US Patent 7916141 Image processing system using vector pixel

An image processing system using vector pixel is disclosed. The system includes a vector pixel with 1 byte, a data unit structure, a data portion, a file generation unit, and a data processing unit. The vector pixel with 1 byte is configured such that, in the low 4 bits, a vector information portion is positioned, and information of one of 8 vectors, up, down, left, right, up-left, up-right, bottom-left, and bottom-right vectors, with respect to X- and Y-axis, is stored. The data unit structure forms a partial image by combining the vector pixel, and has a boundary indicator for indicating the boundary of the partial image at the end of the data unit structure. The data portion forms a complete image by combining the data unit, and has a terminator for indicating the termination of the complete image at the end of the data portion. The file generation unit forms the data portion according to a specific command, and generates/stores a computer image file based on the data portion. The data processing unit processes direction indication according to vector information of the image file generated by the file generation unit and forms an image based on the direction indication process. The system can reduce the size of image data to be stored in a computer's storage memory, such as the main memory and a storage disk, image processing speed can be enhanced and data communication time can be shortened.