IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20120014614A1
• Filed: 07/08/2011
• Published: 01/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takahashi, Yoshitomo, Suzuki, Teruhiko, Kitamura, Takuya
• Granted Patent: US 8,625,918 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/238
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/136 Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/553 Motion estimation dealing with occlusions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/60 using transform coding

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a quantizer configured to quantize orthogonal transform coefficients of the difference in block units between a coding target picture and a prediction image, a predictor configured to conduct parallax prediction utilizing correlations between the coding target picture and a picture whose view differs from the coding target picture, and a quantization controller configured to determine a protected area that protects image quality from the parallax prediction results, and reduce the quantization step size of the quantizer for quantization of the protected area.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a quantizer configured to quantize orthogonal transform coefficients of a difference in block units between a coding target picture and a prediction image;

a predictor configured to conduct parallax prediction utilizing correlations between the coding target picture and a picture whose view differs from the coding target picture; and

a quantization controller configured to determine a protected area that protects image quality from the parallax prediction results, and reduce a quantization step size of the quantizer for quantization of the protected area.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the quantization controller is configured to determine the protected area by using at least one from among a parallax vector detected by the parallax prediction and error from when parallax compensation was conducted using the parallax vector.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

In a case of using a parallax vector detected by the parallax prediction, the quantization controller is configured to determine if a coding target block image is the protected area at least in part on the basis of at least one from among comparison results between a parallax vector of an already-coded picture and the coding target block and comparison results between a parallax vector of an immediately preceding already-coded block and a parallax vector of the coding target block.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the quantization controller is configured to determine a coding target block whose parallax vector is greater than statistics used as a basis for determining a protected area which are computed from the parallax vector of the already-coded picture, and a coding target block whose parallax vector is greater than the parallax vector of an immediately preceding already-coded block, to be the protected area.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the quantization controller is configured to determine the protected area using an horizontal components of a parallax vector detected by the parallax prediction.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

In a case of using error from when the parallax compensation was conducted, the quantization controller is configured to determine if a coding target block image is the protected area at least in part on the basis of comparison results between error of an already-coded picture and parallax of the coding target block.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the quantization controller is configured to determine a coding target block whose error is greater than statistics used as a basis for determining a protected area which are computed from the error of the already-coded picture to be the protected area.

8. An image processing method comprising:

quantizing orthogonal transform coefficients of a difference in block units between a coding target picture and a prediction image;

conducting parallax prediction utilizing correlations between the coding target picture and a picture whose view differs from the coding target picture; and

determining a protected area that protects image quality from the parallax prediction results, and reducing a quantization step size for quantization of the protected area.