1. Method for selecting an item in a list of items, the method including the steps of:
dynamically displaying on a screen, adjacent to each other, multiple items from the list of items in a first scrolling zone, wherein the items are scrolled by repeatedly removing items firstly introduced in the first scrolling zone and introducing new items from the list of items into the first scrolling zone;
dynamically displaying on the screen, adjacent to each other, multiple items from the list of items for the first scrolling zone in a second scrolling zone, wherein the items are scrolled by repeatedly removing items firstly introduced in the second scrolling zone and introducing new items from the list of items into the second scrolling zone, and wherein the second scrolling zone is displayed adjacent to the first scrolling zone;
wherein the method further includes the steps of:
presenting a selection area within the first or the second scrolling zone,
accepting a user input as a selection command to select one of the items displayed in the first or second scrolling zone being displayed in the selection area,
accepting a user input as a command to move the selection zone to the respective other scrolling zone, making the respective scrolling zone within which the selection area is presented an elected scrolling zone.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the items in the first and second scrolling zones are complementary items from the list of items.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying step includes displaying each scrolling zone with respective different, contrasting colours for elected arid non-elected scrolling zone.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input for choosing the elected scrolling zone and the selection command are identical, wherein the duration of the user input is used to distinguish between determining the active sub-list and selecting an item.
5. The method of claim 1, further including the step of highlighting the item in the selection area.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the items in the first and second scrolling zones are displayed a first and a second scrolling speed, the elected scrolling zone preferably being scrolled at a lower speed than the not elected scrolling zone.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the scrolling direction andor the scrolling speed of one or more of the scrolling zones are reversed andor altered, respectively, or that the selection area is displaced in or against the scrolling direction upon a user input.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the order of the items in the first andor second scrolling zone is adapted depending on the preceding user selections.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein selected items from the list of items are reproduced several times in the respective scrolling zone during one complete run of all items of the respective sub-list.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the frequency of occurrence of identical items in the first or second scrolling zone is dependent of preceding user selections.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the items out of the list of items that are displayed in the first andor second scrolling zone is deleted or replaced by one or more items out of a second list, depending on the frequency andor time of preceding user selections andor a single user selection of individual items.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the items of the first list of items is linked with at least one item in a second list of items, wherein selection of a linked item of the first list of items effects displaying one or all linked item or items of the second list of items in the first and second scrolling zones.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein the item in the selection area andor the selected item, or the content any of it relates to, is reproduced in an additional area on the screen.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1.-31. (canceled)
32. A data-transferring slip ring system comprising:
a data compressor positioned on a rotating platform, the data compressor having input and output and configured to be operably connectable to and to receive data at the input from a data generator, said data compressor including a predictor unit, an entropy encoder unit, and an error protector unit, wherein said predictor unit, entropy encoder unit, an error protector unit are adapted to be in data-transfer communication with one another;
a data decompressor positioned on a stationary platform and configured to be operably connectable to a target; and
a slip ring operably connecting and configured to transfer data between the output of said data compressor and said data decompressor,
wherein said predictor unit includes means for processing data, received at the input, in groups of data pixels and means for predicting data to be compressed based on (i) F previously stored data frames and (ii) one or more coordinates of data pixels within said data frames expressed as a coordinate vector V encoded as a positive integer;
wherein said entropy encoder unit is adapted to encode the data to be compressed as predicted by the predictor unit; and
wherein said error protection unit is adapted (i) to embed error-protection code into the encoded data to protect one or more of an encoding parameter Kmin, of the Golomb-Rice encoding for which a minimal encoding size is achieved, an index Fmin of a reference data frame, and a coordinate offset vector Vmin corresponding to said reference frame and (ii) to transfer the data with embedded error correction code to the output.
33. A data-transferring slip-ring system comprising:
a data compressor positioned on a rotating platform, the data compressor having input and output and configured to be operably connectable to and to receive data at the input from a data generator, said data compressor including a predictor unit, an entropy encoder unit, and an error protector unit, wherein said predictor unit, entropy encoder unit, an error protector unit are adapted to be in data-transfer communication with one another;
a data decompressor positioned on a stationary platform and configured to be operably connectable to a target; and
a slip ring operably connecting and configured to transfer data between the output of said data compressor and said data decompressor,
wherein said predictor unit includes means for processing data, received at the input, in groups of data pixels and means for predicting data to be compressed based on (i) F data frames previously received by the data compressor and (ii) one or more coordinates of data pixels within said data frames expressed as a coordinate vector V encoded as a positive integer;
wherein said entropy encoder unit is adapted to encode the data to be compressed as predicted by the predictor unit; and
wherein said error protection unit is adapted to transfer the encoded data to the output.
34. A slip-ring system according to claim 33, wherein said error protection unit is further adapted to embed the error-protection code into the encoded data.
35. A slip ring system according to claim 32, wherein the means for prediction of data to be compressed includes means for prediction based on a data frame that precedes the last of F previously stored data frames.
36. A slip-ring system according to claim 32, wherein the means for processing data includes means for one-step processing of groups of pixels associated with a single image row or a single image column.
37. A slip-ring system according to claim 32, wherein
said predictor unit is adapted to select the best prediction per group of data pixels determined by the index Fmin of a reference data frame and the offset vector Vmin within the reference data frame; and
said entropy encoder is adapted to encode the best prediction’s location in history and a difference between the prediction and the incoming data using a set of parameters Kmin and P added into the output data stream. A slip-ring system according to claim 1, wherein said vector V is encoded using Golomb-Rice encoding with a parameter Kv.
38. A slip ring system according to claim 32, wherein the entropy encoder unit is adapted to either encode groups of differences between history and incoming data using Golomb-Rice encoding with a parameter Kmin or transfer non-compressed data to the error protection unit in the event that Golomb-Rice encoding results in more compressed data than non-compressed data.
39. A slip-ring system according to claim 38, wherein said parameter Kmin is different for every group of differences.
40. A slip ring system according to claim 38, wherein the encoding parameter Kmin is encoded with the data it applies to using a minimal encoding indicating that no data compression is used.
41. A slip ring system according to claim 32, wherein the entropy encoder unit is adapted to transfer data in non-compressed format once every S frames.
42. A slip ring system according to claim 41, wherein the entropy encoder unit is adapted to select a subset of data pixel groups for transferring data in non-compressed format by choosing a data pixel group every S groups, where S is a prime number that is not a prime factor of the number of groups in a single data frame.
43. A slip ring system according to claim 32, wherein the predictor unit is adapted to transfer data in a compressed format once every S frames by predicting the incoming data pixels based on a fixed value instead of previously stored frames.
44. A slip ring system according to claim 43, wherein the entropy encoder unit is configured to transfer data in non-compressed format for a subset of data pixel groups within every frame.
45. A slip ring system according to claim 33, wherein said error protector unit is adapted to protect a subset of data being sent with the encoded data by error correction code.
46. A slip ring system according to claim 43, wherein at least one of Kmin, Fmin and Vmin is protected with said error correction code.
47. A data compressor for a data-transferring slip-ring system, the data compressor positioned on a rotating platform, having input and output and configured to be operably connectable to and to receive data at the input from a data generator, said data compressor including a predictor unit, an entropy encoder unit, and an error protector unit, wherein said predictor unit, entropy encoder unit, an error protector unit are adapted to be in data-transfer communication with one another, the slip ring system including
a data decompressor positioned on a stationary platform and configured to be operably connectable to a target; and
a slip ring operably connecting and configured to transfer data between the output of said data compressor and said data decompressor,
wherein said predictor unit includes means for processing data, received at the input, in groups of data pixels and means for predicting data to be compressed based on (i) F previously stored data frames and (ii) one or more coordinates of data pixels within said data frames expressed as a coordinate vector V encoded as a positive integer;
wherein said entropy encoder unit is adapted to encode the data to be compressed as predicted by the predictor unit; and
wherein said error protection unit is adapted (i) to embed error-protection code into the encoded data to protect one or more of an encoding parameter Kmin, of the Golomb-Rice encoding for which a minimal encoding size is achieved, an index Fmin of a reference data frame, and a coordinate offset vector Vmin corresponding to said reference frame and (ii) to transfer the data with embedded error correction code to the output.
48. A data decompressor for a data-transferring slip ring system, the data decompressor positioned on a stationary platform and configured to be operably connectable to a target, the slip ring system including
a data compressor positioned on a rotating platform, the data compressor having input and output and configured to be operably connectable to and to receive data at the input from a data generator, said data compressor including a predictor unit, an entropy encoder unit, and an error protector unit, wherein said predictor unit, entropy encoder unit, an error protector unit are adapted to be in data-transfer communication with one another;
and
a slip ring operably connecting and configured to transfer data between the output of said data compressor and said data decompressor,
wherein said predictor unit includes means for processing data, received at the input, in groups of data pixels and means for predicting data to be compressed based on (i) F previously stored data frames and (ii) one or more coordinates of data pixels within said data frames expressed as a coordinate vector V encoded as a positive integer;
wherein said entropy encoder unit is adapted to encode the data to be compressed as predicted by the predictor unit; and
wherein said error protection unit is adapted (i) to embed error-protection code into the encoded data to protect one or more of an encoding parameter Kmin, of the Golomb-Rice encoding for which a minimal encoding size is achieved, an index Fmin of a reference data frame, and a coordinate offset vector Vmin corresponding to said reference frame and (ii) to transfer the data with embedded error correction code to the output.
49. A computed tomography (CT) scanner comprising a slip ring system according to claim 32, wherein the data compressor is operably connected to a data generator that includes a digital sampler of analog signals received by a signal receiver from an X-ray detector.
50. A method for compressing sampled analog data comprising:
receiving and processing, with a data processing system, data in the form of pixels, said data pixels associated with an image frame and locations within the image frame;
predicting data based on a reference to one or more of F previously stored image frames and one or more of multiple coordinates within such image frames expressed with a vector V that is encoded as a positive integer;
encoding the predicted data with by an entropy encoder; error-protecting at least a part of so encoded data and transferring a subset of encoided data with error correction code including one or more of an encoding parameter Kmin, of the Golomb-Rice encoding for which a minimal encoding size is achieved, an index Fmin of a reference data frame, and a coordinate offset vector Vmin corresponding to said reference frame.
51. A method for compressing sampled analog data comprising:
receiving and processing, with a data processing system, data in the form of pixels associated with a given image frame and locations within the image frame;
predicting data based on a reference to one or more of F previously stored frames and one or more of multiple potential coordinates within such image frames expressed with a vector V that is encoded as a positive integer;
encoding the predicted data with an entropy encoder; and error-protecting at least a part of the encoded data.
52. A method according to claim 50, wherein the means for prediction of data to be compressed includes means for prediction based on a data frame that precedes the last of F previously stored data frames.
53. A method according to claim 50, wherein the means for processing data includes means for one-step processing of groups of pixels associated with a single image row or a single image column.
54. A method according to claim 50, further comprising selecting the best prediction per pixel group and encoding its location in history determined by the reference frame index Fmin and the offset vector within the reference frame Vmin; and
encoding the difference between the prediction and the incoming data using a set of parameters Kmin and P added into the output data stream.
55. A method according to claim 50, wherein said vector V is encoded using Golomb-Rice encoding with a parameter Kv.
56. A method according to claim 50, further comprising encoding either groups of differences received using Golomb-Rice encoding with a parameter Kmin which may be different for every group of differences or forwarding data as is in non-compressed format in the event that Golomb-Rice encoding results in more data than non-compressed data.
57. A method according to claim 56, wherein the parameter Kmin is encoded with the data it applies to using a minimal encoding that also indicates the case where no compression is used.
58. A method according to claim 50, further comprising transferring data in non-compressed format once every S frames.
59. A method according to claim 58, wherein for transferring data in non-compressed format a subset of pixel groups is selected by choosing a pixel group every S groups where S is a prime number that is not a prime factor of the number of groups in a single data frame.
60. A method according to claim 50, wherein data is transferred in a compressed format once every S frames by predicting the incoming data pixels based on a fixed value instead of previously stored frames.
61. A method according to claim 60, further comprising transferring data in non-compressed format for a subset of pixel groups within every frame.
62. A method according to claim 51, further comprising error protecting a subset of data being transferred with the encoded data by an error correction code.
63. A method according to claim 62, further comprising limiting the subset of data being error protected to at least one of Kmin, Fmin and Vmin.