Efficient encoding and rapid decoding for interactive visualization of large three‐dimensional hyperspectral chemical images

Interactive visualization of data from a new generation of chemical imaging systems requires coding that is efficient and accessible. New technologies for secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) generate large three‐dimensional, hyperspectral datasets with high spatial and spectral resolution. Interactive visualization is important for chemical analysis, but the raw dataset size exceeds the memory capacities of typical current computer systems and is a significant obstacle. This paper reports the development of a lossless coding method that is memory efficient, enabling large SIMS datasets to be held in fast memory, and supports quick access for interactive visualization. The approach provides pixel indexing, as required for chemical imaging applications, and is based on the statistical characteristics of the data. The method uses differential time‐of‐flight to effect mass‐spectral run‐length‐encoding and uses a scheme for variable‐length, byte‐unit representations for both mass‐spectral time‐of‐flight and intensity values. Experiments demonstrate high compression rates and fast access. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.