METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENCODING AND DECODING IMAGE

• US 20090232217A1
• Filed: 03/17/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Sang-rae, LEE, Tammy, MIN, Jung-hye, HAN, Woo-jin
• Granted Patent: US 8,625,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.160
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/238 using non-full search, e.g. three-step search
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/109 among a plurality of temporal predictive coding modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/115 Selection of the code volume for a coding unit prior to coding
• 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 19/157 Assigned coding mode, i.e. the coding mode being predefined or preselected to be further used for selection of another element or parameter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/196 being specially adapted for the computation of encoding parameters, e.g. by averaging previously computed encoding parameters processing of motion vectors H04N19/513
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/197 including determination of the initial value of an encoding parameter H04N19/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding

Abstract

Provided are a method and apparatus for encoding an image, which can variably encode a residual of a current block that is predicted with a skip mode according to prediction modes of neighboring blocks, and a method and apparatus for decoding the encoded image. When both the prediction mode of the current block and the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks are skip modes, since the method of encoding the image also encodes the residual of the current block that is predicted with the skip mode, more bits can be assigned to the current block with a high probability of acting as a reference block for other blocks.

Claims

1. A method of encoding an image, the method comprising:

performing motion estimation on a current block to be encoded and determining a prediction mode of the current block;

when the determined prediction mode of the current block is a skip mode, determining whether prediction modes of neighboring blocks of the current block are skip modes;

when it is determined that the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks are skip modes, encoding a residual that is a difference value between the current block and a prediction block of the current block; and

adding the residual to a bit stream that is generated by encoding the image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the neighboring blocks comprise at least one of an upper block, a left block, and a left-upper block of the current block.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the prediction mode of the current block comprises:

performing motion estimation on the current block by using all available prediction modes and calculating costs; and

determining a prediction mode with a least cost from among the prediction modes as a prediction mode of the current block.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the skip mode is a prediction mode that uses a motion compensated prediction value, which is generated by using a predictive motion vector of the current block which is predicted by using motion vectors of the neighboring blocks of the current block, as a prediction block of the current block.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding of the residual further comprises:

transforming the residual into a frequency domain;

when the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks of the current block are skip modes, quantizing the residual by using a quantization parameter less than a preset quantization parameter; and

entropy coding the quantized residual.

6. The method of claim 1, when it is determined that the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks are not skip modes, further comprising adding only a predetermined flag, which indicates whether the current block is a skip block, to the bitstream without encoding the residual.

7. An apparatus for encoding an image, the apparatus comprising:

a motion estimation unit which performs motion estimation on a current block to be encoded by using available prediction modes;

an encoding unit which encodes a residual that is a difference value between the current block and a prediction block of the current block; and

a control unit which determines a prediction mode of the current block from among the prediction modes by using costs of a bitstream generated by the encoding unit, and when it is determined that the determined prediction mode of the current block is a skip mode and prediction modes of neighboring blocks are skip modes, adds the residual to the bitstream generated by the encoding unit.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the neighboring blocks comprise at least one of an upper block, a left block, and a left-upper block of the current block.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the control unit compares the costs of the bit stream generated by performing motion estimation on the current block according to all the available prediction modes and determines a prediction mode with a least cost as a prediction mode of the current block.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the skip mode is a prediction mode that uses a motion compensated prediction value, which is generated by using a predictive motion vector of the current block which is predicted by using motion vectors of the neighboring blocks of the current block, as a prediction block of the current block.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the encoding unit comprises:

a transform and quantization unit which transforms the residual into a frequency domain, and when the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks of the current block are skip modes, which quantizes the residual by using a quantization parameter less than a preset quantization parameter; and

an entropy coding unit which entropy codes the quantized residual.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein, when it is determined that the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks are not skip modes, the control unit controls the encoding unit so that only a predetermined flag indicating whether the current block is a skip block is added to the bitstream without encoding the residual that is a difference value between the current block and the prediction block of the current block.

13. A method of decoding an image, the method comprising:

extracting a prediction mode of a current block to be decoded from an input bitstream;

when the extracted prediction mode of the current block is a skip mode, determining whether prediction modes of neighboring blocks of the current block are skip modes;

when it is determined that the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks are skip modes, extracting a residual of the current block from the bitstream and decoding the extracted residual;

generating a prediction block of the current block according to the skip mode; and

adding the prediction block of the current block and the residual and decoding the current block.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the neighboring blocks comprise at least one of an upper block, a left block, and a left-upper block of the current block.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the generating of the prediction block of the current block according to the skip mode comprises:

generating a predictive motion vector of the current block by using motion vectors of the neighboring blocks of the current block; and

determining a motion compensated prediction value by using the generated predictive motion vector as a prediction block of the current block.

16. The method of claim 13, when it is determined that the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks are not skip modes, further comprising:

generating a predictive motion vector of the current block by using motion vectors of the neighboring blocks of the current block; and

determining a motion compensated prediction value, which is generated by using the generated predictive motion vector, as a decoded value of the current block.

17. An apparatus for decoding an image, the apparatus comprising:

an entropy decoding unit which extracts a residual and a prediction mode of a current block to be decoded from an input bitstream;

a prediction unit which generates a prediction block of the current block according to the extracted prediction mode;

a residual reconstruction unit which decodes the residual;

a control unit, which, when the extracted prediction mode of the current block is a skip mode and prediction modes of neighboring blocks of the current block are skip modes, extracts a residual of the current block from the bitstream and controls the residual reconstruction unit so that the residual reconstruction unit decodes the residual; and

an addition unit which adds the prediction block of the current block and the residual and decodes the current block.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the neighboring blocks comprise at least one of an upper block, a left block, and a left-upper block of the current block.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein, when the extracted prediction mode of the current block is a skip mode, the prediction unit determines a motion compensated prediction value, which is generated by using a predictive motion vector which is generated by using motion vectors of the neighboring blocks of the current block, as a prediction block of the current block.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein, when it is determined that the prediction modes of the neighboring blocks are not skip modes, the control unit determines a motion compensated prediction value of the current block, which is generated by the prediction unit, as a decoded value of the current block without extracting the residual of the current block from the bitstream.