Power and computational load management techniques in video processing

• US 9,462,326 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2011
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Raveendran, Vijayalakshmi R.
• Primary Examiner(s): PRINCE, JESSICA MARIE
• Application Number:
  US13/290,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20120047359A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,795 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300, 713/320, 713/330, 375/240.26
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/127 Prioritisation of hardware or computational resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/174 the region being a slice, e.g. a line of blocks or a group of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence
• 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 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4432 Powering on the client, e.g. bootstrap loading using setup parameters being stored locally or received from the server resetting in general G06F1/14; program loading or initiating in general G06F9/445; bootstrapping in general G06F9/4401; secure boots of computer platforms G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4436 Power management, e.g. shutting down unused components of the receiver power management in computer systems G06F1/3203; hibernate or awake process in computer systems G06F9/4418

Abstract

Techniques for power and computational load management in video processing and decoding are provided. In one configuration, an apparatus comprising a processor having a set of instructions operative to extract and compile information from a data stream having video is provided. The processor is operative to prioritize a set of parsing or decoding operations to process the data stream referred to as power management (PM) sequences based on the information and calculate projections of at least one of power and computational loading for each of the prioritized PM sequences.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a receiving device from a transmitting device that is separate from the receiving device, a data stream comprising multimedia content and power management (PM) metadata, wherein the multimedia content comprises a plurality of PM sequences of decodable units, and wherein the PM metadata provides an indication of a required processing power and a priority for each PM sequence of decodable units of the plurality of PM sequences of decodable units;

determining an amount of available electrical power;

determining, based on the PM metadata and the amount of available electrical power, a processing complexity to optimize a quality of experience (QoE); and

adjusting a multimedia processing complexity based on the determined processing complexity.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the multimedia processing complexity comprises negotiating the multimedia processing complexity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the multimedia processing complexity comprises reviewing the processing complexity of a multimedia workload and minimizing the required processing to an acceptable predetermined low power mode.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the amount of available electrical power is an available battery reserve.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the processing complexity to optimize the QoE further comprises determining the processing complexity to optimize a battery life.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising negotiating communications between a server and a connected wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and properties of the connection.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding an optimum processing complexity of the multimedia content.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a bandwidth capacity of the wireless device.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a status of the wireless device.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the wireless device sends instructions to the server to adjust the amount of information being transmitted from the server to the wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and a processing resource.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to compress video data.

12. An apparatus comprising:

means for a receiving device receiving from a transmitting device that is separate from the receiving device a data stream comprising multimedia content and power management (PM) metadata, wherein the multimedia content comprises a plurality of PM sequences of decodable units, and wherein the PM metadata provides an indication of a required processing power and a priority for each PM sequence of decodable units of the plurality of PM sequences of decodable units;

means for determining an amount of available electrical power;

means for determining, based on the PM metadata and the amount of available electrical power, a processing complexity to optimize a quality of experience (QoE); and

means for adjusting a multimedia processing complexity based on the determined processing complexity.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the means for adjusting the multimedia processing complexity comprises means for negotiating the multimedia processing complexity.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the means for adjusting the multimedia processing complexity comprises means for reviewing the processing complexity of a multimedia workload and minimizing the required processing to an acceptable predetermined low power mode.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the amount of available electrical power is an available battery reserve.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the means for determining the processing complexity to optimize the QoE further comprises means for determining the processing complexity to optimize a battery life.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising means for negotiating communications between a server and a connected wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and properties of the connection.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding an optimum processing complexity of the multimedia content.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a bandwidth capacity of the wireless device.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a status of the wireless device.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the wireless device sends instructions to the server to adjust the amount of information being transmitted from the server to the wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and a processing resource.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to compress video data.

23. A computer program product including a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive, by a receiving device from a transmitting device that is separate from the receiving device, a data stream comprising multimedia content and power management (PM) metadata, wherein the multimedia content comprises a plurality of PM sequences of decodable units, and wherein the PM metadata provides an indication of a required processing power and a priority for each PM sequence of decodable units of the plurality of PM sequences of decodable units;

determine an amount of available electrical power;

determine, based on the PM metadata and the amount of available electrical power, a processing complexity to optimize a quality of experience (QoE); and

adjust a multimedia processing complexity based on the determined processing complexity.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to adjust the multimedia processing complexity comprise instructions that cause the processor to negotiate the multimedia processing complexity.

25. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to adjust the multimedia processing complexity comprise instructions that cause the processor to review the processing complexity of a multimedia workload and minimize the required processing to an acceptable predetermined low power mode.

26. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the amount of available electrical power is an available battery reserve.

27. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to determine the processing complexity to optimize the QoE further comprise instructions that cause the processor to determine the processing complexity to optimize a battery life.

28. The computer program product of claim 23, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to negotiate communications between a server and a connected wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and properties of the connection.

29. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding an optimum processing complexity of the multimedia content.

30. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a bandwidth capacity of the wireless device.

31. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a status of the wireless device.

32. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the wireless device sends instructions to the server to adjust the amount of information being transmitted from the server to the wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and a processing resource.

33. The computer program product of claim 32, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to compress video data.

34. A receiving device comprising:

a processor configured to execute a set of instructions operable to;

receive from a transmitting device that is separate from the receiving device a data stream comprising multimedia content and power management (PM) metadata, wherein the multimedia content comprises a plurality of PM sequences of decodable units, and wherein the PM metadata provides an indication of a required processing power and a priority for each PM sequence of decodable units of the plurality of PM sequences of decodable units;

determine an amount of available electrical power;

determine, based on the PM metadata and the amount of available electrical power, a processing complexity to optimize a quality of experience (QoE); and

adjust a multimedia processing complexity based on the determined processing complexity.

35. The device of claim 34, wherein adjusting the multimedia processing complexity comprises negotiating the multimedia processing complexity.

36. The device of claim 34, wherein adjusting the multimedia processing complexity comprises reviewing the processing complexity of a multimedia workload and minimizing the required processing to an acceptable predetermined low power mode.

37. The device of claim 34, wherein the amount of available electrical power is an available battery reserve.

38. The device of claim 34, wherein determining the processing complexity to optimize the QoE further comprises determining the processing complexity to optimize a battery life.

39. The device of claim 34, wherein the processor is further configured to execute instructions to negotiate communications between a server and a connected wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and properties of the connection.

40. The device of claim 39, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding an optimum processing complexity of the multimedia content.

41. The device of claim 39, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a bandwidth capacity of the wireless device.

42. The device of claim 39, wherein the wireless device transmits data to the server regarding a status of the wireless device.

43. The device of claim 39, wherein the wireless device sends instructions to the server to adjust the amount of information being transmitted from the server to the wireless device based on the amount of electrical power and a processing resource.

44. The device of claim 43, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to compress video data.