Method and apparatus for effectively compressing motion vectors in video coder based on multi-layer

• US 7,889,793 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2005
• Issued: 02/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Jae-young, Ha, Ho-jin, Lee, Kyo-hyuk, Cha, Sang-chang, Han, Woo-jin, Lee, Bae-keun
• Primary Examiner(s): Desire; Gregory M
• Application Number:
  US11/254,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20060088101A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,944 Days
• Field of Search: 375/240.03, 375/240.16, 375/240.24, 375/E7.09, 375/E7.092, 375/E7.253, 382/232, 382/233, 382/236, 382/244
• US Class Current: 375/240.16
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/31 in the temporal domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/51 Motion estimation or motion compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/517 by encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/577 Motion compensation with bidirectional frame interpolation, i.e. using B-pictures

Abstract

A method and apparatus of improving the compression efficiency of a motion vector by efficiently predicting a motion vector in an enhancement layer from a motion vector in a base layer in a video coding method using a multi-layer are provided. The method includes obtaining a motion vector in a base layer frame having a first frame rate from an input frame, obtaining a motion vector in a first enhancement layer frame having a second frame rate from the input frame, the second frame rate being greater than the first frame rate, generating a predicted motion vector by referring to a motion vector for at least one frame among base layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame if there is no base layer frame at the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame, and coding a difference between the motion vector in the first enhancement layer frame and the generated predicted motion vector, and the obtained motion vector in the base layer.

Claims

1. A method for efficiently compressing multi-layered motion vectors, the method comprising:

(a) obtaining, by a video encoder, a motion vector in a base layer frame having a first frame rate from an input frame;

(b) obtaining, by the video encoder, a motion vector in a first enhancement layer frame having a second frame rate from the input frame, the second frame rate being greater than the first frame rate;

(c) generating, by the video encoder, a predicted motion vector by referring to a motion vector for at least one frame among base layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame if there is no base layer frame at the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame; and

(d) coding, by a video encoder, a difference between the motion vector in the first enhancement layer frame and the generated predicted motion vector, and the obtained motion vector in the base layer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein operation (c) comprises:

(c1) generating a predicted motion vector by referring to the motion vector in the base layer frame if there is a base layer frame at the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

(e) obtaining a motion vector in a second enhancement layer frame having a third frame rate from the input frame, the third frame rate being greater than the first frame rate;

(f) generating a predicted motion vector for the second enhancement layer frame, comprising (f1) generating a predicted motion vector by referring to the motion vector in the first enhancement layer frame if there is the first enhancement layer frame at the same temporal position as the second enhancement layer frame, (f2) if not, generating a predicted motion vector for the second enhancement layer frame by referring to a motion vector for at least one frame among first enhancement layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as the second enhancement layer frame; and

(g) coding a difference between the motion vector in the second enhancement layer frame and the predicted motion vector in the generated second enhancement layer frame.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein operation (c1) comprises:

(c11) filtering the motion vectors in the base layer frame having a spatial correlation with the motion vector in the first enhancement layer frame using a predetermined filter; and

(c12) if the resolution of the base layer frame is not the same as the resolution of the first enhancement layer, upsampling the motion vector resulting from the filtering such that the motion vector becomes as large as the motion vector in the first enhancement layer.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the filtering is performed with different weighted factors assigned to the respective motion vectors according to the spatial correlation.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein operation (c) comprises:

(c21) interpolating a virtual motion vector in the base layer frame by referring to the motion vector in the base layer frame present immediately before and after the temporal position; and

(c22) if the resolution of the base layer frame is not the same as the resolution of the first enhancement layer, generating the predicted motion vector by upsampling the interpolated virtual motion vector to be as large as the motion vector in the first enhancement layer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein operation (c21) comprises interpolating the virtual motion vector in the base layer frame by assigning a high referring ratio of a base layer frame having a relatively large motion vector uniformity among base layer frames present immediately before and after the temporal position.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein operation (c21) comprises:

(c211) among motion vectors in the base layer frames present immediately before the same temporal position as the enhancement layer frame, filtering motion vectors in the base layer frame having a spatial correlation with a motion vector in the enhancement layer frame using a predetermined filter;

(c212) among motion vectors in the base layer frames present immediately after the same temporal position as the enhancement layer frame, filtering motion vectors in the base layer frame having a spatial correlation with a motion vector in the enhancement layer frame using the predetermined filter; and

(c213) interpolating the virtual motion vector by applying a predetermined algorithm to the filtering results of operations (c211) and (c212).

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium having embodied thereon a computer readable program for executing the method of claim 1.

10. A method for efficiently encoding multi-layered motion vectors, the method comprising:

(a) obtaining a motion vector in a base layer frame having a first frame rate from an input frame;

(b) obtaining a motion vector in a first enhancement layer frame having a second frame rate from the input frame, the second frame rate being greater than the first frame rate;

(c) generating a predicted motion vector by referring to a motion vector for at least one frame among base layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame if there is no base layer frame at the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame;

(d) lossy coding texture data of the base layer frame using the motion vector of the base layer frame;

(e) coding a difference between the motion vector in the first enhancement layer frame and the generated predicted motion vector, and the obtained motion vector in the base layer; and

(f) losslessly coding a difference between the motion vector in the first enhancement layer frame and the generated predicted motion vector, the motion vector in the base layer frame, the lossy coded result of operation (d), and the lossy coded result of operation (e).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein operation (c) comprises:

(c1) generating a predicted motion vector by referring to the motion vector in the base layer frame if there is a base layer frame at the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame.

12. A multi-layered video encoding method comprising:

(a) obtaining a motion vector in a base layer frame having a first frame rate from an input frame;

(b) generating a motion vector by referring to a motion vector for at least one frame among base layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as a first enhancement layer frame if there is no base layer frame at the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame;

(c) lossy coding texture data of the base layer frame using the motion vector of the base layer frame;

(d) lossy coding texture data of the first enhancement layer frame using the motion vector of the first enhancement layer frame; and

(e) losslessly coding the motion vector in the base layer frame, the lossy coded result of operation (c), and the lossy coded result of operation (d).

13. A multi-layered video decoding method comprising:

(a) extracting base layer data and enhancement layer data from an input bitstream;

(b) if there is no base layer frame at the same temporal position as a first enhancement layer frame, generating a motion vector of the first enhancement layer frame by referring to the motion vector for at least one frame among base layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame;

(c) reconstructing the motion vector of the enhancement layer using the generated predicted motion vector; and

(d) reconstructing a video sequence from texture data of the enhancement layer using the reconstructed motion vector of the enhancement layer.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein operation (b) comprises:

(b1) if there is a base layer frame at the same temporal position as the enhancement layer frame, generating a predicted motion vector by referring to the motion vector of the base layer frame.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein operation (b1) comprises:

(b11) filtering motion vectors in the base layer frame having a spatial correlation with a motion vector in the enhancement layer frame using a predetermined filter; and

(b12) if the resolution of the base layer frame is not the same as the resolution of the first enhancement layer, generating the predicted motion vector by upsampling the motion vector generated resulting from the filtering to be as large as the motion vector in the enhancement layer.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the filtering is performed with different weighted factors assigned to the respective motion vectors according to the spatial correlation.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein operation (b) comprises:

(b21) interpolating the virtual motion vector of the base layer frame by referring to motion vectors in base layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as the first enhancement layer frame; and

(b22) if the resolution of the base layer frame is not the same as the resolution of the first enhancement layer, generating the predicted motion vector by upsampling the interpolated virtual motion vector to be as large as the motion vector of the enhancement layer.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein operation (b21) comprises interpolating the virtual motion vector in the base layer frame by assigning a high referring ratio of a base layer frame having a relatively large motion vector uniformity among base layer frames present immediately before and after the temporal position.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein operation (b21) comprises:

(b211) among motion vectors in the base layer frames present immediately before the same temporal position as the enhancement layer frame, filtering motion vectors in the base layer frame having a spatial correlation with a motion vector in the enhancement layer frame using a predetermined filter;

(b212) among motion vectors in the base layer frames present immediately after the same temporal position as the enhancement layer frame, filtering motion vectors in the base layer frame having a spatial correlation with a motion vector in the enhancement layer frame using the predetermined filter; and

(b213) interpolating the virtual motion vector by applying a predetermined algorithm to the filtering results of operations (b211) and (b212).

20. A multi-layered video decoding method comprising:

(a) extracting base layer data and enhancement layer data from an input bitstream;

(b) if there is no base layer frame at the same temporal position as an enhancement layer frame, reconstructing a motion vector in the enhancement layer frame by referring to at least one frame among base layer frames present immediately before and after the same temporal position as the enhancement layer frame; and

(c) reconstructing a video sequence from texture data of the enhancement layer using the reconstructed motion vector of the enhancement layer.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein operation (b) comprises reconstructing the motion vector in the enhancement layer by referring to the base layer frame if there is a base layer frame at the same temporal position as the enhancement layer frame.