An image coding technique with the capability of producing good image quality at a compression ratio over 1000:1 is described. The main idea is to break the image into complicated primitives using a priori knowledge. Usually these primitives are not coded and transmitted, but are matched to a previously created database, and the necessary information about the best match is coded and transmitted. This information is used at the receiver to retrieve a replica of the original primitive from a duplicate database. The primitives are assembled as in computer animation to produce a faithful reconstruction of the original image. The proposed technique allow real-time transmission of video signals over low-bit-rate channels (less than 64 kb/s). The application of this technique to teleconference and picture phone images is discussed.
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