Video quality adaptation based upon scenery

• US 8,687,114 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2011
• Issued: 04/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bennett, James D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harold, Jefferey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rahman, Mustafizur
• Application Number:
  US13/312,522
• Publication Number:
  US 20120075525A1
• Time in Patent Office: 847 Days
• Field of Search: 348/441, 348/448, 348/458, 348/700, 348/95, 348/51, 348/412.1, 348/426.1, 348/456, 348/446, 375/240.26, 375/240.01, 345/428, 345/698
• US Class Current: 348/441
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/156 Availability of hardware or computational resources, e.g. encoding based on power-saving criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/587 involving temporal sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. decimation or subsequent interpolation of pictures in a video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution

Abstract

Operating on video frames includes determining a frame set backdrop of a set of video frames that is a characterization of the relative difference in content of the set of video frames. Decreasing video quality of the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher indicating relatively greater content difference among video frames of the set of video frames and increasing/leaving quality of the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower indicating relatively lesser content difference among video frames of the set of video frames. Alteration of video quality of the set of video frames includes altering a frame rate, altering a pixel resolution, and/or altering color resolution of the set of video frames and/or altering a ratio of independent frames to predictive frames of the set of frames.

Claims

1. A processing device that operates on a set of video frames, the processing device comprising:

at least one communication interface; and

processing circuitry coupled to the at least one communication interface and operable to;

determine a frame set backdrop for the set of video frames, the frame set backdrop a characterization of the relative difference in content among video frames of the set of video frames;

decrease video quality of the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher indicating relatively greater content difference among video frames of the set of video frames; and

increasing/leaving quality of the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower indicating relatively lesser content difference among video frames of the set of video frames.

2. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry and communication interface are further operable to:

receive the set of video frames from a source device; and

process the set of video frames based upon recipient device characteristics; and

transmit the processed set of video frames to a recipient device.

3. The processing device of claim 2, wherein the recipient device characteristics are selected from the group consisting of at least:

recipient device display characteristics;

recipient device decoder characteristics;

recipient device battery life; and

recipient device processing availability.

4. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further operable to:

process the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames having a lesser frame rate than the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher; and

process the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames having an equivalent frame rate to the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower.

5. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further operable to:

process the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames having a lesser pixel resolution than the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher; and

process the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames having an equivalent pixel resolution to the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower.

6. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further operable to:

process the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames having a lesser color resolution than the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher; and

process the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames having an equivalent color resolution to the set of video frames when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower.

7. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is operable to select the set of video frames from a larger set of video frames based upon content of video frames of the larger set of video frames.

8. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the frame set backdrop is determined based upon a background portion of the set of video frames.

9. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the frame set backdrop is determined based upon a foreground portion of the set of video frames.

10. The processing device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further operable to process the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames by altering a ratio of independent frames to predictive frames such that the set of processed frames has a differing ratio of independent frames to predictive frames than does the set of frames.

11. A method for operating on a set of video frames comprising:

receiving the set of video frames via a communication interface;

determining a frame set backdrop from the set of video frames that is a characterization of the relative difference in content of the set of video frames;

when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher indicating relatively greater content difference among the set of video frames, adjusting quality of the set of video by decreasing video quality of the set of video frames;

when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower indicating relatively lesser content difference among the set of video frames, increasing/leaving quality of the set of video frames; and

transmitting the set of video frames to a recipient device via the communication device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising processing the set of video frames based upon recipient device characteristics selected from the group consisting of at least:

recipient device display characteristics;

recipient device decoder characteristics;

recipient device battery life; and

recipient device processing availability.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher, producing a processed set of video frames having a lesser frame rate than the set of video frames; and

when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower, producing a processed set of video frames having an equivalent frame rate to the set of video frames.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher, producing a processed set of video frames having a lesser pixel resolution than the set of video frames; and

when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower, producing a processed set of video frames having an equivalent pixel resolution to the set of video frames.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

when the frame set backdrop is relatively higher, producing a processed set of video frames having a lesser color resolution than the set of video frames; and

when the frame set backdrop is relatively lower, producing a processed set of video frames having an equivalent color resolution to the set of video frames.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising selecting a set of video frames from the video frames by selecting the set of video frames from a larger set of video frames based upon content of video frames of the larger set of video frames.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the frame set backdrop is determined based upon a background portion of the set of video frames.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the frame set backdrop is determined based upon a background portion of the set of video frames.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the frame set backdrop is selected based upon a foreground portion of the set of video frames.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising processing the set of video frames to produce a processed set of video frames by altering a ratio of independent frames to predictive frames such that the set of processed frames has a differing ratio of independent frames to predictive frames than does the set of frames.