PROGRAMMABLE AND SCALABLE INTEGER SEARCH FOR VIDEO ENCODING

• US 20130301727A1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Published: 11/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Huang, Ling Feng, Mohan, Sumit, Wang, Kai, Thirunageswaram, Hari Ganesh, Lalgudi, Hariharan G.
• Application Number:
  US13/801,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20130301727A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/103 Selection of coding mode or of prediction mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/105 Selection of the reference unit for prediction within a chosen coding or prediction mode, e.g. adaptive choice of position and number of pixels used for prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/50 using predictive coding H04N19/61 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/503 involving temporal prediction adaptive coding with adaptive selection between spatial and temporal predictive coding H04N19/107; adaptive coding with adaptive selection among a plurality of temporal predictive coding modes H04N19/109
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/55 Motion estimation with spatial constraints, e.g. at image or region borders
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/57 Motion estimation characterised by a search window with variable size or shape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/593 involving spatial prediction techniques

Abstract

Methods and systems for efficient searching of candidate blocks for inter-coding and/or intra coding are provided. In one innovative aspect, an apparatus for performing motion estimation is provided. The apparatus includes a processor configured to identify a number of candidate blocks of a frame of video data to be searched, at least one candidate block corresponding to a block of another frame of the video data. The processor is further configured to select one or more of the candidate blocks to search based on a distance between the candidate blocks. The processor is also configured to select a method for searching the selected candidate blocks based on a format of the video data. The processor is also configured to estimate the motion for the block of the another frame based on the selected method and the selected candidate blocks.

Claims

1. An apparatus for performing motion estimation, the apparatus comprising:

a processor configured to;

identify a number of candidate blocks of a frame of video data to be searched, at least one candidate block corresponding to a block of another frame of the video data;

select one or more of the candidate blocks to search based on a distance between the candidate blocks;

select a method for searching the selected candidate blocks based on a format of the video data; and

estimate the motion for the block of the another frame based on the selected method and the selected candidate blocks.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to identify an order in which to search the candidate blocks.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of candidate blocks is identified based on a desired encoding time.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of candidate blocks is identified based on the format of the video data.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the format of the video data comprises at least one of a size of the frame and a frame rate of the video data.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the number of candidate blocks is identified based on a comparison between the size of the frame and a frame size threshold.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the number of candidate blocks is proportional to the size of the frame subtracted from the frame size threshold.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the number candidate blocks is identified based on a comparison between the frame rate and a frame rate threshold.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the number of candidate blocks is proportional to the frame rate subtracted from the frame rate threshold.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a candidate block is selected to search if the distance between the candidate block and another candidate block is greater than a configurable value.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the distance comprises a motion value.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein selecting the method for searching comprises:

identifying a block search size; and

selecting the method from one of a plurality of methods based on the identified block search size and a block search size for each of the plurality of methods.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, the block search size is identified based on a comparison between the size of the frame and a frame size threshold.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the block search size is inversely proportional to the size of the frame subtracted from the frame size threshold.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the block search size is identified based on a comparison between the frame rate and a frame rate threshold.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the block search size is inversely proportional to the frame rate subtracted from the frame rate threshold.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the order is set based on a coding scheme used to encode the video data.

18. A method for performing motion estimation, the method comprising:

identifying a number of candidate blocks of a frame of video data to be searched, at least one candidate block corresponding to a block of another frame of the video data;

selecting one or more of the candidate blocks to search based on a distance between the candidate blocks;

selecting a method for searching the selected candidate blocks based on a format of the video data; and

estimating the motion for the block of the another frame based on the selected method and the selected candidate blocks.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to identify an order in which to search the candidate blocks.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the number of candidate blocks is identified based on a desired encoding time.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the number of candidate blocks is identified based on the format of the video data.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the format of the video data comprises at least one of a size of the frame and a frame rate of the video data.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the number of candidate blocks is identified based on a comparison between the size of the frame and a frame size threshold.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the number of candidate blocks is proportional to the size of the frame subtracted from the frame size threshold.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein the number candidate blocks is identified based on a comparison between the frame rate and a frame rate threshold.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the number of candidate blocks is proportional to the frame rate subtracted from the frame rate threshold.

27. The method of claim 18, wherein a candidate block is selected to search if the distance between the candidate block and another candidate block is greater than a configurable value.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the distance comprises a motion value.

29. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the method for searching comprises:

identifying a block search size; and

selecting the method from one of a plurality of methods based on the identified block search size and a block search size for each of the plurality of methods.

30. The method of claim 29, the block search size is identified based on a comparison between the size of the frame and a frame size threshold.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the block search size is inversely proportional to the size of the frame subtracted from the frame size threshold.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the block search size is identified based on a comparison between the frame rate and a frame rate threshold.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the block search size is inversely proportional to the frame rate subtracted from the frame rate threshold.

34. The method of claim 18, wherein the order is set based on a coding scheme used to encode the video data.

35. An apparatus for performing motion estimation, the apparatus comprising:

means for identifying a number of candidate blocks of a frame of video data to be searched, at least one candidate block corresponding to a block of another frame of the video data;

means for selecting one or more of the candidate blocks to search based on a distance between the candidate blocks;

means for selecting a method for searching the selected candidate blocks based on a format of the video data; and

means for estimating the motion for the block of the another frame based on the selected method and the selected candidate blocks.

36. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions, the instructions causing an apparatus to:

identify a number of candidate blocks of a frame of video data to be searched, at least one candidate block corresponding to a block of another frame of the video data;

select one or more of the candidate blocks to search based on a distance between the candidate blocks;

select a method for searching the selected candidate blocks based on a format of the video data; and

estimate the motion for the block of the another frame based on the selected method and the selected candidate blocks.