Lossless Image-Compression Algorithm Implemented in an FPGA

A lossless image-compression algorithm that can be executed entirely in electronic hardware has been developed. This algorithm yields about 15 percent more compression than does the Rice algorithm, which is a lossless-compression algorithm commonly used for transmitting images from spacecraft to Earth. A prototype of the hardware (see figure), consisting mainly of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) and a small random-access memory, has been built and verified to function as intended.