Error resilient method and apparatus for entropy coding

A data encoding apparatus comprising:

• code word generating means for generating a plurality of code words representative of respective portions of the data, wherein each code word comprises a first portion and an associated second portion, and wherein said code word generating means comprises:
• first generating means for generating the first portion of each code word, said first generating means comprising means for including information within the first portion that is representative of a predetermined characteristic of the associated second portion;
• and
• second generating means for generating the second portion of each code word, said second generating means comprising means for including information within the second portion that is representative of the respective portion of the data;
• and
• error protection means for providing error protection to at least one of the first portions of the plurality of code words while maintaining any error protection provided to the respective second portion associated with the at least one first portion at a lower level than the error protection provided to the respective first portion.

An error resilient method of compressing data comprising the steps of:

• transforming the data based upon a predetermined transformation function;
• quantizing the transformed data such that the quantized data has fewer unique coefficients than the transformed data;
• and
• encoding the quantized data, said encoding step comprising the steps of:
• generating a plurality of code words, representative of respective portions of the data, which have respective first and second portions, wherein said code word generating step comprises the steps of including information within the first portion that is representative of a predetermined characteristic of the associated second portion, and including information within the second portion that is representative of a respective portion of the data;
• and
• providing error protection to at least one of the first portions of the plurality of code words while maintaining any error protection provided to the respective second portion associated with the at least one first portion at a lower level than the error protection provided to the respective first portion.

An error resilient data compression apparatus comprising:

• a data transformer for transforming the data based upon a predetermined transformation function;
• a data quantizer for quantizing the transformed data such that the quantized data has fewer unique coefficients than the transformed data;
• and
• a data encoder for encoding the quantized data, said data encoder comprising:
• code word generating means for generating a plurality of code words, representative of respective portions of the data, which have respective first and second portions, wherein said code word generating means comprises means for including information within the first portion that is representative of a predetermined characteristic of the associated second portion, and means for including information within the second portion that is representative of a respective portion of the data;
• and
• error protection means for providing error protection to at least one of the first portions of the plurality of code words while maintaining any error protection provided to the respective second portion associated with the at least one first portion at a lower level than the error protection provided to the respective first portion.

A computer readable memory for storing error resilient encoded data, the computer readable memory comprising:

• a storage medium for storing the error resilient encoded data, said storage medium being partitioned into a first error protected data block and a second data block, wherein any error protection provided by said second data block is at a lower level than the error protection provided by said first data block;
• and
• a plurality of code words, representative of respective portions of the original data, which have respective first and second portions, wherein the first portion of each code word includes information representative of a predetermined characteristic of the associated second portion, and wherein the associated second portion of each code word includes information representative of a respective portion of the original data,
• wherein at least one of the first portions of the plurality of code words is stored in the first data block of said storage medium such that the at least one first portion is error protected, and wherein the respective second portion associated with the at least one first portion is stored in the second data block of said storage medium such that any error protection provided to the respective second portion associated with the at least one first portion is at a lower level than the error protection provided to the respective first portion.