Method and apparatus for filtering video data using a programmable graphics processor

• US 7,876,378 B1
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Issued: 01/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Amann, Garry W., Azar, Hassane S., Lew, Stephen D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Trang U
• Application Number:
  US11/957,361
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 3484261-4271, 348/441, 348/443, 348/447, 348699-701, 348/604, 382/233, 345/531, 345/501, 345/426, 345/852, 345/559, 345430-431
• US Class Current: 348/420.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/86 involving reduction of coding artifacts, e.g. of blockiness
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/01 Conversion of standards , e.g. involving analogue television standards or digital television standards processed at pixel level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/012 Conversion between an interlaced and a progressive signal for graphics images G09G2310/0229

Abstract

Video filtering using a programmable graphics processor is described. The programmable graphics processor may be programmed to complete a plurality of video filtering operations in a single pass through a fragment-processing pipeline within the programmable graphics processor. Video filtering functions such as deinterlacing, chroma up-sampling, scaling, and deblocking may be performed by the fragment-processing pipeline. The fragment-processing pipeline may be programmed to perform motion adaptive deinterlacing, wherein a spatially variant filter determines, on a pixel basis, whether a “bob”, a “blend”, or a “weave” operation should be used to process an interlaced image.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for performing video filtering, the method comprising:

receiving an input video signal into a shading pipeline within a programmable graphics processor;

receiving a codeword that specifies a programmable computation unit (PCU) within the shading pipeline and configures the PCU to filter the input video signal; and

applying a deblocking function on the input video signal in a single pass of the shading pipeline to produce deblocked video data when a deblocking enable field within the codeword is activated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the deblocking function is a spatially dependent function.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the deblocking function is a data dependent function.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the deblocking function filters horizontally aligned pixels or vertically aligned pixels.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the deblocking function filters pixels within a two-dimensional region.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the deblocking function compares pixel color data along horizontal block boundaries and along vertical block boundaries.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the video filtering method further comprises:

applying at least one of a chroma up-sampling function, a reverse gamma correction function, a gamma correction function, and a color space conversion function within the shading pipeline.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the single pass, additional functions are also applied to the input video signal.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein additional functions comprise at least one of chroma up-sampling, deinterlacing, scaling and color space conversion.

8. A computing system comprising:

a host processor;

a host memory, the host memory storing programs for the host processor;

a system interface configured to interface with the host processor; and

a programmable graphics processor for performing video filtering configured to;

receive an input video signal into a shading pipeline,

receive a codeword that specifies a programmable computation unit (PCU) within the shading pipeline and configures the PCU to filter the input video signal, and

apply a deblocking function on the input video signal in a single pass of the shading pipeline to produce deblocked video data when a deblocking enable field within the codeword is activated.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the programmable graphics processor is further configured to apply at least one of a chroma up-sampling function, a reverse gamma correction function, a gamma correction function, and a color space conversion function within the shading pipeline.

12. The computing system of claim 8, wherein, in the single pass, additional functions are also applied to the input video signal.

13. The computing system of claim 12, wherein, additional functions comprise at least one of chroma up-sampling, deinterlacing, scaling and color space conversion.