Method, apparatus, and system for encoding and decoding side information for multimedia transmission

• US 20040194008A1
• Filed: 03/24/2003
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Garudadri, Harinath, Ramchandran, Kannan
• Granted Patent: US 7,643,558 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/821
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/29 combining two or more codes or code structures, e.g. product codes, generalised product codes, concatenated codes, inner and outer codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/6513 Support of multiple code types, e.g. unified decoder for LDPC and turbo codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/37 with arrangements for assigning different transmission priorities to video input data or to video coded data

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method and apparatus is provided in which input data (e.g., input video data) is encoded in accordance with a first coding standard (e.g., MPEG-4) to generate encoded data. The input data is also encoded based on a reconstruction of the input data to generate encoded side information associated with the input data. The encoded data are transmitted to a destination (e.g., a decoding subsystem) over a first channel and the encoded side information are transmitted to the destination over a second channel. The encoded data and the encoded side information are decoded and combined at the destination to generate output data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

encoding input data in accordance with a first encoding standard to generate encoded data;

encoding the input data based on a reconstruction of the input data to generate encoded side data; and

transmitting the encoded data over a first channel and the encoded side data over a second channel to a destination.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first encoding standard is a standard compatible with MPEG-4 standard.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first encoding standard is a standard compatible with H.263 standard.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the input data comprises video data.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein each frame of the input data to be encoded is divided into non-overlapping spatial blocks of pixels.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein encoding the input data based on the reconstruction of the input data comprises:

classifying blocks of the input data based on their correlation with a reconstruction of a current frame of the input data.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein a block is classified based on energy differences between the respective block and a reconstructed block in the same location.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein a particular class corresponds to a particular degree of correlation.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

quantizing the input data to generate a set of quantized codewords corresponding to the input data.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein a quantizing parameter used to quantize the input data is determined based on statistics of residual data corresponding to a difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the input data.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the residual data comprises prediction error information generated from the encoding of the input data.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

performing a syndrome coding process with respect to the quantized codewords to generate encoded side data.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the encoded side data generated is further refined through a refinement quantization process.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

adding an error protection code to the encoded side data.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

decoding the encoded data at the destination to generate reconstructed data; and

decoding the encoded side data at the destination to generate reconstructed side data.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

combining the reconstructed data and the reconstructed side data to generate output data.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein decoding the encoded side data comprises:

performing a motion search process if motion information received on the first channel contain errors.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein decoding the encoded side data comprises:

performing a syndrome decoding process to recover quantized codewords corresponding to the encoded side data received from the second channel.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a first encoder to receive input data and to encode the input data in accordance with a first coding standard to generate encoded data for transmission over a first channel; and

a second encoder to receive the input data and a reconstruction of the input data from the first encoder, the second encoder to encode the input data based, at least in part, on the reconstruction of the input data to generate encoded side data for transmission over a second channel.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the first coding standard is compatible with MPEG-4 standard.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the first coding standard is compatible with H.263 standard.

22. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the input data comprises video data.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein each frame of the input data to be encoded is divided into non-overlapping spatial blocks of pixels.

24. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the second encoder comprises:

a classification unit to classify blocks of the input data based on their correlation with a reconstruction of a current frame of the input data.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein a block of the input data is classified based on energy differences between the respective block and a reconstructed block in the same location.

26. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein a particular class corresponds to a particular degree of correlation.

27. The apparatus of claim 24 further comprising:

a quantization unit to quantize the input data to generate a set of quantized codewords corresponding to the input data.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein a quantizing parameter used to quantize the input data is determined based on statistics of residual data corresponding to a difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the input data.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the residual data comprises prediction error information generated from the encoding of the input data.

30. The apparatus of claim 27 further comprising:

a syndrome coding unit to perform syndrome coding with respect to the quantized codewords to generate encoded side data.

31. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein the encoded side data generated is further refined through a refinement quantization process.

32. The apparatus of claim 30 further comprising:

an error protection unit to add an error protection code to the encoded side data.

33. An apparatus comprising:

a first decoder to decode encoded data received on a first channel;

a second decoder to decode encoded side data received on a second channel; and

a combination unit to combine the data generated from the first encoder and data generated from the second decoder to generate output data.

34. The apparatus of claim 33 further comprising:

a motion search unit to perform motion search operations if motion information received on the first channel contain errors.

35. The apparatus of claim 33 wherein the second decoder comprises:

a syndrome decoding unit to recover quantized codewords corresponding to the encoded side data received on the second channel.

36. A system comprising:

a first encoder to receive input data and to encode the input data in accordance with a first coding standard to generate encoded data for transmission over a first channel;

a second encoder to receive the input data and a reconstruction of the input data from the first encoder, the second encoder to encode the input data based, at least in part, on the reconstruction of the input data to generate encoded side data for transmission over a second channel;

a first decoder to decode encoded data received on the first channel; and

a second decoder to decode encoded side data received on the second channel.

37. The system of claim 36 further comprising:

a combination unit to combine the data generated from the first encoder and data generated from the second decoder to generate output data.

38. The system of claim 36 wherein the second encoder comprises:

a classification unit to classify blocks of the input data based on their correlation with a reconstruction of a current frame of the input data;

a quantization unit to quantize the input data to generate a set of quantized codewords corresponding to the input data; and

a syndrome coding unit to perform syndrome coding with respect to the quantized codewords to generate encoded side data.

39. The system of claim 36 wherein the second decoder comprises:

a motion search unit to perform motion search operations if motion information received on the first channel contain errors.

40. The system of claim 36 wherein the second decoder comprises:

a syndrome decoding unit to recover quantized codewords corresponding to the encoded side data received on the second channel.

45. The machine-readable medium of claim 40 further comprising:

decoding the encoded data at the destination to generate reconstructed data; and

decoding the encoded side data at the destination to generate reconstructed side data.

46. The machine-readable medium of claim 45 further comprising:

combining the reconstructed data and the reconstructed side data to generate output data.

41. A machine-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including:

encoding input data in accordance with a first encoding standard to generate encoded data;

encoding the input data based on a reconstruction of the input data to generate encoded side data; and

transmitting the encoded data over a first channel and the encoded side data over a second channel to a destination.

42. The machine-readable medium of claim 41 wherein encoding the input data based on the reconstruction of the input data comprises:

classifying blocks of the input data based on their correlation with a reconstruction of a current frame of the input data.

43. The machine-readable medium of claim 42 further comprising:

quantizing the input data to generate a set of quantized codewords corresponding to the input data.

44. The machine-readable medium of claim 43 further comprising:

performing a syndrome coding process with respect to the quantized codewords to generate encoded side data.