APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING THE COMPRESSIBILITY OF AN ENHANCED IMAGE THROUGH USE OF A MOMENTARILY VARYING THRESHOLD LEVEL

Apparatus and an accompanying method are disclosed herein for improving the compressibility of an enhanced digital video signal, illustratively comprised of a serial bit stream, such as that generated by scanning a video image produced, for example, by a microfilm scanner. Specifically, whenever a video transition occurs in the a stream of incoming pixels, this apparatus momentarily varies a threshold level, in an appropriate direction, during the transition in order to reduce the noise content in threshold pixel values and thereby enhance the compressibility of these pixels.