Apparatus and method for processing and displaying pictures

A picture processing and displaying apparatus for compressing, decompressing, and editing a picture in a realtime fashion, the apparatus comprising:

• a compressed data buffer for storing compressed data;
• an image compressor that compresses each individual unit image of a given source picture, produces compressed data of the source picture by converting reference data of at least one compressed unit image to another value determined from comparison between that reference data and prescribed data in another unit image, and stores the resulting compressed data in the compressed data buffer;
• a reference parameter generator that receives, from the image compressor, original reference data corresponding to each unit image having undergone the reference data conversion;
• and
• a reduced picture generator that produces a reduced-size picture by arranging the reference data that the reference parameter generator has received.

A picture processing and displaying method for compressing, decompressing, and editing a picture in a realtime fashion, the method comprising:

• compressing each unit image of a given source picture;
• producing compressed data of the source picture by converting reference data of at least one compressed unit image to another value determined from comparison between that reference data and prescribed data in another unit image, and storing the resulting compressed data in a compressed data buffer;
• receiving original reference data corresponding to each unit image having undergone the reference data conversion;
• storing the received reference data in a reference image buffer, together with information that associates the stored reference data with the unit images corresponding thereto;
• retrieving a plurality of compressed unit images from the compressed data buffer in an order determined according to a specified image editing operation, as well as original reference data corresponding to each retrieved unit image from the reference image buffer;
• decompressing the retrieved compressed unit images by using the retrieved reference data;
• and
• editing and outputting the decompressed unit images, according to the specified image editing operation.