Method and apparatus for processing video data

1. A method for diagonal processing of video data comprising:

separating diagonally arranged data from rectilinearly arranged data in a video stream with a digital processor;

rotating said diagonally arranged data to a rectilinear position with said digital processor; and

compressing said rotated diagonally arranged data by a rectilinear compression algorithm executing on said digital processor.

2. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 1 further comprising performing a gamma correction on said video stream before separating diagonally arranged data.

3. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 2 wherein rotating said diagonally arranged data includes feeding said diagonally arranged data through an address generator.

4. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 1 wherein said rectilinear compression algorithm is at least one of a DCT compression and a wavelet compression.

5. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 4 further comprising performing additional compression on the output of the rectilinear compression algorithm.

6. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 1 wherein said method is implemented with program instructions stored in non-transitory digital processor readable media.

7. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 1 wherein said digital processor forms a part of an integrated circuit.

8. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 7 wherein said integrated circuit forms a part of a camera module.

9. A method for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 8 wherein said camera module further includes a printed circuit board supporting said integrated circuit, a video sensor, and a lens assembly aligned with said video sensor.

10. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data comprising:

a demultiplexer receptive to a video stream and developing a plurality of separated color planes, at least one of which is a rectilinear color plane and at least one of which is a rotated color plane;

a number of address generators associated with said plurality of color planes, wherein an address generator associated with said rotated color plane is operative to rotate said rotated color plane to a rectilinear position; and

a data compressor receptive to said address generators and operative to compress said plurality of color planes with a rectilinear compression algorithm.

11. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 10 further comprising:

a gamma corrector receptive to said video stream to perform a gamma correction on said video stream prior to inputting said video stream into said demultiplexer.

12. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 11 wherein said color planes are red, green, and blue color planes, and wherein said rotated color plane is said green color plane.

13. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 12 wherein said data compressor is one of a DCT compressor and a wavelet compressor.

14. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 10 further comprising at least one additional compressor further compressing the output of said data compressor.

15. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 10 further comprising a video sensor array for developing said video stream.

16. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 15 further comprising optics for directing an image to said video sensor array.

17. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 16 further comprising a bus interface receptive to data from said data compressor.

18. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 17 further comprising a digital processing system coupled to said bus interface.

19. An apparatus for diagonal processing of video data as recited in claim 18 wherein said digital processing system is a personal computer system.

20. A method for processing of video data comprising:

recognizing diagonally arranged data in a video stream with a digital processor;

processing said diagonally arranged data into rectilinear data with said digital processor; and

compressing said rectilinear data by a rectilinear compression algorithm executing on said digital processor.