IMAGE CODING APPARATUS, IMAGE DECODING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE DECODING METHOD

• US 20080080779A1
• Filed: 09/25/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: NAKANISHI, Keiri
• Granted Patent: US 8,320,691 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/236
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/139 Analysis of motion vectors, e.g. their magnitude, direction, variance or reliability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• 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 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/513 Processing of motion vectors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/543 using regions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding

Abstract

An image coding apparatus includes a particular region detecting unit configured to detect a particular region whose hue is within a predetermined range and whose amount of movement or amount of shift between different frames is a threshold or more from chronologically input pictures forming an image; and a coding unit configured to perform coding on a picture in a frame in which the particular region detected by the particular region detecting unit is replaced with a predetermined picture other than the particular region, while detecting a motion vector between the frames.

Claims

1. An image coding apparatus comprising:

a particular region detecting unit configured to detect a particular region whose hue is within a predetermined range and whose amount of movement or amount of shift between different frames is a threshold or more from chronologically input pictures forming an image; and

a coding unit configured to perform coding on a picture in a frame in which the particular region detected by the particular region detecting unit is replaced by a predetermined picture other than the particular region, while detecting a motion vector between the frames.

2. The image coding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the particular region detecting unit comprises a hue detecting unit configured to detect whether or not the picture is a particular region including the hue within the predetermined range by using hue information.

3. The image coding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the particular region detecting unit comprises a motion/shift amount detecting unit configured to detect whether or not the picture is the particular region according to whether or not an amount of motion or an amount of shift between different frames is the threshold or more.

4. The image coding apparatus according to claim 1, comprising:

a background composing unit configured to generate a background composed picture of a frame in which the particular region detected by the particular region detecting unit is replaced with a background picture as a predetermined picture other than the particular region.

5. The image coding apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the coding unit comprises a picture coding unit configured to perform coding on a background composed picture generated by the background composing unit, while detecting a motion vector between the frames.

6. The image coding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the hue detecting unit detects whether or not the picture includes the hue within a predetermined range by using particular hue information at least corresponding to smoke and flare.

7. The image coding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the coding unit comprises an intra-frame coding unit configured to perform intra-frame coding on a picture of a frame in which the particular region is not replaced with the predetermined picture.

8. The image coding apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a simulation picture generating unit configured to generate a simulation picture corresponding to a picture in the particular region.

9. The image coding apparatus according to claim 8, comprising a picture comparing unit configured to perform comparison on whether or not the simulation picture approximates the picture in the particular region.

10. The image coding apparatus according to claim 8, wherein if a compared result shows that the simulation picture approximates the picture in the particular region, the particular region is replaced with the predetermined picture.

11. The image coding apparatus according to claim 8, wherein if a compared result shows that the simulation picture does not approximate the picture in the particular region, the coding unit performs coding on a picture in a frame in which the particular region is not replaced with a predetermined picture.

12. An image decoding apparatus comprising:

a decoding unit configured to decode between frames for a picture part other than the particular region whose hue in a series of pictures forming an image is within a predetermined range and whose amount of movement or amount of shift between different frames is a threshold or more in a coded picture of an interframe coded frame in which the particular region is replaced by a predetermined picture; and

a simulation picture generating unit configured to generate a simulation picture corresponding to an original picture in the particular region in the coded picture by simulation based on a particular picture corresponding to the particular region in an intra-frame coded frame.

13. The image decoding apparatus according to claim 12, wherein a decoded reproduced picture is generated for one frame by embedding the simulation picture into the particular region which is replaced with the predetermined picture in a picture of a frame generated as the decoding unit decodes.

14. The image decoding apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the simulation picture generating unit generates the simulation picture by using information previously calculated for generating the simulation picture.

15. The image decoding apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the simulation picture generating unit generates the simulation picture by using the Navier-Stokes equation.

16. The image decoding apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the simulation picture generating unit generates a simulation picture corresponding to a predicted picture of a next frame which is subjected to intra-frame coding temporally adjacent to a frame by setting initial conditions to a particular picture corresponding to the particular region in an intra-frame coded frame, and generates the simulation picture by changing the initial conditions so that a result of comparing the simulation picture and an actual original picture in the next frame is within a threshold.

17. The image decoding apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the decoding unit also performs decoding on a coded picture in a frame in which the particular region is not replaced with a predetermined picture.

18. An image decoding method comprising:

decoding between frames for a picture part other than a particular region whose hue in a series of pictures forming an image is within a predetermined range and whose amount of movement or amount of shift between different frames is a threshold or more in a coded picture of an interframe coded frame in which the particular region is replaced by a predetermined picture; and

generating a simulation picture corresponding to an original picture in the particular region in the coded picture by simulation using a particular picture corresponding to the particular region in an intra-frame coded frame.

19. The image decoding method according to claim 18, wherein the simulation picture is generated by using the Navier-Stokes equation.

20. The image decoding method according to claim 18, further generating a decoded reproduced picture for one frame by embedding the simulation picture into a particular region which is replaced with the predetermined picture in a picture of a frame generated as the decoding unit decodes.