APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR STORING AND TRANSMITTING IMAGES REPRESENTED

In order to represent a color image with a reduced quantity of information, during the transformations from color parameter pixel information to luminance/chrominance information, the first of the three luminance/chrominance parameters (i.e., the luminance) is determined for each pixel point. The two remaining luminance/chrominance parameters are determined for a predetermined pixel subarray. The luminance/chrominance subarray parameters are determined by calculating the remaining luminance/chrominance parameters for the pixel array. The remaining luminance/chrominance parameters are then determined for each pixel subarray location by calculating a weighted average of the parameters for the pixel locations that are in the neighborhood of the subarray. Only the averaged luminace/chrominance parameters for the subarray are then stored along with the first luminance/chrominance parameters for all pixels. When the color parameter information is reconstructed, the first luminance/chrominance parameter is used for each pixel and a weighted value of the remaining luminance/chrominance parameters from the neighboring subarray pixel locations are used. A component architecture, suitable for implementing the transformation of the color parameters into luminance/chrominance parameters is described as well a component architecture for reconstructing the color parameters from the reduced luminance/chrominance parameter information.