Method and apparatus for run-length encoding using special long-run codes

Magnitudes of runs of constant signal value in signals representative of physical activities or objects are determined. The signals are converted to fixed-length run-length (RL) codes, wherein each long run in the signals that is longer than the largest run length represented by a single RL code is represented by at least one no-change RL code and an RL code representing a remainder value, wherein the no-change RL code represents a portion of the long run and also indicates that the immediately following RL code corresponds to a continuation of the long run. In a preferred embodiment, binary images are run-length encoded and the resulting run-length codes are subjected to variable-length encoding using structured Huffman tables.