Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!kl-cs!nott-cs!chelgraph!bill
From: bill@chelgraph.CO.UK (bill davy)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Chelgraph Patent Application
Message-ID: <469@xchelsys.chelgraph.CO.UK>
Date: 1 Mar 90 09:38:17 GMT
Sender: root@cs.nott.ac.uk
Reply-To: bill@chelgraph.CO.UK (bill davy)
Organization: Chelgraph Ltd, Cheltenham, UK.
Lines: 39

>	
>	Path: chelgraph!nott-cs!ukc!mcsun!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!apple!voder!pyramid!leadsv!cberg
>	From: cberg@leadsv.UUCP (Charles R Berg)
>	Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
>	Subject: Re: Chelgraph patent on compression...
>	Message-ID: <10100@leadsv.UUCP>
>	Date: 27 Feb 90 20:41:21 GMT
>	References: <8167@lindy.Stanford.EDU> <120@xchelsys.chelgraph.CO.UK>
>	Reply-To: cberg@leadsv.LEADS.LMSC.COM.UUCP (Charles R Berg)
>	Organization: LMSC-LEADS, Sunnyvale, Ca.
>	Lines: 7
>	
>	In article <120@xchelsys.chelgraph.CO.UK> bill@xchelsys.UUCP (bill davy)
>	writes:
>	>Chelgraph has a patent on compression to/from disc for bitmap output
>	>devices.
>	
>	Would you care to elaborate on this?  I mean, without revealing your
>	proprietary technology, what exactly have you patented?

        THIS REPLY IS ENTIRELY MY PERSONAL VIEW

Very briefly, our British Patent Application No 8900368.5 "Bit Map
Compression" observes that a given compression can be -guaranteed-
by using some form of lossy compression, and hence lower speed and
smaller disc drives (or other means etc) can be used; the invention
is to apply this to bitmap compression for high resolution output,
where the losses are not significant.

The problem we face is to get realistic performance for typesetters,
especially as we move into colour.  The highest resolution we
currently drive is 3048 dpi, and the bitmaps were getting kind of
large.

Frankly, I abhor patents; if you're smart enough to invent, then you
should be smart enough to exploit (directly or indirectly).  But we
get hassled too (remember the Linotron 202 for example), and it
would be nice to see the royalties flow in the other direction, for
a change.