Image processing apparatus and method thereof

• US 20040057514A1
• Filed: 09/08/2003
• Published: 03/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kishi, Hiroki
• Granted Patent: US 7,702,513 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/127 Prioritisation of hardware or computational resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/129 Scanning of coding units, e.g. zig-zag scan of transform coefficients or flexible macroblock ordering [FMO]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/13 Adaptive entropy coding, e.g. adaptive variable length coding [AVLC] or context adaptive binary arithmetic coding [CABAC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/63 using sub-band based transform, e.g. wavelets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/645 by grouping of coefficients into blocks after the transform
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/647 using significance based coding, e.g. Embedded Zerotrees of Wavelets [EZW] or Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees [SPIHT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards

Abstract

Disclosed are an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of changing a quality of audio data according to a degree of significance of an image. The image processing apparatus includes an image encoding unit for encoding image data inputted, an audio data encoding unit for encoding audio data inputted together with the image data, a significant scene setting unit for setting to encode a part of region of the image with a high image quality, and an audio data encoding setting unit for setting to process the audio data with a high quality in accordance with the setting by the significant scene setting unit.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

image encoding means for encoding image data inputted;

audio data encoding means for encoding audio data inputted together with the image data;

image encoding setting means for setting said image encoding means to encode the image data so that a scene exhibiting a high degree of significance is encoded with a high image quality; and

audio data encoding setting means for setting said audio data encoding means to process the audio data in accordance with the setting by said image encoding setting means so that the audio data is processed with a high acoustic quality.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image encoding setting means is capable of setting selectively a part of region in each of arbitrary n (where n is an integer equal to or larger than 1) frame images of a moving image composed of the image data so that this partial region exhibits a high image quality, and

wherein said audio data encoding setting means processes the audio data corresponding to a period of the frame images in which the setting is done by said image encoding setting means so that the audio data exhibit a high acoustic quality.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said audio data encoding means executes compression-encoding in accordance with the setting by said audio data encoding setting means to set a larger amount of codes to be assigned during the period for which the audio data are processed with the high acoustic quality than during other period for which the audio data are not processed with the high acoustic quality.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said audio data encoding means invalidates in accordance with the setting by said audio data encoding setting means, the compression-encoding of the audio data during the period for which the audio data are processed with the high acoustic quality.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said audio data encoding means includes a plurality of audio data encoding circuits and executes the compression-encoding processing by adaptively switching over said plurality of audio data encoding circuits in accordance with the inputted audio data during the period for which the audio data are processed with the high acoustic quality in accordance with the setting by said audio data encoding setting means.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image encoding setting means makes the setting so as to encode a region, with the high image quality, including an arbitrary object in the image data.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said image encoding setting means makes ROI setting of the region including the arbitrary object, and

wherein said image encoding means executes ROI encoding.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image encoding setting means makes the setting so as to encode a partial region of the image data with the high image quality in accordance with a user'"'"'s instruction for designating a degree of significance of the image.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said image encoding setting means makes the ROI setting in accordance with the user'"'"'s instruction, and

wherein said image encoding means executes the ROI encoding.

10. An image processing method comprising:

an image encoding step of inputting a moving image and encoding image data thereof;

an audio data encoding step of encoding audio data inputted together with the moving image;

an image encoding setting step of setting said image encoding step to encode, with a high image quality, a partial region of each of frame images forming the moving image; and

an audio data encoding setting step of setting said audio data encoding step to process the audio data with a high definition in accordance with the setting in said image encoding setting step.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said image encoding setting step is capable of selectively setting, with a high image quality, a part of region in each of arbitrary n (where n is an integer equal to or larger than 1) frame images of the moving image, and includes setting so as to process the audio data, with a high acoustic quality, corresponding to a period of the frame images in which the setting is done in said image encoding setting step.

12. A method according to claim 10, wherein said audio data encoding step includes executing compression-encoding in accordance with the setting in said audio data encoding setting step to set a larger amount of codes to be assigned during the period for which the audio data are processed with the high acoustic quality than during other period for which the audio data are not processed with the high acoustic quality.

13. A method according to claim 10, wherein said audio data encoding step includes invalidating in accordance with the setting in said audio data encoding setting step, the compression-encoding of the audio data during the period for which the audio data are processed with the high acoustic quality.

14. A method according to claim 10, wherein said audio data encoding step includes executing the compression-encoding processing by adaptively using a plurality of audio data encoding methods in accordance with the inputted audio data during the period for which the audio data are processed with the high acoustic quality in accordance with the setting in said audio data encoding setting step.

15. A method according to claim 10, wherein said image encoding setting step involves setting so as to encode a region, with the high image quality including an arbitrary object in the image data.

16. A method according to claim 15, wherein said image encoding setting step involves making ROI setting of the region including the arbitrary object, and

wherein said image encoding step includes executing ROI encoding.

17. A method according to claim 10, wherein said image encoding setting step includes setting so as to encode a partial region of the image data with the high image quality in accordance with a user'"'"'s instruction for designating a degree of significance of the image.

18. An apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said image encoding setting step includes making the ROI setting in accordance with the user'"'"'s instruction, and

wherein said image encoding step includes executing the ROI encoding.

19. A storage medium storing a program executable by a data processing apparatus, said program including program codes for realizing an image processing method described in claim 10.

20. A storage medium storing a program executable by a data processing apparatus, said program including program codes for realizing an image processing method described in claim 11.