METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTEXT DEPENDENT MERGING FOR SKIP-DIRECT MODES FOR VIDEO ENCODING AND DECODING

• US 20100135387A1
• Filed: 04/09/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Divorra Escoda, Oscar, Yin, Peng
• Granted Patent: US 8,750,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.120
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/109 among a plurality of temporal predictive coding modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/119 Adaptive subdivision aspects, e.g. subdivision of a picture into rectangular or non-rectangular coding blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding

Abstract

There are provided methods and apparatus for context dependent merging for SKIP/DIRECT modes for video encoding and decoding. An apparatus includes an encoder for joint coding partitions of an image region using frame partitioning and a partition merging procedure, wherein any given one of the partitions that use a coding mode with implicit coding rules is subject to being merged, with another one of the partitions, using a distinct merging rule different than that used for a coding mode with explicit coding rules.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an encoder for joint coding partitions of an image region using frame partitioning and a partition merging procedure, wherein any given one of the partitions that use a coding mode with implicit coding rules is subject to being merged, with another one of the partitions, using a distinct merging rule different than that used for a coding mode with explicit coding rules.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the given one of the partitions that uses the coding mode with the implicit coding rules is merged with the other one of the partitions by the merging procedure only when yet another partition is already merged with the given one of the partitions.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein any of the partitions subject to merging are at least one of blocks or unions of blocks from a previously performed tree-based picture decomposition.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the coding mode with the implicit coding rules includes at least one of a SKIP mode, a DIRECT mode, and a mode for implicit coding of directional intra data.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the implicit coding rules are ignored and the explicit coding rules are used when a particular one of the partitions, to which the given one of the partitions that uses the coding mode with the implicit coding rules and the other one of the partitions is to be merged, is a first partition, in scanning order, in a segment of at least two merged partitions.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a possibility of merging at least two modes that have the implicit coding rules is enabled or disabled using a high level syntax.

7. A method, comprising:

joint coding partitions of an image region using frame partitioning and a partition merging procedure, wherein any given one of the partitions that use a coding mode with implicit coding rules is subject to being merged, with another one of the partitions, using a distinct merging rule different than that used for a coding mode with explicit coding rules.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the given one of the partitions that uses the coding mode with the implicit coding rules is merged with the other one of the partitions by the merging procedure only when yet another partition is already merged with the given one of the partitions.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein any of the partitions subject to merging are at least one of blocks or unions of blocks from a previously performed tree-based picture decomposition.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the coding mode with the implicit coding rules includes at least one of a SKIP mode, a DIRECT mode, and a mode for implicit coding of directional intra data.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the implicit coding rules are ignored and the explicit coding rules are used when a particular one of the partitions, to which the given one of the partitions that uses the coding mode with the implicit coding rules and the other one of the partitions is to be merged, is a first partition, in scanning order, in a segment of at least two merged partitions.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein a possibility of merging at least two modes that have the implicit coding rules is enabled or disabled using a high level syntax.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

a decoder for joint decoding partitions of an image region using frame partitioning and a partition merging procedure, wherein any given one of the partitions that use a coding mode with implicit coding rules is subject to being merged, with another one of the partitions, using a distinct merging rule different than that used for a coding mode with explicit coding rules.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the given one of the partitions that uses the coding mode with the implicit coding rules is merged with the other one of the partitions by the merging procedure only when yet another partition is already merged with the given one of the partitions.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein any of the partitions subject to merging are at least one of blocks or unions of blocks from a previously performed tree-based picture decomposition.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the coding mode with the implicit coding rules includes at least one of a SKIP mode, a DIRECT mode, and a mode for implicit coding of directional intra data.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the implicit coding rules are ignored and the explicit coding rules are used when a particular one of the partitions, to which the given one of the partitions that uses the coding mode with the implicit coding rules and the other one of the partitions is to be merged, is a first partition, in scanning order, in a segment of at least two merged partitions.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein a possibility of merging at least two modes that have the implicit coding rules is enabled or disabled using a high level syntax.

19. A method, comprising:

joint decoding partitions of an image region using frame partitioning and a partition merging procedure, wherein any given one of the partitions that use a coding mode with implicit coding rules is subject to being merged, with another one of the partitions, using a distinct merging rule different than that used for a coding mode with explicit coding rules.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the given one of the partitions that uses the coding mode with the implicit coding rules is merged with the other one of the partitions by the merging procedure only when yet another partition is already merged with the given one of the partitions.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein any of the partitions subject to merging are at least one of blocks or unions of blocks from a previously performed tree-based picture decomposition.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the coding mode with the implicit coding rules includes at least one of a SKIP mode, a DIRECT mode, and a mode for implicit coding of directional intra data.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the implicit coding rules are ignored and the explicit coding rules are used when a partition to which at least one of the two partitions is to be merged to is a first partition, in scanning order, in a segment of at least two merged partitions.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein a possibility of merging at least two modes that have the implicit coding rules is enabled or disabled using a high level syntax.

25. A storage media having video signal data encoded thereupon, comprising:

partitions of an image region joint coded using frame partitioning and a partition merging procedure, wherein any given one of the partitions that use a coding mode with implicit coding rules is subject to being merged, with another one of the partitions, using a distinct merging rule different than that used for a coding mode with explicit coding rules.