THE APPLICATION OF DATA COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES TO COMPUTER GRAPHICS

Abstract

The decreasing cost of semiconductor storage combined with inherently low cost of colour television monitors has led to the possibility of an economical interactive graphics terminal. However, although the cost of the frame buffer stores may still limit the range of application of such a combination, the efficient description of display pictures through the use of data compression techniques allows the capacity of the store, and hence the cost, to be significantly reduced. One major disadvantage of this arrangement is the time taken to compile and to change the picture which leads to a slow and unacceptable response time. The authors describe a terminal which makes use of data compression techniques but by the use of picture zoning techniques and algorithms with fast execution, the interaction response time is reduced to a more acceptable level.