Enhancement of decompressed video

• US 7,805,019 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Issued: 09/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rateze Remote Mgmt. L.L.C. (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Semion M. Sheraizin, Vitaly S. Sheraizin
• Inventors: Sheraizin, Vitaly S., Sheraizin, Semion M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chawan; Sheela C
• Application Number:
  US12/316,168
• Publication Number:
  US 20090161754A1
• Time in Patent Office: 657 Days
• Field of Search: 382/275, 382/300, 382/254, 382/255, 382/260, 382/251, 382/266, 382/264, 382/263, 382/233, 382/253, 382/168, 382/172, 382/166, 370/229, 375/240.08, 375/240.12, 375/240.16, 375/240.01, 375/E7.094, 348/E5.067, 348/699, 347/43
• US Class Current: 382/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20182 Noise reduction or smoothing in the temporal domain; Spatio-temporal filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/20 using local operators
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/73 Deblurring; Sharpening
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/117 Filters, e.g. for pre-processing or post-processing sub-band filter banks H04N19/635
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/86 involving reduction of coding artifacts, e.g. of blockiness

Abstract

A method and apparatus for enhancing video quality by adaptively removing distortions and ringing effects embedded in decompressed video signals. The apparatus can operate in conjunction with decoder devices installed in set-top boxes, satellite receivers, TV broadcast channel servers, digital still cameras, DVD players and recorders, large screen TV sets, media players, and the like.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an estimation unit configured to generate, from decompressed video frames, visual quality parameters that describe an image in a particular frame of the decompressed video frames, the estimation unit being configured to generate the visual quality parameters based on a check of a block of pixels that was decompressed from a transformed block included in a compressed version of the particular frame; and

an enhancer unit configured to enhance the particular frame, using one or more of the visual quality parameters, to improve a visual quality of the image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the visual quality comprises one or both of an extent of distortion or an extent of ringing effect.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises a media player device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises at least one of:

a set-top box;

a satellite receiver;

a television (TV) broadcast channel server;

a TV set;

a digital still camera;

a digital videodisc (DVD) recorder;

or

a DVD player.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is configured to decompress frames from a signal encoded according to at least one of:

a joint photographic expert group (JPEG) technique;

a moving picture expert group (MPEG) technique;

an H-compression technique;

or

a Windows Media (WM) technique.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the estimation unit is further configured to generate the visual quality parameters based on a prediction determined from one or more other frames included in the decompressed video frames.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the visual quality parameters are based on a value that indicates a change in intensity for a particular pixel within the block of pixels between two consecutive frames in the decompressed video frames.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the check comprises counting high frequency components along edges of the block of pixels.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transformed block comprises a compressed version of a block of pixels included in the particular frame.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transformed block comprises an eight-by-eight (8×

8) block of pixels included in the particular frame.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the visual quality parameters indicate an extent of a visual defect associated with decompression of the compressed version of the particular frame.

12. A computer-implemented method comprising:

estimating, based on decompressed video frames, visual quality parameters that indicate a visual quality of an image in a particular frame of the decompressed video frames on a per frame basis, the visual quality parameters being estimated based on a check of blocks of pixels in the image that were decompressed from transformed blocks included in a compressed version of the particular frame; and

improving the visual quality of the image using one or more of the visual quality parameters.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the visual quality comprises one or both of an extent of distortion or an extent of ringing effect.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein estimating and improving are performed by a media player device.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein estimating and improving are performed by at least one of:

a set-top box;

a satellite receiver;

a television (TV) broadcast channel server;

a TV set;

a digital still camera;

a digital videodisc (DVD) recorder;

or

a DVD player.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising decompressing a video signal to provide the decompressed video frames, wherein the video signal is encoded according to at least one of:

a joint photographic expert group (JPEG) technique;

a moving picture expert group (MPEG) technique;

an H-compression technique;

or

a Windows Media (WM) technique.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the visual quality parameters are based on a value that indicates the image'"'"'s complexity.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the transformed block comprises a compressed version of a block of pixels included in the particular frame.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the transformed block comprises a compressed version of an eight-by-eight (8×

8) block of pixels included in the particular frame.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the visual quality parameters indicate an extent of a visual defect associated with decompression of the compressed version of the particular frame.

21. One or more computer-readable storage memories having instructions stored thereon that, responsive to being executed by one or more components of a video processing system, cause the one or more components to perform operations comprising:

estimating visual quality parameters for an image, based on a check of individual blocks of pixels obtained from transformed blocks of compressed video frames, that indicate a visual quality of the image in decompressed video frames obtained from the compressed video frames;

improving the visual quality of the image using one or more of the visual quality parameters.

22. One or more computer-readable storage memories of claim 21, wherein estimating the visual quality comprises estimating one or both of an extent of distortion or an extent of ringing effect.

23. One or more computer-readable storage memories of claim 21, wherein the estimating and improving are performed by a media player device.

24. One or more computer-readable storage memories of claim 21, wherein the estimating and improving are performed by at least one of:

a set-top box;

a satellite receiver;

a television (TV) broadcast channel server;

a TV set;

a digital still camera;

a digital videodisc (DVD) recorder;

or

a DVD player.

25. One or more computer-readable storage memories of claim 21, further comprising instructions that, responsive to being executed by the one or more components of the video processing system, cause the one or more components to perform operations including:

decompressing a video signal to provide the decompressed video frames, wherein the video signal is encoded according to at least one of;

a joint photographic expert group (JPEG) technique;

a moving picture expert group (MPEG) technique;

an H-compression technique;

or

a Windows Media (WM) technique.

26. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the visual quality parameters further comprise a value that indicates a change in intensity for a pixel, in the image, as represented between two consecutive decompressed video frames, and a value that indicates an extent of high contrast details in a pixel included in the image.

33. One or more computer-readable storage memories of claim 21, wherein estimating the visual quality parameters further comprises estimating a value that indicates a change in intensity for a pixel in the image between two consecutive frames of the decompressed video and a value that indicates an extent of high contrast details in a pixel included in the image.

27. A system comprising:

means for decompressing video frames of a video signal;

means for generating, from decompressed video frames, visual quality parameters that describe a distortion estimate for an image in a particular frame of the decompressed video frames, the distortion estimate being determined based on a block-by-block check of blocks of pixels in the particular frame that are obtained from transformed blocks included in a compressed version of the particular frame; and

means for improving a visual quality of the image using on one or more of the visual quality parameters.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the video signal is encoded according to at least one of:

a joint photographic expert group (JPEG) technique;

a moving picture expert group (MPEG) technique;

an H-compression technique;

or

a Windows Media (WM) technique.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the visual quality comprises one or both of an extent of distortion or an extent of ringing effect.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the extent of distortion and the extent of ringing effect are due to one or more of compression or decompression of the particular frame.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein the system comprises a media player device.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein the system comprises at least one of:

a set-top box;

a satellite receiver;

a television (TV) broadcast channel server;

a TV set;

a digital still camera;

a digital videodisc (DVD) recorder;

or

a DVD player.

34. The system of claim 27, wherein the distortion estimate comprises an estimate of a distortion in the particular frame due to one or more of compression or decompression of the particular frame.

35. The system of claim 27, wherein the transformed blocks respectively comprise compressed versions of eight-by-eight (8×

8) blocks of pixels included a video frame of the video signal.

36. An apparatus comprising:

an estimation unit configured to generate, from decompressed video frames, visual quality parameters that describe the decompressed video frames, the estimation unit comprising;

a distortion estimator configured to estimate one or more video frame distortion levels that are obtained from a check of respective blocks of pixels in a frame included in the decompressed video frames, wherein respective said blocks of pixels comprise decompressed versions of transformed blocks included in a compressed version of the frame;

a parameter estimator configured to estimate one or more image complexity values and one or more a per-pixel intensity changes; and

an analyzer configured to estimate one or more video frame high contrast small details levels.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the compressed version of the frame is compliant with at least one of:

a joint photographic expert group (JPEG) technique;

a moving picture expert group (MPEG) technique;

an H-compression technique;

or

a Windows Media (WM) technique.

38. The apparatus of claim 36, further comprising:

a controller unit configured to convert the visual quality parameters to control parameters for controlling processing of the decompressed video frames; and

an enhancer unit configured to improve a visual quality of an image in the decompressed video frames through use of the control parameters in processing the decompressed video frames.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the visual quality comprises one or both of an extent of distortion or ringing effect.

40. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the enhancer unit comprises an adaptive temporal processor configured to process the decompressed video frames to provide adaptive temporal processor output that is usable as a basis to reduce distortion in the image in comparison to the image without the adaptive temporal processor output applied.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the enhancer unit further comprises an adaptive spatial processor configured to process the adaptive temporal processor output to provide adaptive spatial processor output.

42. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the apparatus comprises a media playing device.

43. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the apparatus comprises at least one of:

a set-top box;

a satellite receiver;

a television (TV) broadcast channel server;

a TV set;

a digital still camera;

a digital videodisc (DVD) recorder;

or

a DVD player.

44. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the visual quality parameters indicate an extent of a visual defect associated with decompression of the compressed version of the frame.

45. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the transformed blocks respectively comprise compressed versions of eight-by-eight (8×

8) blocks of pixels included in the frame.