Methods for sending and receiving an animation, and associated devices

• US 20050180646A1
• Filed: 02/04/2005
• Published: 08/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Henocq, Xavier, Denoual, Franck
• Granted Patent: US 7,426,305 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/239
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/127 Prioritisation of hardware or computational resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/156 Availability of hardware or computational resources, e.g. encoding based on power-saving criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/187 the unit being a scalable video layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/33 in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/587 involving temporal sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. decimation or subsequent interpolation of pictures in a video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities

Abstract

In a method for sending a key image to be transmitted during a first time interval and a secondary image calculated using the key image and to be transmitted during a second time interval, the key image is defined at least partly by base data and the secondary image is defined by secondary data. The method comprises the following steps: sending the base data during the first time interval; determining enhancement data for said at least one key image according to an available bandwidth and the amount of secondary data to be transmitted; and sending the secondary data and the enhancement data for the key image during the second time interval. A receiving method and associated devices are also described.

Claims

1. A method for sending at least one key image to be transmitted during a first time interval and a secondary image calculated using said at least one key image and to be transmitted during a second time interval, said at least one key image being defined at least partly by base data and the secondary image being defined by secondary data, comprising the steps of:

sending the base data during the first time interval;

determining enhancement data for said at least one key image according to an available bandwidth and the amount of secondary data to be transmitted; and

sending the secondary data and the enhancement data for said at least one key image during the second time interval.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

estimating the available bandwidth during the first time interval in order to determine a first amount of data to be transmitted; and

extracting the base data of the at least one key image so that the size of the base data is less than or equal to said first amount.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said extraction step comprises the following steps:

selecting, by means of a table containing the size of the base data as a function of at least one parameter, at least one value of the parameter such that the size associated by the table is less than or equal to said first amount; and

extracting the base data using at least said value.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

estimating the available bandwidth during the second time interval in order to determine a second amount of data to be transmitted;

determining the available data budget by subtracting the size of the secondary data from said second amount; and

extracting the enhancement data for said at least one key image so that the size of the enhancement data is less than or equal to the available budget.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the secondary data are interpolation parameters.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein a first key image and a second key image are transmitted during the first time interval.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the first key image being intended to be displayed at a first instant, the second key image being intended to be displayed at a second instant separated from the first instant by a first duration, the secondary image being intended to be displayed at a third instant separated from the first instant by a second duration smaller than the first duration, first enhancement data relating to the first key image and second enhancement data relating to the second key image are determined so that the size ratio between the first and second enhancement data depends on the ratio of the second duration to the first duration.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the key images and the secondary images define an animation.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the animation comprises several secondary images between the first key image and the second key image.

10. A method according to claim 1, wherein the images are multi-resolution images with several quality levels.

16. An information storage means which can be read by a computer or a microprocessor, containing instructions of a computer program for executing the steps of the method according to claim 1.

18. A computer program which can be loaded into a programmable apparatus, characterized in that it comprises instruction sequences or portions of software code for implementing the steps of the method according to claim 1, when this computer program is loaded and executed by the programmable apparatus.

11. A method for decoding at least one key image and a secondary image, comprising the steps of:

during a first time interval, receiving base data defining said at least one key image;

decoding the base data so as to generate a first version of said at least one key image;

during a second time interval, receiving enhancement data for said at least one key image and secondary data defining the secondary image using said at least one key image;

combining the base data and the enhancement data into enhanced data; and

decoding the secondary data so as to generate said secondary image using the enhanced data.

12. A decoding method according to claim 11, further comprising, between the steps of decoding the base data and combining the base data and the enhancement data, a step of displaying said first version.

13. A decoding method according to claim 11, further comprising a step of decoding the enhanced data so as to generate a second version of said at least one key image, and in that the decoding of the secondary data so as to generate said secondary image is based on said second version.

17. An information storage means which can be read by a computer or a microprocessor, containing instructions of a computer program for executing the steps of the method according to claim 11.

19. A computer program which can be loaded into a programmable apparatus, characterized in that it comprises instruction sequences or portions of software code for implementing the steps of the method according to claim 11, when this computer program is loaded and executed by the programmable apparatus.

14. A device for sending at least one key image to be transmitted during a first time interval and a secondary image calculated using said at least one key image and to be transmitted during a second time interval, said at least one key image being defined at least partly by base data and the secondary image being defined by secondary data, comprising:

means for sending the base data during the first time interval;

means for determining enhancement data for said at least one key image according to an available bandwidth and the amount of secondary data to be transmitted; and

means for sending the secondary data and the enhancement data for said at least one key image during the second time interval.

15. A device for decoding at least one key image and a secondary image, comprising:

means for receiving, during a first time interval, base data defining said at least one key image;

means for decoding the base data so as to generate a first version of said at least one key image;

means for receiving, during a second time interval, enhancement data for said at least one key image and secondary data defining the secondary image using said at least one key image;

means for combining the base data and the enhancement data into enhanced data; and

means for decoding the secondary data so as to generate said secondary image using the enhanced data.