| acceptable tolerance: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| In the blob compressor, the acceptable tolerance is the
amount of variation allowed between equivalent blobs in the clustering
process. | |||
| alias: | |||
| Describes a color aberration due to heterogeneous pixel
spacing. For example, if it occurs in the sampling, due to harmonics
between the sampling and event frequencies, it is known as a Johnson
alias. On a monitor, it is more likely due to inductive ringing in the
monitor cable. | |||
| application service provider (ASP): | |||
| An Internet server operator that allows
end users to run one or
more programs over the Internet on an associated
server.
| |||
| attribute: | |||
| A special characteristic of text character (such as Bold
or Italics). | |||
| batch mode: | |||
| A computer process that runs without user assistance.
| |||
| beta mismatch: | |||
| A mismatch between two semiconductors (usually
transistors) where the same bias results in different amounts of
conductivity. |
|||
| Bezier Curve: | |||
| A mathematical compound that can be used to
approximate a curve with a mathematical equation. In its most
common form, it has a beginning, an end, and two control points,
where the control points are used to bend the shape of the curve.
|
|||
| bi-tonal: | |||
| A description of a two color image. For example an image
that has black and white but no shades of gray. | |||
| bit: | |||
| The smallest data element inside a computer. It has two
states which are denoted as a 1 and a 0. | |||
| bit map: | |||
| [First Definition] A method of storing an image by using a single bit to represent
one of two colors (usually black and white). [Second Definition] A non-proprietary file format that (in most cases) saves each color of each pixel as one byte. The file extension is usually *.BMP. | |||
| blob: | |||
| A group of adjacent pixels that are all exactly the same
color. A blob is sometimes used synonymously with region, but a region is
often used as a group of adjacent pixels that are combined together. A
region contains the implication that the pixels may not all be exactly the
same color. For example, a region might be used to refer to the entire area of a light gray can sitting on a black background (the background would not be part of the region). The light gray can might have slightly darker gray decorations, but the whole would still be in the same region. | |||
| blob compressor: | |||
| A proprietary raster compressor that is built into
Pac-n-Zoom®. It is a geometrical compressor with hierarchical ordering.
| |||
| border: | |||
| A place where one color stops and another color starts.
A border implies an abrupt change whereas a transition doesn't.
| |||
| charge coupled devices (CCD): | |||
| These are also known as charge coupled semiconductors.
They are semiconductors that are specially fabricated to detect light.
They are the sensors used in cameras and scanners to change light into
electricity. On this site, the issues presented by CCDs are considered to
be the same as those from light diodes and CMOS sensors.
| |||
| chromatic aberrations: | |||
| Optical systems have an exact focus at a specific
wavelength of light. Since light usually has more than one wavelength,
distortions occur because the light does not match the exact wavelength
the optical system is focused at. Therefore chromatic aberations are
essentially aberations resulting from different colors (or wavelengths) of
light. | |||
| clock coupling: | |||
| An electronic noise that mixes the clock signal into
another signal. This usually occurs from inductive and capacitive coupling
between traces on a circuit board or integrated circuit. The affect is
compounded because the rising edge of the clock can cause many transistors
to switch simultaneously. | |||
| cluster: | |||
| In the blob compressor, a cluster is a
constellation of patterns that repeated within the acceptable tolerance. | |||
| color bleeding: | |||
| In printing and other real processes, color bleeding is
considered a problem. It is when two adjacent colors get mixed together.
In the virtual world, color bleeding is often a desired effect.
| |||
| color flutter: | |||
| A noise that occurs because the color shade is half way
between two discrete values and the color presented vacillates between
those values. As an analogy, a digital speedometer has flutter when the
car is going 54.5 miles per hour, and the speedometer vacillates between
54 and 55. | |||
| color segmenter: | |||
| A major part of the Pac-n-Zoom program. The color
segmenter segments a color while image enhancing the
quality of the picture by performing image restoration. | |||
| comma delimited file: | |||
| [First Definition] A file whose data records are delimited by commas. These are used
primarily by spread sheets and databases. [Second Definition] A non- proprietary file format supported by Pac-n-Zoom and has an extension of *.CDL. It is easily parsed into databases for the purposes of debug. | |||
| command line interface (CLI): | |||
| A text based interface where the user enters commands at
a prompt (such as a DOS prompt). The initial user command is interactive, but the interface can be manipulated into a batch processing mode. | |||
| continuous tone: | |||
| A term used to describe an image whose color is
constantly changing. The implication is that each pixel is a slightly
different color than the preceding pixel. | |||
| contour line: | |||
| A term used to describe the visible edges of a blob.
Contour lines are often used in negative sense to describe a photograph
that doesn't have enough colors. | |||
| contrast: | |||
| The amount of color change divided by the number of
pixels. Therefore, large and fast color changes have a high contrast.
| |||
| convolver: | |||
| A device that integrates data, instructions, libraries,
or other elements over a series of iterations. | |||
| dark current: | |||
| Thermodynamic noise in a charged coupled device.
| |||
| data resolver: | |||
| A Pac-n-Zoom filter that eliminates repeating single
pixel vacillations on the edges of segmented blobs. It is incorporated
into the segmenter. The data resolver is incorporated inside the blob
compressor. | |||
| data segment: | |||
| A group of data inside a frame as shown in the following example. | |||
| data tagger: | |||
| The part of the Pac-n-Zoom technology that converts
raster into primitive vector. | |||
| data tagger configuration: | |||
| A non-von-Neumann computer that has two parts. The first
part is called the data tagger and it passes judgments on incoming data.
These judgments become instructions and are passed to a convolver. The
convolver is usually a conventional (von Neumann) computer or a state
machine that accepts separate data and instructions. | |||
| depth of field: | |||
| Optics will focus at some specific distance. The depth
of field will indicate how well a specific part of a picture will focus by
how far it varies from the focal point. | |||
| discreet cosine transform: | |||
| The discreet cosine transform converts spatial
information to "frequency" or spectral information, with the X and Y axes
representing frequencies of the signal in different dimensions. This
allows for "lossy" compression of image data by determining which
information can be thrown away without compromising the image. The DCT is used in many compression and transmission codecs, such as JPEG, MPEG and others. The pixels when transformed are arranged from the most significant pixel to the least significant pixel. The DCT functions themselves are lossless. Pixel loss occurs when the least significant pixels are quantitized to 0 (from nyx.net). | |||
| DjVu: | |||
| A wavelet-based (but uses other technologies as well)
technology originally be Bell Labs (AT&T). In 2000, DjVu was acquired
by Lizard Tech. | |||
| document handling: | |||
| An industry that deals with moving paper files to the
computer. | |||
| document imaging: | |||
| A subset of the document handling industry that deals
with converting the document from a paper to an electronic representation.
| |||
| edge detection segmentation: | |||
| Segmentation that finds the edges of blobs to build a
border around the blob. | |||
| extraction: | |||
| The process of pulling information from a picture. The
information could be any thing. Some typical extractions are recognition,
location, color, area, and perimeter. | |||
| feature: | |||
| Any parameter of an image. Some typical features are
edges, colors, areas, and locations. | |||
| font: | |||
| The style of text character (such as Courier or Times
Roman). | |||
| frame: | |||
| A set of data that pertains to a configuration, data, or
command. Frames are found in text files. The syntax or example of a frame can be found here.
| |||
| frame grabber: | |||
| An electronic device (usually a computer board) that
stores at least one video frame. | |||
| geometrical compressor: | |||
| A compression algorithm that reduces geometrical shapes
into a more efficient representation (usually tags). Geometrical
compressors are not currently popular because they require a segmented
image to provide competitive compression. | |||
| GIF: | |||
| A proprietary statistical compressor with its name (GIF)
used as the file extension. | |||
| Glider: | |||
| The glider is the part of the Pac-n-Zoom system that
promotes the primitive vector into the final output. The final output
might be raster or another form of vector. | |||
| graphical user interface (GUI): | |||
| An interactive user interface usually dominated by a
mouse, track-ball, or some other pointing device. In the predominant
interaction, the user points at a screen icon and clicks a button to
select the process the icon represents. | |||
| HDTV: | |||
| An abbreviation for high definition television. It is
the high definition television signal mandated in the United States. It is
1,080 lines and has 1920 pixels in a line. | |||
| heap memory: | |||
| When memory is dynamically allocated by the programmer
(usually with a variation of malloc() and free()), the allocated memory is
from the computer memory system known as the heap. The heap is allocated
at run time. | |||
| histogram: | |||
| A graph that plots the most predominant colors against a
spectrum of colors. | |||
| HTML: | |||
| An abbreviation for hypertext markup language. It is the
publishing language of the world wide web. In other words, it is the
standard format for an Internet page. | |||
| Huffman encoding: | |||
| A statistical compression method that converts
characters into variable length bit strings. Most-frequently occurring
characters are converted to shortest bit strings; least frequent, the
longest. Compression takes two passes. The first pass analyzes a block of
data and creates a tree model based on its contents. The second pass
compresses the data via the model. Decompression decodes the variable
length strings via the tree. (from
computing-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com) | |||
| image restoration: | |||
| The process of rebuilding a picture that was distorted
by a known process. | |||
| Interlaced Video: | |||
| Video that is created by interlacing (interweaving) to
consecutive pictures to create a single picture. In interlaced video, the first field is painted into every other line of the video display screen. The second field is then painted into the lines left blank. | |||
| interleave file format: | |||
| A non-proprietary raster file format that is popular on
the Amiga Computer. The file name extension is *.IFF.
| |||
| Johnson noise: | |||
| An electronic noise with a thermodynamic origin. The
voltage of Johnson noise is white noise with a voltage squared noise
spectral density. | |||
| joint photographers expert group (JPEG): | |||
| A standards committee that published a file format used
for compression. The most popular version of it uses a discrete cosine
transform to discard (hopefully) less significant colors. A common file name extension for JPEG files is *.JPG. | |||
| |||