We have invented and patented the
so-called Running-Edge Image Compression (REIC) approach for image encoding
in a simple and computationally inexpensive way. REIC outlines a whole
new family of image codecs suitable for highly efficient image data
compaction, image vectorization and feature extraction, artificial image
generation, game development, image transmission, etc. There are several major extensions to REIC core technology:
Bitonal facsimile and document
imaging
A bitonal realization of the REIC core
technology outperforms by 5-30% the current telecommunication standards
such as CCITT/ITU-T Group 4 coding scheme. This work was initially performed
as a collaborative effort of US and Ukrainian small businesses and
competitively supported by the US Civilian Research and Development
Foundation.
Color facsimile
The REIC implementation for lossless
coding of color imagery for facsimile and other applications promises to deliver factor of 2 to 5 times the compression
performance of the today's generic lossless compressors while being
of a similar simplicity and coding speed.
Region-based compression of artificial
raster imagery and simulated video
This is probably the most promising
application segment for REIC which can yield the compression ratios
comparable to conventional lossy techniques, while being absolutely lossless
and much simpler to design and implement.