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

• US 8,520,009 B1
• Filed: 12/29/2009
• Issued: 08/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Lew, Stephen D., Amann, Garry W., Azar, Hassane S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tung, Kee M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wu, Sing-Wai
• Application Number:
  US12/649,188
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 345/501
• 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 non-transitory computer-readable medium including a shader program that, when executed by a programmable graphics processor, causes the programmable graphics processor to:

select a scaling filter to be applied to a source image to produce a destination image, wherein the scaling filter is stored within a filter texture map and is associated with a unique texture identification, and data associated with each pixel in the destination image includes a pair of filter texture map coordinates;

obtain a filter kernel phase for each pixel in the destination image; and

extract a fractional portion of each scaling filter texture map coordinate for each pixel in the destination image, wherein the fractional portion is used as the filter kernel phase for accessing the filter texture map.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the fractional portion represents a value greater than or equal to zero and less than one.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the programmable graphics processor is further configured to set a destination register to a fractional portion of a source register containing a texture map coordinate.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the source register includes a value represented in a floating-point format.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the source register includes a value represented in a fixed-point format.

6. A computing system, comprising:

a processor configured to execute a shader program comprising an instruction to;

select a scaling filter to be applied to a source image to produce a destination image, wherein the scaling filter is stored within a filter texture map and is associated with a unique texture identification, and data associated with each pixel in the destination image includes a pair of filter texture map coordinates;

obtain a filter kernel phase for each pixel in the destination image; and

extract a fractional portion of each scaling filter texture map coordinate for each pixel in the destination image, wherein the fractional portion is used as the filter kernel phase for accessing the filter texture map.

7. The computing system of claim 6, wherein the fractional portion represents a value greater than or equal to zero and less than one.

8. The computing system of claim 6, wherein the instruction is further configured to set a destination register to a fractional portion of a source register containing a texture map coordinate.

9. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the source register includes a value represented in a floating-point format.

10. The computing system of claim 8, wherein the source register includes a value represented in a fixed-point format.