A method and apparatus for enabling low latency compression of a stream of pictures are described. A first set of static regions of a current picture from the plurality of pictures is determined, where each region from the first set is static. A second set of regions of the current picture is determined, where the second set includes all regions of the current picture that are not included in the first set. Compression of the first set of regions is performed based on values of a first quantization parameter determined by a MAQ mechanism. The MAQ mechanism is operative to dynamically increase the compression quality of static regions. Compression of the second set of regions is performed based on values of a second quantization parameter determined by a rate control mechanism. The rate control mechanism is operative to compress the data stream according to a target bit rate.

Methods and apparatus for compressing image data are described along with corresponding methods and apparatus for decompressing the compressed image data. An encoder unit, which generates the compressed image data, comprises an input arranged to receive a first image and a second image, wherein the second image is twice the width and height of the first image, a prediction generator arranged to generate a prediction texture from the first image using an adaptive interpolator, a difference texture generator arranged to generate a difference texture from the prediction texture and the second image and in encoder unit arranged to encode the difference texture.

A machine can be specially configured to generate one or more atlases that include two-dimensional texture maps and their corresponding UV maps from a three-dimensional object, compress the atlases, decompress the atlases, store the atlases, access the atlases, communicate the atlases, apply the texture maps from the atlases to a three-dimensional model, or otherwise process the atlases, the texture maps, the UV maps, or any suitable combination thereof. The atlases, texture maps, UV maps, or any suitable combination thereof can be generated, compiled or otherwise created by the machine in a manner that is computationally efficient to compress and decompress using video compression and decompression techniques.

A machine can be specially configured to generate one or more atlases that include two-dimensional texture maps and their corresponding UV maps from a three-dimensional object, compress the atlases, decompress the atlases, store the atlases, access the atlases, communicate the atlases, apply the texture maps from the atlases to a three-dimensional model, or otherwise process the atlases, the texture maps, the UV maps, or any suitable combination thereof The atlases, texture maps, UV maps, or any suitable combination thereof can be generated, compiled or otherwise created by the machine in a manner that is computationally efficient to compress and decompress using video compression and decompression techniques.

A transaction card construction and computer-implemented methods for a transaction card are described. The transaction card has vector formatted visible information lasered onto its surface. In some embodiments, systems and methods are disclosed for enabling the sourcing of visible information using a scalable vector format. The systems and methods may receive a request to add a first plurality of visible information to a transaction card and capture an image of the first plurality of visible information. The systems and methods may also map the image to a bounding box and convert the mapped image into vector format. In addition, the systems and methods may provide the converted image to a laser machine.

A machine can be specially configured to generate one or more atlases that include two-dimensional texture maps and their corresponding UV maps from a three-dimensional object, compress the atlases, decompress the atlases, store the atlases, access the atlases, communicate the atlases, apply the texture maps from the atlases to a three-dimensional model, or otherwise process the atlases, the texture maps, the UV maps, or any suitable combination thereof. The atlases, texture maps, UV maps, or any suitable combination thereof can be generated, compiled or otherwise created by the machine in a manner that is computationally efficient to compress and decompress using video compression and decompression techniques.

An image processing device includes a processor configured to: extract pixel blocks; detect pixels having a maximum value and a minimum value in each of the pixel blocks; calculate reference value candidates from the maximum and the minimum values; calculate an absolute difference value relative to each of the maximum value, the minimum value, and the reference value candidates; divide each of the pixel blocks into subblocks; select, as a reference value from among the reference value candidates in each of the subblocks, a reference value candidate close to the pixel values in which the pixels included in each of the subblocks are distributed; extract a closest difference value, the minimum value, and the reference value; quantize each of the closest difference values into a quantization value by using the difference value that is the largest from among the closest difference values; and code the quantization value.

In an image encoding device, a predicted pixel generator generates a predicted value for pixel data based on at least one of pixels adjacent to a pixel to be compressed. A quantization processor quantizes a difference value between the pixel data and the generated predicted value to a quantized value having a smaller number of bits than that of the pixel data to compress the pixel data to the quantized value. In a quantization width determiner, an edge determiner determines whether or not there are both a flat portion and an edge portion, based on a characteristic of the difference value in the group, and an edge pixel determiner determines whether each of pixels included in the group is a pixel in an edge portion or a pixel in a flat portion, based on the difference value, whereby a quantization width used in the quantization processor is determined.

A transaction card construction and computer-implemented methods for a transaction card are described. The transaction card has vector formatted visible information lasered onto its surface. In some embodiments, systems and methods are disclosed for enabling the sourcing of visible information using a scalable vector format. The systems and methods may receive a request to add a first plurality of visible information to a transaction card and capture an image of the first plurality of visible information. The systems and methods may also map the image to a bounding box and convert the mapped image into vector format. In addition, the systems and methods may provide the converted image to a laser machine.

An imaging method may include obtaining imaging data associated with a region of interest (ROI) of an object. The imaging data may correspond to a plurality of time-series images of the ROI. The imaging method may also include determining, based on the imaging data, a data set including a spatial basis and one or more temporal bases. The spatial basis may include spatial information of the imaging data. The one or more temporal bases may include temporal information of the imaging data. The imaging method may also include storing, in a storage medium, the spatial basis and the one or more temporal bases.