Encoding, Decoding, and Representing High Dynamic Range Images

• US 20130294689A1
• Filed: 07/10/2013
• Published: 11/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Jia, Wenhui, Ninan, Ajit, Ten, Arkady, Ward, Gregory John
• Granted Patent: US 9,036,042 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/166
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/169 characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/182 the unit being a pixel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/186 the unit being a colour or a chrominance component
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• 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 19/50 using predictive coding H04N19/61 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/741 by increasing the dynamic range of the image compared to the dynamic range of the electronic image sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/85 for matrixing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/67 for matrixing camera processing pipelines for matrixing of colour signals H04N23/85
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/77 Circuits for processing the brightness signal and the chrominance signal relative to each other, e.g. adjusting the phase of the brightness signal relative to the colour signal, correcting differential gain or differential phase circuits for matrixing H04N9/67

Abstract

Techniques are provided to encode and decode image data comprising a tone mapped (TM) image with HDR reconstruction data in the form of luminance ratios and color residual values. In an example embodiment, luminance ratio values and residual values in color channels of a color space are generated on an individual pixel basis based on a high dynamic range (HDR) image and a derivative tone-mapped (TM) image that comprises one or more color alterations that would not be recoverable from the TM image with a luminance ratio image. The TM image with HDR reconstruction data derived from the luminance ratio values and the color-channel residual values may be outputted in an image file to a downstream device, for example, for decoding, rendering, and/or storing. The image file may be decoded to generate a restored HDR image free of the color alterations.

Claims

1. A method to decode a high dynamic range (HDR) image, the method comprising:

parsing an image file comprising a base image and an HDR reconstruction image, wherein the HDR reconstruction image comprises a luma ratio component image and one or more residual chroma component images; and

generating an output HDR image using the base image and the HDR reconstruction image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the output HDR image further comprises:

generating an intermediate HDR image by multiplying the base image with the luma ratio component image; and

generating the output HDR image by adding the one or more residual chroma component images to the intermediate HDR image;

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the base image is a tone-mapped image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the base image in the image file comprises a JPEG image and the HDR reconstruction image is separate by the base image using at least one JPEG application segment marker.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the luma ratio component image comprises quantized log ratio pixel values.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more residual chroma component images comprise normalized and quantized residual chroma pixel values.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the base image is decoded using JPEG decoding.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the output HDR image further comprises:

receiving quantization parameters related to the quantized log ratio pixel values; and

converting based at least on the quantized parameters the quantized log ratio pixel values into unquantized ratio luma values.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the output HDR image further comprises:

receiving quantization parameters related to the quantized residual chroma pixel values;

converting, based at least on the quantized parameters, the quantized residual chroma pixel values into intermediate residual chroma pixel values; and

generating unormalized chroma pixel values by multiplying the intermediate residual chroma pixel values by corresponding luminance values of the base image.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the quantization parameters related to the quantized log ratio pixel values comprise a minimum log ratio pixel value (lr_min) and a maximum log ratio pixel value (lr_max), and given a quantized log ratio pixel value (H), a corresponding unquantized log ratio luma value lr is determined as

11. The method of claim 9, wherein a first set of quantization parameters related to quantized residual chroma pixel values comprise a minimum residual chroma pixel value (Cb_min) and a maximum residual chroma pixel value (Cb_max), and given a quantized residual chroma pixel value (U), a corresponding intermediate residual chroma pixel value Cb is determined as

12. A decoder for decoding a high dynamic range image (HDR), the decoder comprising:

a processor configured to execute instructions to;

parse an image file comprising a base image and an HDR reconstruction image, wherein the HDR reconstruction image comprises a luma ratio component image and one or more residual chroma component images; and

to generate an output HDR image using the base image and the HDR reconstruction image.