions to control the elements. The elements shown in Figs. 1 through 4 include blocks which can be at least one of a hardware device  or a combination of hardware device and software module.
[0034] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can  by applying current knowledge  readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept  and  therefore  such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore  while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments  those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.

CLAIMS
What is claimed is:

1. A method for temporal compression of one or more images  the method comprising:
receiving said one or more images;
performing temporal compression on said one or more images; and
generating one or more compressed images using said temporal compression.

2. The method of claim 1  wherein said one or more images comprises at least one of a still image  a dynamic image  and a sequence of images in a video.

3. The method of claim 1  wherein said one or more images further comprises at least one of one or more related images and one or more unrelated images.

4. The method of claim 1  wherein said temporal compression comprises at least one of a H.264  MPEG2  and MPEG4 scheme.

5. The method of claim 1  wherein size of said one or more compressed images is less than size of said one or more images.

6. The method claim 1  wherein said method further comprises storing said one or more compressed images.
7. A system for temporal compression of one or more images  the system comprising:
a communications module configured to receive said one or more images; and
a controller module configured to perform said temporal compression on said one or more images and generate one or more compressed images.
8. The system of claim 7  wherein said one or more images comprises at least one of a still image  a dynamic image  and a sequence of images in a video.

9. The system of claim 7  wherein said one or more images further comprises at least one of one or more related images and one or more unrelated images.

10. The system of claim 7  wherein said temporal compression comprises at least one of a H.264  MPEG2  and MPEG4 scheme.

11. The system of claim 7  wherein size of said one or more compressed images is less than size of said one or more images.

12. The system claim 1  wherein said system further comprises a storage module configured to store said one or more compressed images.

Dated: 27th Day of November 2012 Signature:

Dr Kalyan Chakravarthy
(Patent Agent)

ABSTRACT

[0035] The invention provides a method for temporal compression of one or more images. The method includes receiving the one or more images  performing temporal compression on the one or more images  and generating one or more compressed images using the temporal compression.
FIG. 3