Methods and systems for high dynamic range video coding

• US 20070201560A1
• Filed: 02/24/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kerofsky, Louis Joseph, Segall, Christopher A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,014,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.240
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/184 the unit being bits, e.g. of the compressed video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/36 Scalability techniques involving formatting the layers as a function of picture distortion after decoding, e.g. signal-to-noise [SNR] scalability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention comprise methods and systems for high dynamic range video coding.

Claims

1. A method for encoding video data, said method comprising:

a) receiving a high dynamic range (HDR) image sequence;

b) creating a standard dynamic range (SDR) image sequence from said HDR sequence;

c) encoding said SDR image sequence with an SDR encoder;

d) transmitting said encoded SDR sequence to a recipient;

e) decoding said encoded SDR sequence;

f) inverse tone mapping said decoded SDR sequence to form a decoded HDR sequence;

g) combining said decoded SDR sequence data, said decoded HDR sequence data and said HDR image sequence to form HDR residual data; and

h) transmitting said HDR residual data to said recipient.

2. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said transmitting comprises storing said encoded SDR sequence and said HDR residual data on a storage device.

3. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said SDR encoder is an MPEG-2 encoder.

4. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said SDR encoder is an H.264 encoder.

5. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said transmitting said encoded SDR sequence and said transmitting said HDR residual data are multiplexed in a single transmission.

6. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said encoded SDR sequence may be decoded independently of said HDR residual data.

7. A method as described in claim 1 wherein said combining comprises finding a residual difference between the combination of decoded SDR image sequence and decoded HDR image sequence and the HDR image sequence.

8. A method for decoding video data, said method comprising:

a) receiving an encoded standard dynamic range (SDR) sequence and high dynamic range (HDR) residual data; and

b) decoding said SDR sequence independently of said HDR residual data.

9. A method as described in claim 8 further comprising decoding said HDR residual data.

10. A method as described in claim 8 further comprising inverse tone mapping of said SDR sequence.

11. A method as described in claim 9 further comprising inverse tone mapping of said SDR sequence and combining said inverse tone mapped encoded SDR sequence with said decoded HDR residual data to form HDR display data.

12. A method as described in claim 8 further comprising motion prediction.

13. A method as described in claim 9 further comprising motion prediction.

14. A video codec, said codec comprising:

a) a receiver for receiving a high dynamic range (HDR) image sequence;

b) an SDR tone map for creating a standard dynamic range (SDR) image sequence from said HDR image sequence;

c) an SDR encoder for encoding said SDR image sequence;

d) a decoder for decoding said encoded SDR sequence;

e) an inverse tone map for converting said decoded SDR sequence into a decoded HDR sequence;

f) an HDR residual encoder for combining said decoded SDR sequence data, said decoded HDR sequence data and said decoded HDR image sequence to form HDR residual data; and

g) a transmitter for transmitting said encoded SDR sequence and said HDR residual data to a destination.

15. A video codec, said codec comprising:

a) a receiver for receiving an encoded SDR sequence and high dynamic range (HDR) residual data;

b) an SDR decoder for decoding SDR image data from said SDR sequence;

c) an HDR inverse tone map for creating an estimated HDR sequence from said decoded SDR image data;

d) an HDR residual decoder for decoding residual data from the HDR residual data; and

e) a combiner for combining said estimate HDR sequence and said decoded HDR residual data.