IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20100319030A1
• Filed: 06/02/2010
• Published: 12/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sakurai, Hironari, Tanaka, Junichi, Sato, Kazushi
• Granted Patent: US 8,472,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/45
• 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 19/122 Selection of transform size, e.g. 8x8 or 2x4x8 DCT; Selection of sub-band transforms of varying structure or type
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/625 using discrete cosine transform [DCT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a receiving unit configured to receive image data of program content and genre information relating to the program content, a selection unit configured to select a size selection parameter for causing the genre information received by the receiving unit to be reflected in a block size, a determination unit configured to determine a block size in accordance with the size selection parameter selected by the selection unit, the block size being used for orthogonal transformation, and an orthogonal transformation unit configured to perform orthogonal transformation on the image data received by the receiving unit at the block size determined by the determination unit.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive image data of program content and genre information relating to the program content;

a selection unit configured to select a size selection parameter for causing the genre information received by the receiving unit to be reflected in a block size;

a determination unit configured to determine a block size in accordance with the size selection parameter selected by the selection unit, the block size being used for orthogonal transformation; and

an orthogonal transformation unit configured to perform orthogonal transformation on the image data received by the receiving unit at the block size determined by the determination unit.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit selects the block size by comparing an index value indicating a feature of a pixel value of the image data received by the receiving unit with a block selection threshold selected in accordance with the size selection parameter, and causes the genre information to be reflected in the block size used for orthogonal transformation.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the index value is a variance value indicating variance of units of encoding.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses a predetermined first block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation, among the first block size and a second block size larger than the first block size, by reducing the block selection threshold when noise reduction is to be prioritized, and

the determination unit preferentially uses the second block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by increasing the block selection threshold when encoding efficiency is to be prioritized.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses the second block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by increasing the block selection threshold when gradation is to be emphasized.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses the first block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by reducing the block selection threshold when the genre information indicates a sports genre.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses the first block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by reducing the block selection threshold when the genre information indicates an animation/SFX genre.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses the first block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by reducing the block selection threshold when the genre information indicates a music genre.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses the first block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by reducing the block selection threshold when the genre information indicates a variety genre.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses the second block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by increasing the block selection threshold when the genre information indicates a documentary/education genre.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the determination unit preferentially uses the second block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation by increasing the block selection threshold when the genre information indicates a hobby/education genre.

12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the image processing apparatus encodes the image data in accordance with H.264/Advanced Video Coding, and

wherein the orthogonal transformation unit uses difference data representing a difference between pixel values as image data to be subjected to orthogonal transformation, and executes DCT processing as the orthogonal transformation on the image data.

13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the receiving unit receives event information that describes the program content, and

wherein the determination unit causes a feature keyword to be reflected in determination of the block size when the event information includes the feature keyword, the feature keyword indicating an occurrence probability of noise of the image data.

14. The image processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the receiving unit receives broadcast station information indicating a broadcast station that has distributed the program content, and

wherein the determination unit causes the broadcast station information to be reflected in determination of the block size.

15. The image processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the determination unit determines the block selection threshold in accordance with a primary-classification genre to which the program content belongs, and

wherein when a sub-classification genre to which the program content belongs is exceptional for an occurrence probability of noise indicated by the primary-classification genre, the determination unit causes the sub-classification genre to be reflected in determination of the block size regardless of a size selection threshold corresponding to the primary-classification genre.

16. The image processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the determination unit causes a sub-classification genre to which the program content belongs, which is indicated by the genre information, to be reflected in determination of the block size.

17. The image processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the receiving unit receives time information indicating a current time, and

wherein the determination unit causes the time information to be reflected in determination of the block size.

18. The image processing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein when the current time indicated by the time information is within a predetermined designated period of time, the determination unit preferentially uses, for a time display area where the current time is displayed, the first block size as the block size used for orthogonal transformation.

19. The image processing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a tuner unit configured to receive a broadcast signal including the program content and to generate the image data; and

a storage unit configured to store image data encoded by an encoding unit.

20. An image processing method comprising the steps of:

receiving image data of program content and genre information relating to the program content;

selecting a size selection parameter for causing the genre information received in the step of receiving to be reflected in a block size;

determining a block size in accordance with the size selection parameter selected in the step of selecting, the block size being used for orthogonal transformation; and

performing orthogonal transformation on the image data received in the step of receiving at the block size determined in the step of determining.