Systems and methods for encoding and decoding

• US 9,154,797 B2
• Filed: 08/17/2011
• Issued: 10/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vcodex Ltd.
• Original Assignee: OneCodec Limited (Vcodex Ltd.)
• Inventors: Richardson, Iain E., Bystrom, Maja
• Primary Examiner(s): SENFI, BEHROOZ M
• Application Number:
  US13/212,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20120072225A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,511 Days
• Field of Search: 37524001-24029, 469/408, 469/409, 469/418, 469/419, 469/420, 469/699, 469/441, 469/445, 469/469
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/12 Selection from among a plurality of transforms or standards, e.g. selection between discrete cosine transform [DCT] and sub-band transform or selection between H.263 and H.264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards

Abstract

Systems and methods for encoding and decoding are disclosed. The systems and methods include multimedia decoder instantiation systems and multimedia processing engines which are capable of being upgraded or reconfigured to support a new or previously-unsupported compression format, without the need for platform-specific software or hardware upgrades.

Claims

1. A multimedia processing engine comprising:

a coding decision component comprising;

a plurality of functionality evaluator/estimators each receiving one or more functionalities from a functionality input, evaluating the received functionalities for multimedia data based on objective and/or subjective criteria, and creating a value result for each criterion;

a comparator which determines an encoding functionality for encoding multimedia data by comparing the value results of the criteria for each functionality and/or the overall measure of each functionality; and

which

determines a decoding functionality corresponding to the encoding functionality by comparing the value results of the criteria for each functionality and/or the overall measure of each functionality;

said multimedia processing engine further comprising;

an encoder that encodes the multimedia data using the determined encoding functionality; and

a processing unit that prepares the encoded multimedia data and the determined decoding functionality for communication to a decoder, wherein said decoding functionality includes syntax elements for reconfiguring the decoder.

2. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, further comprising a content analyzer configured to analyze the multimedia data for one or more characteristics of the multimedia data, and wherein the at least one parameter comprises at least one of the one or more characteristics.

3. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein the parameter is based on a channel for transmitting the functionality.

4. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein the parameter is at least one of:

a power source of the decoder, a processing power of the decoder, a memory availability of the decoder, and an available configuration time period.

5. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein the parameter is a user input.

6. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes a multiplexer.

7. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes a source encoder.

8. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein the processing unit includes a channel encoder.

9. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein the functionality evaluator/estimators create a measure as a result that is a weighted value based on each of the value results for each criterion.

10. The multimedia processing engine of claim 9 wherein the measure is a cost function.

11. The multimedia processing engine of claim 10 wherein the cost function includes one or more of:

the rate or estimated rate of compressed data plus configuration information and overhead;

a complexity allowance of the encoder; and

a complexity allowance of one or more receivers.

12. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein one of the functionality evaluator/estimators is used to store the functionality used for at least one of compressing or decompressing a previous coding unit of multimedia data.

13. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein one or more of the functionality evaluator/estimators is configured to evaluate one or more coding units of multimedia data for one or more characteristics for a given functionality by encoding or decoding the coding unit(s) using the functionality and evaluating each criterion of the encoded coding unit.

14. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein one or more of the functionality evaluator/estimators is configured to evaluate one or more coding units of multimedia data for one or more criteria for a given functionality by estimating the value of each criterion of the coding unit if the coding unit were to be one of at least encoded or decoded using the functionality.

15. The multimedia processing engine of claim 1, wherein one or more of the functionality evaluator/estimators is configured to receive feedback information which is utilized to evaluate the functionalities for a coding unit of the multimedia data.

16. The multimedia processing engine of claim 15, wherein the feedback information includes one or more of the following data:

buffer levels of the encoder and a decoder, channel quality of any communication channels on which the data are sent from a transmitter to a receiver, allocated channel bandwidth of such communication channels, a receiver type and receiver resource status.

17. The multimedia processing engine of claim 16, wherein the receiver type is at least one of the following:

battery-operated, not battery operated, mobile, and non-mobile.

18. The multimedia processing engine of claim 17, wherein the receiver resource status includes at least one of a receiver buffer capacity, a battery level and a processor utilization).