Television system in which digitized picture signals subjected to a transform coding are transmitted from an encoding station to a decoding station

• US 4,849,812 A
• Filed: 02/24/1988
• Issued: 07/18/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/1987
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: De With, Peter H. M., De Bruijne, Roeland P., Borgers, Stephanus M. C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Britton, Howard W.
• Application Number:
  US07/160,053
• Time in Patent Office: 510 Days
• Field of Search: 358/133, 358/105, 358/135, 358/136, 375/27
• US Class Current: 348/400.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/112 according to a given display mode, e.g. for interlaced or progressive display mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/137 Motion inside a coding unit, e.g. average field, frame or block difference
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding

Abstract

Television system in which digitalized picture signals subjected to a transform coding are transmitted from an encoding station to a decoding station. In a television system a digital picture signal is subjected to a transform coding for the purpose of bit rate reduction. In order to detect motion effects between the two fields of a picture, these fields are also examined in a motion detector 8310. If no motion is detected, intraframe transform is employed and if motion is detected intrafield transform is employed. Small motion effects can be eliminated by subjecting the picture signal to a median filtering before subjecting it to an intraframe transform.

Claims

1. A television system in which digitized television signals are transmitted from an encoding station to a decoding station, in which the encoding station is provided with an encoding circuit to which the picture signal is applied and which is adapted to perform a transform coding in which groups of picture signals samples are converted into respective groups of coefficients which are transmitted to the decoding station, in which said decoding station is provided with a decoding circuit which is adapted to subject each received group of coefficients to an inverse transform for converting said group of coefficients into a group of picture signal samples which corresponds to the original group of picture signal samples, characterized in that the encoding circuit is provided with a transform circuit having both an intrafield mode and an intraframe transform mode, a motion detector to which the picture signal is applied and which supplies an indication signal indicating whether an object in a picture has undergone a displacement during the period between the two successive fields of this picture which displacement is noticeable within a group of picture signal samples to be transformed, and means for selecting, in response to the indication signal, the coefficients obtained by means of the intrafield transform mode to transmit them to the decoding station if such a displacement has occurred and for selecting the coefficients obtained by means of the intraframe transform mode to transmit them to the decoding station if such a displacement has not occurred;

and in that the decoding circuit is provided with an inverse transform circuit using an inverse intrafield transform mode and an inverse intraframe transform mode to which the coefficients are applied, and means for regenerating the indication signal and for selecting in response thereto, and for the purpose of display, the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intrafield transform mode, or the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intraframe transform mode.

2. An encoding station for use in a television system as claimed in claim 1, and provided with an encoding circuit to which a picture signal is applied and which is adapted to perform a transform in which groups of picture signal samples are converted into respective groups of coefficients for transmission to a decoding station, characterized in that the encoding station is provided with, a transform circuit having both an intrafield transform mode and an intraframe transform mode, a motion detector to which the picture signal is applied and which supplies an indication signal indicating whether an object in a picture has undergone a displacement during the period between two successive fields of this picture which displacement is noticeable within a group of picture signal samples to be transformed, and means for selecting, in response to the indication signal, the coefficients obtained by means of the intrafield transform to transmit them to the decoding station if such a displacement has occurred and to select the coefficients obtained by means of the intraframe transform to transmit them to the decoding station if such a displacement has not occurred.

3. An encoding station as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that the encoding circuit is also provided with a filtering device for performing a median filtering on two successive fields of a picture and in that the output samples of said filtering device are subjected only to the intraframe transform.

4. A decoding station for use in a television system as claimed in claim 1, which decoding station is provided with a decoding circuit adapted to subject each group of coefficients received to an inverse transform for converting said group of coefficients into a group of picture signal samples which corresponds to the original group of picture signal samples, characterized in that the decoding circuit is provided with, an inverse transform circuit using an inverse intra-field transform mode and an inverse intraframe transform mode to which the received groups of coefficients, are applied and means for generating the indication signal and for selecting in response thereto, and for the purpose of display, the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intrafield transform or the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intraframe transform.

5. A decoding station for the reception of groups of coefficients which are supplied by an encoding station as claimed in claim 2, which decoding station is provided with a decoding circuit adapted to subject each group of coefficients received to an inverse transform for converting said group of coefficients into a group of picture signal samples which corresponds to the original group of picture signal samples, characterized in that the decoding circuit is provided with, an inverse transform circuit using an inverse intrafield transform mode and an inverse intraframe transform mode to which the received groups of coefficients, are applied and means for generating the indication signal and for selecting in response thereto, and for the purpose of display, the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intrafield transform or the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intraframe transform.

6. A decoding station for the reception of groups of coefficients which are supplied by an encoding station as claimed in claim 3, which decoding station is provided with a decoding circuit adapted to subject each group of coefficients received to an inverse transform for converting said group of coefficients into a group of picture signal samples which corresponds to the original group of picture signal samples, characterized in that the decoding circuit is provided with, an inverse transform circuit using an inverse intrafield transform mode and an inverse intraframe transform mode to which the received groups of coefficients, are applied and means for generating the indication signal and for selecting in response thereto, and for the purpose of display, the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intrafield transform or the video signal samples obtained in accordance with the inverse intraframe transform.