Region of interest video coding

• US 6,490,319 B1
• Filed: 06/22/1999
• Issued: 12/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Yang, Liuyang
• Primary Examiner(s): BRITTON, HOWARD W
• Application Number:
  US09/337,788
• Time in Patent Office: 1,260 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.736, H04/N.750, 375/240.03, 375/240.08, 375/240.01
• US Class Current: 375/240.03
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/126 Details of normalisation or weighting functions, e.g. normalisation matrices or variable uniform quantisers
• 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 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding

Abstract

A video system and method allow for control of a video quality contrast between a region of interest of a video image and background of the video image. Quality contrast can be controlled in real-time as the video images are being transmitted. A video controller allows the quantization levels of the two regions of video image to be controlled by a user. A user interface provides a slider control to allow the user to easily adjust the contrast between the quantization levels.

Claims

1. A video system comprising:

a video compression device coupled to receive the video image represented by a first plurality of data bits from a video camera, the video compression device compresses the first plurality of data bits into a second plurality of data bits; and

a video compression controller coupled to the video compression device for selecting a first and second quantization level for use in compressing the first plurality of data bits, the first quantization level is used to compress a first region of the video image and the second quantization level is used to compress a second region of the video image, the first and second quantization levels selected in response to a requested quality contrast level.

2. The video system of claim 1 wherein the first region of the video image comprises a region of interest defined by the video compression device.

3. The video system of claim 1 wherein the first region of the video image comprises a region of interest defined by the video compression controller.

4. The video system of claim 1 wherein the video compression controller is a computer having a user input device for selecting a contrast level between the first and second regions of the video image.

5. The video system of claim 4 wherein the computer further comprises a monitor for displaying the video image and a graphical user interface for selecting the contrast level.

6. The video system of claim 1 wherein the first quantization level, Q_fore, is defined as:

Q_fore=Q_max−

λ

(Q_max−

Q_min), where Q_max is a maximum available quantization level where the first and second regions of the video image have no quality contrast differential, λ

is a contrast value representing the quality contrast level between the first and second regions of the video image, and Q_min is a quantization level for the first region such that the first and second regions of the video image have a maximum available quality contrast differential.

7. A video compression device comprising:

an input for receiving video data comprising a first plurality of bits;

an output for providing a second plurality of bits representing the received video data, the second plurality of bits has fewer bits than the first plurality of bits such that the received video data is compressed; and

a processor to compress the first plurality of bits according to a compression algorithm, the compression algorithm compresses a first portion of the video data using a first quantization level, and compresses a second portion of the video data using a second quantization level, where the first and second quantization levels are selected in response to a requested quality contrast level.

8. The video compression device of claim 7 wherein the first quantization level, Q_fore, is defined as:

Q_fore=Q_max−

λ

(Q_max−

Q_min), where Q_max is a maximum available quantization level where the first and second portions of the video data have no quality contrast differential, λ

is a contrast value representing a quality contrast level between the first and second portions of the video data, and Q_min is a quantization level where the first and second portions of the video data have a maximum available quality contrast differential.

9. The video compression device of claim 7 wherein the first portion of the video data is a region of interest defined by the processor.

10. A method of processing a video image, the method comprising:

establishing both a region of interest and a background region of the video image;

defining a quality contrast level between the region of interest and the background region;

determining a first quantization level used to compress data representing the region of interest in response to the defined quality contrast level; and

determining a second quantization level used to compress data representing the background region.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the region of interest and the background region are defined by a viewer of the video image.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the quality contrast level is defined by a viewer of the video image.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the first quantization level is determined using the quality contrast level and the maximum number of data bits available for representing a frame of the video image.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

receiving a first plurality of data bits representing the video image; and

compressing the first plurality of data bits into a second plurality of data bits using the first and second quantization levels.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the first quantization level, Q_fore, is defined as:

Q_fore=Q_max−

λ

(Q_max−

Q_min), where Q_max is a maximum available quantization level where the region of interest and the background region have no quality contrast differential, λ

is a contrast value representing a quality contrast level between the region of interest and the background region, and Q_min is a quantization level of the region of interest such that the region of interest and the background region have a maximum available quality contrast differential.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the quality contrast level differential is defined by a viewer of the video image using a graphical input device.

17. A computer readable medium containing computer instructions for instructing a processor to perform the method of:

displaying a video image on a monitor which is coupled to the processor;

establishing a quality contrast level between two regions of the video image in response to a user controlled input device; and

providing control signals to an external video signal compression device to adjust the quality contrast level between the two regions of the video image.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to instruct the processor to display a graphical user interface for establishing the quality contrast level.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 17 further comprising instructions to instruct the processor to calculate first and second compression quantization levels for respectively compressing data representing the two regions of the video image.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the processor adjusts the quality contrast level between the two regions of the video image in response to the user controlled input device.