Block-based interleaving

• US 9,215,445 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2011
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Horlander, Thomas Edward, Dorini, Brian Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr., William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): PEREZ FUENTES, LUIS M
• Application Number:
  US13/575,803
• Publication Number:
  US 20120300843A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,782 Days
• Field of Search: 375/240.12
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/161 Encoding, multiplexing or demultiplexing different image signal components for multi-view video sequence encoding H04N19/597
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/172 image signals comprising non-image signal components, e.g. headers or format information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/11 among a plurality of spatial predictive coding modes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• 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 19/593 involving spatial prediction techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/597 specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding

Abstract

At least one implementation interleaves blocks from a stereo-image pair and enables intra-coding of the interleaved image using corresponding blocks as references. One particular implementation accesses a first image that includes multiple blocks, one of which is a first-image block. A second image is accessed that includes multiple blocks, one of which is a second-image block that has overlapping content with the first-image block. The multiple blocks of the first and second images are interleaved on a block basis to form an interleaved image. At least a portion of the interleaved image is encoded by encoding the first-image block using the second-image block as a reference. Another implementation provides the encoded portion in signal. Yet another implementation accesses the encoded image and decodes the portion by using the second-image block as a reference.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing a first image that includes multiple blocks, the multiple blocks of the first image including a first-image block,

wherein the first-image block is a macroblock;

accessing a second image that includes multiple blocks, the multiple blocks of the second image including a second-image block that has overlapping content with the first-image block,

wherein the first image and the second image are stereo image pairs;

interleaving the multiple blocks of the first image and the multiple blocks of the second image on a block basis to form an interleaved image,

the interleaved image being a composite image of the first image and the second image;

encoding at least a portion of the interleaved image by encoding the first-image block using the second-image block as a reference,

wherein encoding the first-image block comprises identifying the second-image block based on a value of disparity for the first-image block; and

providing the encoded first-image block for transmission or storage.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the encoding comprises H.264 encoding using an intra-coding mode of H.264.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein interleaving comprises interleaving blocks based on relative positions in the first image and the second image.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein interleaving comprises interleaving blocks based on a value of disparity for the multiple blocks in the first image.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first-image block and the second-image block are neighbor blocks in the interleaved image.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein interleaving comprises:

determining that the first-image block and the second-image block correspond to each other based on disparity; and

interleaving the first-image block and the second-image block so that they are neighbors in the interleaved image.

6. A processor readable medium having stored thereon instructions that cause one or more processors to collectively:

access a first image that includes multiple blocks, the multiple blocks of the first image including a first-image block,

wherein the first-image block is a macroblock;

access a second image that includes multiple blocks, the multiple blocks of the second image including a second-image block that has overlapping content with the first-image block,

wherein the first image and the second image are stereo Image pairs;

interleave the multiple blocks of the first image and the multiple blocks of the second image on a block basis to form an interleaved image,

the interleaved image being a composite image of the first image and the second image;

encode at least a portion of the interleaved image by encoding the first-image block using the second-image block as a reference,

wherein encoding the first-image block comprises identifying the second-image block based on a value of disparity for the first-image block; and

provide the encoded first-image block for transmission or storage.

19. The processor readable medium of claim 6 wherein the encoding comprises H.264 encoding using an intra-coding mode of H.264.

20. The processor readable medium of claim 6 wherein blocks are interleaved based on relative positions in the first image and the second image.

21. The processor readable medium of claim 6 wherein blocks are interleaved based on a value of disparity for the multiple blocks in the first image.

22. The processor readable medium of claim 6 wherein the first-image block and the second-image block are neighbor blocks in the interleaved image.

23. The processor readable medium of claim 6 wherein blocks are interleaved by:

determining that the first-image block and the second-image block correspond to each other based on disparity; and

interleaving the first-image block and the second-image block so that they are neighbors in the interleaved image.

7. An apparatus comprising:

one or more processors collectively configured to;

access a first image that includes multiple blocks, the multiple blocks of the first image including a first-image block,

wherein the first-image block is a macroblock,

access a second image that includes multiple blocks, the multiple blocks of the second image including a second-image block that has overlapping content with the first-image block,

wherein the first image and the second image are stereo image pairs, and

interleave the multiple blocks of the first image and the multiple blocks of the second image on a block basis to form an interleaved image,

the interleaved image being a composite image of the first image and the second image; and

an encoder to encode at least a portion of the interleaved image by encoding the first-image block using the second-image block as a reference,

wherein encoding the first-image block comprises identifying the second-image block based on a value of disparity for the first-image block, and

provide the encoded first-image block for transmission or storage.

24. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the encoding comprises H.264 encoding using an intra-coding mode of H.264.

25. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein blocks are interleaved based on relative positions in the first image and the second image.

26. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein blocks are interleaved based on a value of disparity for the multiple blocks in the first image.

27. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the first-image block and the second-image block are neighbor blocks in the interleaved image.

28. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein blocks are interleaved by:

determining that the first-image block and the second-image block correspond to each other based on disparity; and

interleaving the first-image block and the second-image block so that they are neighbors in the interleaved image.

8. A method comprising:

accessing an encoded image, the encoded image being an encoding of a block-based interleaving of multiple blocks of a first image and multiple blocks of a second image,

the multiple blocks of the first image including a first-image block that is a macroblock, and

the multiple blocks of the second image including a second-image block that has overlapping content with the first-image block,

wherein the first image and the second image are stereo image pairs;

decoding a portion of the encoded image that encodes the first-image block using the second-image block as a reference,

wherein decoding the first-image block comprises identifying the second-image block based on a value of disparity for the first-image block;

and providing the decoded portion for processing or display.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

decoding the encoded image to produce a decoded image that includes the decoded portion; and

deinterleaving the decoded image to produce a deinterleaved image including at least a reconstruction of the first image and a reconstruction of the second image.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the decoding comprises H.264 decoding using an intra-coding mode of H.264.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the block-based interleaving comprises an interleaving of blocks based on relative positions in the first image and the second image.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the block-based interleaving comprises interleaving blocks based on a value of disparity for the multiple blocks in the first image.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the first-image block and the second-image block are neighbor blocks in an interleaved image, the interleaved image being a composite image of the first image and the second image.

18. The method of claim 8 wherein interleaving comprises:

determining that the first-image block and the second-image block correspond to each other based on disparity; and

interleaving the first-image block and the second-image block so that they are neighbors in the interleaved image.

14. A processor readable medium having stored thereon instructions that cause one or more processors to collectively:

access an encoded image, the encoded image being an encoding of a block-based interleaving of multiple blocks of a first image and multiple blocks of a second image,

the multiple blocks of the first image including a first-image block that is a macroblock, and

the multiple blocks of the second image including a second-image block that has overlapping content with the first-image block,

wherein the first image and the second image are stereo image pairs,

decode a portion of the encoded image that encodes the first-image block using the second-image block as a reference,

wherein decoding the first-image block comprises identifying the second-image block based on a value of disparity for the first-image block,

and provide the decoded portion for processing or display.

29. The processor readable medium of claim 14 further comprising instructions that cause one or more processors to collectively:

decode the encoded image to produce a decoded image that includes the decoded portion; and

deinterleave the decoded image to produce a deinterleaved image including at least a reconstruction of the first image and a reconstruction of the second image.

30. The processor readable medium of claim 14 wherein the portion of the encoded image is decoded by H.264 decoding using an intra-coding mode of H.264.

31. The processor readable medium of claim 14 wherein the block-based interleaving comprises an interleaving of blocks based on relative positions in the first image and the second image.

32. The processor readable medium of claim 14 wherein the block-based interleaving comprises interleaving blocks based on a value of disparity for the multiple blocks in the first image.

33. The processor readable medium of claim 14 wherein the first-image block and the second-image block are neighbor blocks in an interleaved image, the interleaved image being a composite image of the first image and the second image.

34. The processor readable medium of claim 14 wherein the interleaving comprises:

determining that the first-image block and the second-image block correspond to each other based on disparity; and

interleaving the first-image block and the second-image block so that they are neighbors in the interleaved image.

15. An apparatus comprising a decoder configured to perform:

accessing an encoded image, the encoded image being an encoding of a block-based interleaving of multiple blocks of a first image and multiple blocks of a second image,

the multiple blocks of the first image including a first-image block that is a macroblock, and the multiple blocks of the second image including a second-image block that has overlapping content with the first-image block,

wherein the first image and the second image are stereo image pairs,

decoding a portion of the encoded image that encodes the first-image block using the second-image block as a reference,

wherein decoding the first-image block comprises identifying the second-image block based on a value of disparity for the first-image block,

and providing the decoded portion for processing or display.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the decoder is part of an encoder.

35. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the decoder is further configured to perform:

decoding the encoded image to produce a decoded image that includes the decoded portion; and

deinterleaving the decoded image to produce a deinterleaved image including at least a reconstruction of the first image and a reconstruction of the second image.

36. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the decoding comprises H.264 decoding using an intra-coding mode of H.264.

37. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the block-based interleaving comprises an interleaving of blocks based on relative positions in the first image and the second image.

38. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the block-based interleaving comprises interleaving blocks based on a value of disparity for the multiple blocks in the first image.

39. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the first-image block and the second-image block are neighbor blocks in an interleaved image the interleaved image being a composite image of the first image and the second image.

40. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein interleaving comprises:

determining that the first-image block and the second-image block correspond to each other based on disparity; and

interleaving the first-image block and the second-image block so that they are neighbors in the interleaved image.