Method and assembly used for vector transfer

1. A computer program stored in memory, executable by a processor to perform a method of transmitting a vector having at least two vector components, each of which describes a frequency, the method comprising:

calculating each vector component as a bit number with a varying number of bit levels, wherein each of the bit levels has an assigned priority that is applied throughout each of the at least two vector components;

assigning an order to the at least two vector components;

encoding the vector as a bit stream by appending individual bits from the bit numbers, starting with bits belonging to a highest priority level and incrementally moving down a priority level until a lowest priority level is reached, wherein an order of the appended bits within any particular priority level is the same as the order of the at least two vector components; and transmitting the bit stream.

2. The computer program as defined in claim 1 wherein the vector is a coefficient vector with coefficients determined by a transformation.

3. The computer program as defined in claim 2 further comprising:

quantizing the coefficient vector.

4. The computer program as defined in claim 1 wherein the vector represents a histogram.

5. The computer program as defined in claim 4 wherein the histogram describes a frequency distribution, color distribution or brightness distribution of a digitized image.

6. The computer program as defined in claim 5 further comprising:

ordering the at least two components based on a value of each bit number, wherein each value represents a frequency of a specific color range or brightness range, and wherein components having smaller frequencies are assigned an earlier order than components having larger frequencies.

7. The computer program as defined in claim 1 wherein a predetermined number of bit levels are encoded.

8. An apparatus for transmitting a vector having at least two vector components, each of which describes a frequency, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to:

calculate each of the at least two vector components as a respective bit number having a varying number of bit levels, wherein each of the bit levels has an assigned priority that is applied throughout each of the at least two vector components,

assign an order to the at least two vector components, and

encode the vector as a bit stream by appending individual bits from the bit numbers, starting with bits belonging to a highest priority level and incrementally moving down a priority level until a lowest priority level is reached, wherein an order of the appended bits within any particular priority level is the same as the order of the at least two vector components; and

a unit for transmitting the bit stream.

9. A computer program stored in memory, executable by a processor to perform a method of transmitting a vector having at least two vector components, each of which describes a frequency, the method comprising:

calculating each vector component as a bit number with a varying number of bit levels, wherein: each of the bit levels has an assigned priority, the bit numbers include bits belonging to the same priority level as bits from other ones of the bit numbers, and some of the bit numbers include at least one bit belonging to a different priority level than the bits of any other bit number; assigning an order to the at least two vector components; encoding the vector as a bit stream by appending individual bits from the bit numbers, starting with bits belonging to a highest priority level and incrementally moving down a priority level until a lowest priority level is reached, wherein an order of the appended bits within any particular priority level is the same as the order of the at least two vector components; and transmitting the bit stream.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 8 , wherein:

the vector represents a histogram;

the histogram describes a frequency distribution, color distribution or brightness distribution of a digitized image; and

the processor is configured to order the at least two components based on a value of each bit number, wherein each value represents a frequency of a specific color range or brightness range, and wherein components having smaller frequencies are assigned an earlier order than components having larger frequencies.

11. The computer program as defined in claim 9 , wherein:

the vector represents a histogram;

the histogram describes a frequency distribution, color distribution or brightness distribution of a digitized image; and

the method further comprises ordering the at least two components based on a value of each bit number, wherein each value represents a frequency of a specific color range or brightness range, and wherein components having smaller frequencies are assigned an earlier order than components having larger frequencies.