Method and apparatus for displaying arbitrarily magnified high resolution images using compressed domain processing

A method for efficiently editing an image on a computer display, the image on the computer associated with a plurality of stored images, each of the plurality of stored images having a different scale size, comprising:

• selecting a portion of an image;
• determining an offset of the selected portion of the image;
• identifying a closest in magnification image from the plurality of stored images, the closest in magnification image having a scale size greater than or equal to a scale size of the selected portion of the image;
• identifying image data of the closest in magnification image corresponding to the selected portion of the image;
• and
• displaying the identified image data.

A method for reducing memory usage to display an image on a computer display, comprising:

• accessing image data stored in a compressed format;
• decompressing the image data into a full scale image stored in a memory associated with a computer;
• generating at least one pre-scaled image of the full scale image, the at least one pre-scaled image having a magnification less than the full scale image;
• determining a display scale of the image for presentation on a computer display;
• selecting one of the full scale image and the at least one pre-scaled image that is closest in magnification to the display scale without being less than the display scale;
• processing the selected image being closest in magnification to the display scale;
• and
• displaying the processed image.

A computer readable media having program instructions for efficiently processing data for display on a computer monitor, comprising:

• program instructions for reading image data in a compressed format into a memory associated with the computer;
• program instructions for generating at least one scaled copy of the image data in the compressed format;
• program instructions for determining a display scale of an image to be presented on a computer monitor;
• program instructions for determining which one of the image data and the at least one scaled copy of the image data is closest in magnification to the display scale without being less than the display scale to provide a closest in magnification image data;
• program instructions for processing the closest in magnification image data in the compressed format;
• and
• program instructions for displaying the processed image.

A computer system for displaying images using compressed domain processing, comprising:

• a storage media storing an image data file in a compressed format;
• a memory;
• a monitor for displaying image data, the monitor being associated with a display scale for presenting images;
• a central processing unit (CPU) configured to process instructions directing the stored image data to the memory;
• and
• display processing circuitry configured to generate at least one scaled image file in a compressed format from a stored image file in the compressed format, the display processing circuitry being capable of identifying one of the stored image file and the at least one scaled image file that is closest in magnification to the display scale without being less than the display scale, wherein the display processing circuitry is configured to enable cropping and scaling the identified image file in the compressed format.