System and method for efficiently encoding an image by prioritizing groups of spatially correlated coefficients based on an activity measure

A communication system, comprising:

• an image source server, comprising:
• a signal decomposer for receiving an input data set corresponding to a single data frame and outputting a set of transformed data coefficients;
• a subband spatial activity analyzer for determining a set of first-order magnitude differences set of L−1 norms, within a neighborhood of a data set of a defined subband of the set of transformed data coefficients;
• a prioritizer for performing a function of arranging from highest to lowest magnitude the set of said L1 norm results within the defined subband of a frame;
• a subband spatial selector that finds in the remaining subbands of a frame the spatially correlated areas corresponding to the neighborhood outputted from the prioritizer;
• a spatial grouper for collecting together a plurality of the spatially correlated subset areas arranged in a form of norm planes whose ordering is determined by the output of the prioritizer and the subband spatial selector;
• and
• a bit stream formatter for buffering the complete plurality of all norm planes as outputted by the spatial grouper or a subset of said norm planes according a measure set by a rate allocator;
• a transmission means;
• a communication device comprising:
• a bit stream parser for extracting the plurality of all received norm planes;
• and
• a subband spatial coefficient reorganizer for forwarding the plurality of norm planes to an inverse signal decomposer along with an indication of the spatial association of each subset.

A wireless communication device comprising:

• a memory;
• a data processing device;
• an image acquisition device;
• a signal decomposer for receiving an input data set corresponding to a single data frame and outputting a set of transformed data coefficients;
• a subband spatial activity analyzer for determining a set of first-order magnitude differences set of L−1 norms, within a neighborhood of a data set of a defined subband of the set of transformed data coefficients;
• a prioritizer for performing a function of arranging from highest to lowest magnitude the set of said L1 norm results within the defined subband of a frame;
• a subband spatial selector that finds in the remaining subbands of a frame the spatially correlated areas corresponding to the neighborhood outputted from the prioritizer;
• a spatial grouper for collecting together a plurality of the spatially correlated subset areas arranged in a form of norm planes whose ordering is determined by the output of the prioritizer and the subband spatial selector;
• a bit stream formatter for writing/buffering the complete plurality of all norm planes as outputted by the spatial grouper or a subset of said norm planes according a measure set by a rate allocator;
• and
• a transceiver for transmitting the plurality of norm planes outputted by the bit stream formatter.

An encoder for encoding a data set, comprising:

• a signal decomposer for receiving an input data set corresponding to a single data frame and outputting a set of transformed data coefficients;
• a subband spatial activity analyzer for determining a set of first-order magnitude differences set of L−1 norms, within a neighborhood of a data set of a defined subband of the set of transformed data coefficients;
• a prioritizer for performing a function of arranging from highest to lowest magnitude the set of said L1 norm results within the defined subband of a frame;
• a subband spatial selector that finds in the remaining subbands of a frame the spatially correlated areas corresponding to the neighborhood outputted from the prioritizer;
• and
• a spatial grouper for collecting together a plurality of the spatially correlated subset areas arranged in a form of norm planes whose ordering is determined by the output of the prioritizer and the subband spatial selector.