Coding Scheme Enabling Precision-Scalability

• US 20080002767A1
• Filed: 09/12/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Inventors: Wiegand, Thomas, Schwarz, Heiko, Hinz, Tobias
• Granted Patent: US 8,428,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/112 according to a given display mode, e.g. for interlaced or progressive display mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/147 according to rate distortion criteria rate-distortion as a criterion for motion estimation H04N19/567
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/174 the region being a slice, e.g. a line of blocks or a group of blocks
• 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 19/34 Scalability techniques involving progressive bit-plane based encoding of the enhancement layer, e.g. fine granular scalability [FGS]
• 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

Abstract

An improved coding efficiency is achieved by giving the encoder the opportunity to change the field/frame-wise treatment of individual picture portions between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data, with the second precision being higher than the first precision.

Claims

1. A decoder for decoding an encoded precision-scalable data stream encoding a predetermined picture, the encoded precision-scalable data stream including first precision-encoded data having the predetermined picture encoded therein with a first precision by treating a predetermined portion of the predetermined picture a first one of frame-wise and field-wise, higher precision information representing second precision encoded data having the predetermined portion encoded therein with a second precision higher than the first precision by treating the predetermined portion a second one of frame-wise and field-wise, or refinement information enabling refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data, and indication information indicating an absence or existence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data, the decoder comprising:

a checker for checking the indication information as to whether same indicates a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of the predetermined portion between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data;

an arranger for, if the indication information indicate the frame-/field-wise treatment change, disregarding, at least partially, the first precision-encoded data with respect to the predetermined portion and arranging, instead, the second precision-encoded data as data for decoding, or, based on the higher precision information, refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data and arranging the obtained second precision-encoded data as data for decoding; and

a decoder for decoding the arranged data for decoding by treating the predetermined portion of the predetermined picture the one of frame-wise or field-wise to reconstruct the predetermined picture with the second precision.

2. The decoder according to claim 1, further comprising a parser for parsing the encoded precision-scalable data stream to realize the first precision-encoded data and the higher precision information.

3. The decoder according to claim 2, wherein the parser is adapted to perform the parsing of the higher precision information depending on the indication information.

4. The decoder according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined picture is part of a video picture sequence and the decoder is adapted to extract motion information and respective residual information for the predetermined portion from the data for decoding, apply the motion information to reconstructed reference pictures to obtain a motion-compensated prediction for the predetermined portion, and reconstruct the predetermined portion based on the motion-compensated prediction and the residual information.

5. The decoder according to claim 4, wherein the decoder is adapted to perform an inverse spectral decomposition to extract the residual information.

6. The decoder according to claim 4, wherein the decoder is adapted to perform the application of the motion information and the reconstruction of the predetermined portion dependent on the indication information.

7. The decoder according to claim 1, wherein the arranger is adapted to disregard the second precision-encoded data and arrange the first precision-encoded data as data for decoding if an instruction to the decoder signals that the predetermined picture is to be reconstructed merely in the first precision.

8. The decoder according to claim 1, wherein the arranger is adapted to, if the indication information indicate the absence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of the predetermined portion between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data, check refinement change information in the encoded precision-scalable data stream as to whether the first precision-encoded data is to be refined with respect to the predetermined portion or not, and, depending on the check result, keep the first precision-encoded data as the data to be decoded with respect to the predetermined portion or refine, based on the high precision information, the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data and arrange the obtained second precision-encoded data as the data to be decoded.

9. The decoder according to claim 1, wherein the indication information is signaled by a first syntax element associated with said predetermined portion and the predetermined picture comprises another predetermined portion, wherein the higher precision information lacks any second syntax element associated with said other portion for signaling an absence or an existence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment with respect to the other predetermined portion, wherein the checker is adapted to infer a value of the second syntax element by use of already checked syntax elements in the higher precision information.

10. The decoder according to claim 1, further comprising a second checker for, if the indication information indicates the absence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment with respect to the predetermined portion, checking a subordinate information in the higher precision information as to whether the second precision-encoded data includes motion information and/or residual information, and as to whether the second precision-encoded data is to replace the first precision-encoded data with respect to the predetermined portion or the second precision-encoded data is dedicated for refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data, to obtain a check result, wherein the arranger is adapted to perform the disregarding and arranging or the refining and arranging with respect to the motion and/or residual information dependent on the check result.

11. The decoder according to claim 1, wherein the second precision-encoded data comprises transform coefficient levels of a transform coefficient matrix representing a motion-compensated residual of at least a portion of the predetermined portion, and wherein the parser is arranged to associate the transform coefficient levels to transform coefficients of the transform coefficient matrix according to their order of occurrence in the encoded precision-scalable data stream and a scan order among the transform coefficients, which is equal to one of a first and a second scan order different to the first scan order, dependent on the indication information.

12. The decoder according to claim 11, wherein the arranging and decoder are adapted to, if the indication information indicates the presence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of the predetermined portion, apply an inverse transform to the transform matrix to obtain the motion-compensated residual, combine the motion-compensated residual with a field- or frame-wise portion of a reconstructed reference picture displaced from the predetermined portion by motion information indicated in the higher precision information or the first precision-encoded data to obtain a candidate reconstructed picture that is equal to the reconstructed picture in case of the second one of the frame-wise and field-wise being frame-wise, and, if the second one of the frame-wise and field-wise is field-wise, convert the candidate reconstructed picture from a field representation into a frame representation to obtain the reconstructed picture.

13. An encoder for encoding a predetermined picture, comprising:

a base encoder for, by treating a predetermined portion of a predetermined picture one of frame-wise or field-wise, encoding the predetermined picture with a first precision to obtain first precision-encoded data;

a determiner for determining higher precision information by treating the predetermined portion the other of frame-wise or field-wise, the higher precision information representing second precision-encoded data having encoded therein the predetermined portion with a second precision being higher than the first precision by treating the predetermined portion the other of frame-wise and field-wise or refinement information enabling refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data; and

a constructor for constructing an encoded precision-scalable data stream encoding the predetermined picture to include the first precision-encoded data, the higher precision information and indication information indicating a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of the predetermined portion between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data.

14. The encoder according to claim 13, wherein the predetermined picture further comprises another predetermined portion, and the higher precision information also represents other second precision-encoded data having the other predetermined portion encoded therein with the second precision by treating the other predetermined portion the one of frame-wise and field-wise or respective other refinement information enabling refining other first-precision encoded data having the other predetermined portion encoded therein with the first precision, wherein the determiner is adapted to determine the second-precision encoded data such that same comprise first transform coefficient levels of a first transform coefficient matrix representing a motion-compensated residual of the predetermined portion, and the other second precision-encoded data so that same comprise second transform coefficient levels of a second transform coefficient matrix representing a motion-compensated residual of the other predetermined portion, and the constructor being adapted to insert the first transform coefficient levels into the encoded precision-scalable data stream in accordance with a first scan order among the transform coefficients of the first transform coefficient matrix, and the second transform coefficient levels into the encoded precision-scalable data stream in accordance with a second scan order among the transform coefficients of the second transform coefficient matrix being different from the first scan order.

15. The encoder according to claim 13, wherein the constructor is adapted to perform the construction such that a correct parsing of the higher precision information depends on the indication information.

16. The encoder according to claim 13, wherein the predetermined picture is part of a video picture sequence and the base encoder and the determiner are designed such that the second-precision encoded data enables obtaining motion information and/or respective residual information for the predetermined portion from the encoded precision-scalable data stream, applying the motion information to already encoded and reconstructed reference pictures to obtain a motion-compensated prediction for the predetermined portion, and reconstructing the predetermined portion based on the motion-compensated prediction and the residual information.

17. The encoder according to claim 16, wherein the base encoder and the determiner are adapted such that an inverse spectral decomposition has to be performed to extract the residual information.

18. The encoder according to claim 16, wherein the base encoder and the determiner are adapted such that the application of the motion information and the reconstruction of the predetermined portion have to be performed dependent on the indication information.

19. The encoder according to claim 13, wherein the constructor is adapted such that the indication information indicates the absence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of another predetermined portion of the predetermined picture, and the constructor and the determiner are adapted such that the encoded precision-scalable data stream comprises refinement change information indicating as to whether the first-precision encoded data is to be refined with respect to the other predetermined portion or not, and the higher precision information additionally represents further refinement information enabling refining the first precision-encoded data with respect to the other predetermined portion to obtain other second-precision encoded data encoding the predetermined portion with the second precision.

20. The encoder according to claim 13, wherein the constructor is adapted such that the indication information indicates the absence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of another predetermined portion of the predetermined picture, the constructor and the determiner are adapted such that the encoded precision-scalable data stream comprises subordinate information in the higher precision information, indicating as to whether the higher precision information includes other second precision-encoded data including motion information and/or residual information for the other predetermined portion, and indicating as to whether the other second precision-encoded data is to replace the first precision-encoded data with respect to the predetermined portion or the other second-precision encoded data is dedicated for refining the first precision-encoded data with respect to the other predetermined portion to obtain the second-precision encoded data.

21. A precision-scalable bit-stream having encoded therein a predetermined picture, the precision-scalable bit-stream comprising:

precision-encoded data having the predetermined picture encoded therein with a first precision by treating a predetermined portion of the predetermined picture a first one of frame-wise and field-wise;

higher precision information representing second precision encoded data having the predetermined portion encoded therein with a second precision higher than the first precision by treating the predetermined portion a second one of frame-wise and field-wise, or refinement information enabling refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data; and

indication information indicating an absence or existence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data.

22. A method for decoding an encoded precision-scalable data stream encoding a predetermined picture, the encoded precision-scalable data stream including first precision-encoded data having the predetermined picture encoded therein with a first precision by treating a predetermined portion of the predetermined picture a first one of frame-wise and field-wise, higher precision information representing second precision encoded data having the predetermined portion encoded therein with a second precision higher than the first precision by treating the predetermined portion a second one of frame-wise and field-wise, or refinement information enabling refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data, and indication information indicating an absence or existence of a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data, the method comprising the following steps:

checking the indication information as to whether same indicates a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of the predetermined portion between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data;

if the indication information indicate the frame-/field-wise treatment change, disregarding, at least partially, the first precision-encoded data with respect to the predetermined portion and arranging, instead, the second precision-encoded data as data for decoding, or, based on the higher precision information, refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data and arranging the obtained second precision-encoded data as data for decoding; and

decoding the arranged data for decoding by treating the predetermined portion of the predetermined picture the one of frame-wise or field-wise to reconstruct the predetermined picture with the second precision.

23. A method for encoding a predetermined picture, comprising the following steps:

by treating a predetermined portion of a predetermined picture one of frame-wise or field-wise, encoding the predetermined picture with a first precision to obtain first precision-encoded data;

determining higher precision information by treating the predetermined portion the other of frame-wise or field-wise, the higher precision information representing second precision-encoded data having encoded therein the predetermined portion with a second precision being higher than the first precision by treating the predetermined portion the other of frame-wise and field-wise or refinement information enabling refining the first precision-encoded data to obtain the second precision-encoded data; and

constructing an encoded precision-scalable data stream encoding the predetermined picture to include the first precision-encoded data, the higher precision information and indication information indicating a change in the frame-/field-wise treatment of the predetermined portion between the first precision-encoded data and the second precision-encoded data.