SCANNING METHODS OF TRANSFORM-BASED DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING THAT CONDITIONALLY ADJUST SCAN ORDER ACCORDING TO CHARACTERISTICS INFORMATION AND RELATED APPARATUS THEREOF

• US 20100124284A1
• Filed: 11/20/2008
• Published: 05/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xueshan Technologies Inc. (Wi-LAN Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Lei, Shaw-Min, Lee, Kun-Bin
• Granted Patent: US 8,737,613 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.180
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/129 Scanning of coding units, e.g. zig-zag scan of transform coefficients or flexible macroblock ordering [FMO]
• 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 19/16 for a given display mode, e.g. for interlaced or progressive display mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock

Abstract

One scanning method of transform-based digital data processing includes: when processing data blocks, recording characteristics information for different block categories individually; conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information; and performing the data processing upon a current data block according to a scan order corresponding to a block category to which the current data block belongs. Another scanning method of transform-based digital data processing includes: recording characteristics information when processing data blocks; conditionally adjusting a scan order according to the characteristics information; keeping at least one position in the scan order fixed regardless of changes made to the scan order; and performing a data processing upon a current data block according to the scan order.

Claims

1. A scanning method of transform-based digital data processing, comprising:

when processing data blocks, recording characteristics information for different block categories individually;

conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information; and

performing the data processing upon a current data block according to a scan order corresponding to a block category to which the current data block belongs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the block categories are classified by different color components, different block sizes, different block processing modes, or different transform types.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics information includes a number of non-zero causal data at each position in a data block being processed.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information comprises:

adjusting a scan order of a corresponding block category based on the characteristics information when a specific collection period of the characteristics information expires.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein adjusting the scan order of the corresponding block category comprises:

adjusting the scan order by sorting the number of non-zero causal data at each position of the data block in an ascending or descending order.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein sorting the number of non-zero causal data at each position of the data block comprises:

when two adjacent positions in the scan order have different numbers of non-zero causal data, conditionally swapping an order of the two adjacent positions in the scan order.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the recorded characteristics information further includes a number of causal data with magnitude of one at each position of the data block being processed;

and sorting the number of non-zero causal data at each position of the data block further comprises;

when two adjacent positions have an identical number of non-zero causal data, sorting the two adjacent positions according to numbers of causal data with magnitude of one at the two adjacent positions.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information further comprises:

during the specific collection period of the characteristics information, generating a candidate scan order, and updating the candidate scan order according to the characteristics information by conditionally swapping an order of two adjacent positions of the candidate scan order that have different numbers of non-zero causal data; and

wherein when the specific collection period expires, the scan order is rearranged according to the candidate scan order and the characteristics information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information further comprises:

during the specific collection period of the characteristics information, recording a flag value at each position of the data block being processed to indicate whether or not the number of non-zero causal data at the position to which the flag value corresponds is changed;

wherein updating the candidate scan order according to the characteristics information comprises;

checking the flag value at each position of the data block being processed; and

conditionally swapping the order of the two adjacent positions only when the two adjacent positions of the candidate scan order have different flag values.

10. The method of claim 3, wherein the recorded characteristics information is normalized when a maximum number of non-zero causal data exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the characteristics information includes a weighted number of non-zero causal data at each position of the data block being processed.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information comprises:

adjusting a scan order of a corresponding block category based on the characteristics information when a specific collection period of the characteristics information expires.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein adjusting the scan order of the corresponding block category comprises:

adjusting the scan order by sorting the weighted number of non-zero causal data at each position of the data block in an ascending or descending order.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein sorting the weighted number of non-zero causal data at each position of the data block comprises:

when two adjacent positions in the scan order have different weighted numbers of non-zero causal data, conditionally swapping an order of the two adjacent positions in the scan order.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the recorded characteristics information further includes a number of causal data with magnitude of one at each position of the data block;

and sorting the weighted number of non-zero causal data at each position of the data block further comprises;

when two adjacent positions have an identical weighted number of non-zero causal data, sorting the two adjacent positions according to numbers of causal data with magnitude of one at the two adjacent positions.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information further comprises:

during the specific collection period of the characteristics information, generating a candidate scan order, and updating the candidate scan order according to the characteristics information by conditionally swapping an order of two adjacent positions of the candidate scan order that have different weighted numbers of non-zero causal data;

wherein when the specific collection period expires, the scan order is re-arranged according to the candidate scan order and the characteristics information.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein conditionally adjusting scan orders of data processing of the block categories according to the characteristics information further comprises:

during the specific collection period of the characteristics information, recording a flag value at each position of the data block to indicate whether or not the number of non-zero causal data at the position to which the flag value corresponds is changed;

wherein updating the candidate scan order according to the characteristics information comprises;

checking the flag value at each position of the data block; and

conditionally swapping the order of the two adjacent positions only when the two adjacent positions of the candidate scan order have different flag values.

18. A processing order determining method of transform-based digital data processing, comprising:

recording characteristics information when processing data blocks;

conditionally adjusting a processing order according to the characteristics information;

keeping at least one position in the processing order fixed regardless of changes made to the processing order; and

performing a data processing upon a current data block according to the processing order.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the characteristics information includes a number of non-zero causal data at each position in a data block being processed.

20. A transform-based digital data processing apparatus supporting a fixed scan order and a conditionally-adjusted scan order and selectively utilizing the fixed scan order or the conditionally-adjusted scan order to process transform-based digital data, the transform-based digital data processing apparatus comprising:

a first storage module, configured for storing a scan order;

a second storage module, configured for storing characteristics information;

a first processing module, configured for recording the characteristics information into the second storage module;

a second processing module, configured for adjusting the scan order; and

a third processing module, configured for processing the transform-based digital data.

21. The transform-based digital data processing apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:

a fourth processing module, configured for determining which one of the fixed scan order and the conditionally-adjusted scan order is employed to process the transform-based digital data;

wherein the second storage module, the first processing module, and the second processing module are enabled only when the conditionally-adjusted scan order is selected to process the transform-based digital data.

22. The transform-based digital data processing apparatus of claim 21, wherein the fourth processing module refers to a video or image standard of the transform-based digital data to be processed to determine which one of the fixed scan order and the conditionally-adjusted scan order is employed to process the transform-based digital data.