Onboard Image Processing Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
- 30.4% concentration at the top. The five most-active assignees hold 268 of the 883 records in scope — a leader at 97 filings with a long tail behind it.
- Filing activity is still climbing. From 2021 to 2024, filings rose from 14 to 22 across the leading assignee's output — a 57% increase over that three-year span.
- H04N dominates, G06V and G10L barely register. 70.1% of records touch pictorial communication coding, but image/video recognition (4.8%) and speech/audio (2.6%) are thin by comparison.
Filing growth compares 2021 (14 records) with 2024 (22) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 883 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
What this landscape covers
Onboard image processing and data compression sits at the intersection of payload engineering and coding theory: satellites, drones and edge cameras that must compress imagery before it reaches a downlink or storage bus. The search scope spans 883 published records from 2015 through mid-2026, combining terms for onboard compression and processing with the specific coding mechanisms — wavelet transforms, rate-distortion optimisation, bit-error resilience — that separate a patentable technique from a generic pipeline description. Patent families, not raw document counts, are the fairer comparison unit here, since continuation filings and multi-jurisdiction duplicates can otherwise inflate a single invention’s footprint.
The data points to a field still anchored by decades-old coding fundamentals — the most-cited records date to the mid-1990s — while filing volume has kept growing into the 2020s. Publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so the final one or two years in any chart will look thinner than the underlying filing activity actually was.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 883 records: how filing volume has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses carry the claim density.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose from 21 in 2017 to a peak of 44 in 2019, before settling into a lower but still-active band; the leading assignee's own filings grew from 14 in 2021 to 22 in 2024, a 57% increase over that span. The final years in the chart are undercounted because of publication lag, not falling demand.
IPC subclass composition
H04N (pictorial communication) covers 70.1% of the 883 records, with G06T (image data processing, 38.2%) and H03M (coding and code conversion, 25.1%) as the next-heaviest subclasses. G06V (image/video recognition, 4.8%) and G10L/H04L (each 2.6%) are comparatively open — a record can carry several classes, so these shares add to more than 100%.
Shares are the percentage of the 883 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Onboard Image Processing and Data Compression with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about onboard image processing and data compression and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaKey patents shaping the field
Discrete wavelet transform system architecture design using filterbank factorization
Techniques to overlap states for efficient multilevel wavelet decompositions to reduce memory and delay in discrete wavelet transform in a block-by-block fashion. The input data is segmented into blocks and each block is processed separately, either sequentially or in parallel. Results of partially completed computations in each block is saved and used to complete computations in an adjacent block.Filed by the University of Southern California; granted 2004-06-29 as US6757343B1.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5253078A | System for compression and decompression of video data using discrete cosine transform and coding techniques | 318 |
| 2 | US5867602A | Reversible wavelet transform and embedded codestream manipulation | 296 |
| 3 | US5748786A | Apparatus for compression using reversible embedded wavelets | 278 |
| 4 | US5850482A | Error resilient method and apparatus for entropy coding | 272 |
| 5 | US5764374A | System and method for lossless image compression having improved sequential determination of golomb parameter | 254 |
| 6 | US20030214502A1 | Apparatus and method for depth image-based representation of 3-dimensional object | 251 |
| 7 | US6011905A | Using fontless structured document image representations to render displayed and printed documents at preferr… | 250 |
| 8 | US5966465A | Compression/decompression using reversible embedded wavelets | 233 |
| 9 | US6195465B1 | Method and apparatus for compression using reversible wavelet transforms and an embedded codestream | 232 |
| 10 | US20150371431A1 | Methods for analyzing and compressing multiple images | 209 |
Citation counts favour older filings simply because they have had longer to accumulate citations inside this corpus — read them as a signal of influence on the field's vocabulary, not as a ranking of current relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns in the data matter more than the raw counts on their own.
A leader with room behind it
The leading assignee holds 97 filings against a fifth-place figure of 25 and a tenth-place figure of 15 — concentration at the very top, but the drop-off after the leader is steep enough that the middle of the ranking is contestable rather than locked up.
Momentum is real, not historical residue
The +57% rise from 14 to 22 filings between 2021 and 2024 sits inside the window the dataset can treat as complete, which means recent filing pressure is genuine rather than an artefact of older peaks like 2019's 44.
The prior art anchor is decades old
The most-cited record in scope describes DCT-based video compression from the early 1990s; wavelet and entropy-coding patents from the same era round out the top five most-cited records, meaning any new filing in core transform coding is arguing against thirty-year-old foundational claims.
Recognition and audio are thin
Image/video recognition (G06V) and speech/audio analysis (G10L) each cover under 5% of records despite onboard systems increasingly needing both — a gap between what payloads are starting to do and what the filed claim space actually protects.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to onboard image processing and data compression, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the gate sits
The ranked list of 100 companies shows a familiar shape: one clear leader, a mid-tier of consumer electronics and telecom names, and a long tail of single- or few-filing entrants.
A single dominant filer
The top assignee's filing count is nearly four times the fifth-place figure of 25, built on a strong internal co-assignee relationship between its Japan and US entities (18 shared filings) — a sign of a coordinated global filing strategy rather than opportunistic single filings.
Consumer electronics and telecom crowd the middle
Names spanning smartphone makers, network infrastructure vendors and imaging specialists occupy the 5th-to-10th band, together accounting for 42.7% of all 883 records when combined with the top five — this is where competitive filing pressure is most direct.
Many single-purpose entrants
Below the ranked leaders sits a long tail of universities, defence contractors and smaller imaging firms filing narrowly on specific compression mechanisms — exactly where the University of Southern California's wavelet architecture patent sits, a single influential filing rather than part of a filing programme.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Ricoh Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Microsoft Corporation | 0 | — |
| Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC | 0 | — |
| EDGY BEES LTD | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC | 0 | — |
| Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ) | 0 | — |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The landscape points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is defensive clearance or offensive filing.
Run a freedom-to-operate check on the gate chips
The under-claimed sub-areas identified from IPC composition are a starting point, not a conclusion — each needs a targeted search against the specific claim language of records in that subclass before a filing decision is made.
Check freedom to operate in EurekaMap the co-assignee network before approaching a partner
The strongest co-assignee pair in this dataset reflects a coordinated multi-entity filing strategy; understanding who files jointly with whom clarifies where a licensing or partnership conversation is likely to land.
Explore assignee networks in EurekaTrack the leading assignee's next filing wave
With momentum data showing 0 filings in the latest year across several major assignees, the honest read is publication lag rather than a slowdown — worth revisiting this trend once the 2025-2026 window fills in.
Set up filing alerts in EurekaCommon questions on this landscape
This dataset contains 883 published records matching onboard image compression and processing terms, filed between 2015 and mid-2026. That figure counts patent families rather than raw document duplicates, so it reflects distinct inventions rather than every jurisdictional filing of the same invention. The number will grow as 2025-2026 filings continue to publish, since publication typically lags filing by roughly 18 months.
Filing activity is concentrated at the top: the leading assignee holds 97 records, nearly four times the fifth-place count of 25, and the top five assignees combined account for 30.4% of all 883 records in scope. Behind that leader sits a broad mid-tier of consumer electronics, telecom and imaging companies, then a long tail of universities and smaller firms filing on narrow mechanisms. No single competitor outside the leader controls more than a modest slice of the field.
Filing volume is growing in the years the dataset can treat as complete: the leading assignee's own filings rose from 14 in 2021 to 22 in 2024, a 57% increase. The overall trend peaked at 44 filings in 2019 and has moved in a lower but still-active band since, and the apparent drop in 2025-2026 is a publication-lag artefact rather than a genuine slowdown, since recent filings have not all published yet.
Pictorial communication coding (H04N) is the heaviest subclass, touching 70.1% of the 883 records, followed by image data processing (G06T, 38.2%) and coding/code conversion (H03M, 25.1%). Image and video recognition (G06V, 4.8%) and speech/audio analysis (G10L, 2.6%) are comparatively thin, suggesting claim space there is less occupied relative to where onboard systems are functionally heading. A record can carry more than one class, so these percentages do not sum to 100%.
US6757343B1, filed by the University of Southern California and granted in 2004, covers a discrete wavelet transform architecture that overlaps computational states across data blocks to reduce memory use and delay in multilevel wavelet decomposition. It matters because block-by-block wavelet processing is a common technique for onboard systems working under tight memory budgets, and any implementation using overlapped-state block processing for DWT should be checked against its claims. It is one representative filing among several foundational transform-coding patents in this space, most of which date to the 1990s and 2000s.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.