TARGETED BIT APPROPRIATIONS BASED ON PICTURE IMPORTANCE

• US 20100118979A1
• Filed: 11/12/2009
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tech 5 SAS
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shepherd, Gregory, Cook, Benjamin M., Rodriguez, Arturo A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,681,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.260
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• 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 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/88 involving rearrangement of data among different coding units, e.g. shuffling, interleaving, scrambling or permutation of pixel data or permutation of transform coefficient data among different blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/895 in combination with error concealment

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method that provides plural representations of a single video signal that comprises a successive sequence of pictures, one or more of the plural representations including a respective sequence of latticed pictures, each latticed picture in the one or more plural representations originating from a corresponding respective picture of the video signal, the order of successive latticed pictures in the one or more of the plural representations of the video signal corresponding to the order of successive pictures in the video signal; processes the plural representations based on a predetermined encoding strategy, the predetermined encoding strategy targeting an appropriate respective amount of bits to each of a plurality of the processed latticed pictures, each of the plurality of the processed latticed pictures having a respective picture importance; and provides the plurality of processed latticed pictures in plural successive, non-overlapping, ordered segments in a single video stream.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing plural representations of a single video signal, the video signal comprising a successive sequence of pictures, wherein one or more of the plural representations includes a respective sequence of latticed pictures, wherein each latticed picture in the one or more of the plural representations originates from a corresponding respective picture of the video signal, wherein the order of successive latticed pictures in the one or more of the plural representations of the video signal corresponds to the order of successive pictures in the video signal;

processing the plural representations based on a predetermined encoding strategy, the predetermined encoding strategy targeting an appropriate respective amount of bits to each of a plurality of the processed latticed pictures, each of the plurality of the processed latticed pictures having a respective picture importance; and

providing the plurality of processed latticed pictures in plural successive, non-overlapping, ordered segments in a single video stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein processing further includes appropriating bit allocations of one or more of the plural segments of the processed latticed pictures based on picture type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the ordering is based on a size of each of the respective segments.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the size is based on the number of bits allocated for the plurality of processed latticed pictures.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the appropriate respective amount of bits is different for a first processed latticed picture having a different relative picture importance than a second processed latticed picture, the first and second processed latticed pictures having a same picture type.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the appropriate respective amount of bits is different for a first processed latticed picture having a different relative picture importance than a second processed latticed picture, the first processed latticed picture having a different picture type than the second processed latticed picture.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the appropriate respective amount of bits is different for a first processed latticed picture having a different picture type than a second processed latticed picture.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the plural representations further comprises providing a sequence of corresponding latticed pictures from each of the plural representations, wherein each respective latticed picture of the sequence of corresponding latticed pictures originates from a respective picture of the video signal.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein providing corresponding latticed pictures further comprises providing non-congruent corresponding latticed pictures, wherein at least one of the latticed pictures of one set of the corresponding latticed pictures has one or more of a horizontal picture resolution or a vertical picture resolution that differs from one of the latticed pictures of at least another set of the corresponding latticed pictures.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein providing corresponding latticed pictures further comprises providing congruent corresponding latticed pictures, wherein all sets of corresponding latticed pictures have the same picture resolution.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein there is a 1:

1 correspondence in relative picture importance in each of the corresponding segments.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein there is a not a 1:

1 correspondence in relative picture importance in each of the corresponding segments.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the plurality of processed latticed pictures in plural successive, non-overlapping, ordered segments further comprises ordering and providing the segments in plural successive segments distribution intervals (SDIs), each segment comprising processed latticed pictures of the processed plural representations.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each segment of each SDI contains a determined number of processed latticed pictures, the determined number being equal in each segment, with each segment representing the same time-continuous picture output span.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the number of bits allocated to each segment of each SDI is unequal.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the number of bits allocated to processed latticed pictures of one or more segments in a first SDI of the plural SDIs is different than the number of bits allocated to processed latticed pictures of one or more segments in a second SDI of the plural SDIs.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the output picture span of the one or more segments in the first SDI is different than the output picture span of the one or more segments in the second SDI.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the appropriation of the respective amount of bits is based on a factor relative to a least important latticed picture, and wherein the target size of each processed latticed picture includes the number or amount of bits in relation to the target size of the processed latticed picture of the least relative importance.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the appropriation of the respective amount of bits is based on a hierarchy of propagated information, ranging from discardable pictures at one end of the hierarchy corresponding to a lowest amount of allocated bits to Intracoded pictures at another end of the hierarchy corresponding to a highest amount of bits.

20. A system, comprising:

a memory having executable instructions; and

one or more processors configured to execute the instructions, the instructions causing the one or more processors to;

provide plural representations of a single video signal, the video signal comprising a successive sequence of pictures, wherein one or more of the plural representations includes a respective sequence of latticed pictures, wherein each latticed picture in the one or more of the plural representations originates from a corresponding respective picture of the video signal, wherein the order of successive latticed pictures in the one or more of the plural representations of the video signal corresponds to the order of successive pictures in the video signal;

process the plural representations based on a predetermined encoding strategy, the predetermined encoding strategy targeting an appropriate respective amount of bits to each of a plurality of the processed latticed pictures, each of the plurality of the processed latticed pictures having a respective picture importance; and

provide the plurality of processed latticed pictures in plural successive, non-overlapping, ordered segments in a video stream.