VIDEO COMPRESSION ENCODER

• US 20130266062A1
• Filed: 06/03/2013
• Published: 10/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vertiv IT Systems, Inc. (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Original Assignee: Avocent Corporation (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Inventors: Dambrackas, William A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,743,095 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.08
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/24 Keyboard-Video-Mouse [KVM] switch
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/105 Selection of the reference unit for prediction within a chosen coding or prediction mode, e.g. adaptive choice of position and number of pixels used for prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/182 the unit being a pixel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/20 using video object coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/426 using memory downsizing methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/507 using conditional replenishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/593 involving spatial prediction techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/93 Run-length coding

Abstract

A video compression system is disclosed that is optimized to take advantage of the types of redundancies typically occurring on computer screens and the types of video loss acceptable to real time interactive computer users. It automatically adapts to a wide variety of changing network bandwidth conditions and can accommodate any video resolution and an unlimited number of colors. The disclosed video compression encoder can be implemented with either hardware or software and it compresses the source video into a series of data packets that are a fixed length of 8 bits or more. Sequences of one or more of these packets create unique encoding “commands” that can be sent over any network and easily decoded (decompressed) with either software or hardware. The commands include 3 dimensional copying (horizontal, vertical and time) and unique efficiencies for screen segments that are comprised of only two colors (such as text). Embodiments are also disclosed that improve the video compression depending on the popularity of pixel colors.

Claims

1-8. -8. (canceled)

9. A method in a data processing system of compressing video having a color depth greater than two colors, comprising:

comparing some portions of selected video frames to other portions;

encoding the some portions based on their locational relationship within the frames relative to the other portions;

identifying still other portions of the same selected video frames as pixels comprised only of colors from a two-color set; and

encoding the still other portions as a series of bits having binary states corresponding to the two colors in the two-color set.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the locational relationship is one from the group consisting of:

(a) a left location within a common frame;

(b) an above location within a common frame; and

(c) a common location within a prior frame.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the left location within a common frame is a left location one immediate pixel to the left of a current pixel.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the above location within a common frame is an above location one immediate pixel above a current pixel.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the video having a color depth greater than two colors is one from the group consisting of:

(a) 24-bit color;

(b) 15-bit color;

(c) 7-bit gray-favored color; and

(d) 5-bit gray-favored color.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the locational relationship is one from the group consisting of:

(a) a left location within a common frame;

(b) an above location within a common frame; and

(c) a common location within a prior frame; and

the video having a color depth greater than two colors is one from the group consisting of;

(a) 24-bit color;

(b) 15-bit color;

(c) 7-bit gray-favored color; and

(d) 5-bit gray-favored color.

15. The method of claim 9, further including:

reading a serial string of pixel color data values for the video and recording information corresponding to the pixel color data values for at least one video frame of the video;

wherein the step of comparing some portions of selected video frames to other portions includes comparing current pixel color data values in the serial string of pixel color data values with at least some of the recorded information corresponding to the pixel color data values;

and wherein the encoding of the some portions based on their locational relationship within the frames relative to the other portions includes encoding based on the comparison of current pixel color data values with the recorded information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identification of still other portions of the same selected video frames as pixels comprised only of colors from a two-color set is based on the reading of the serial string of pixel color data values, and the encoding the still other portions as a series of bits having binary states corresponding to the two colors in the two-color set is an encoding based on (1) one binary state corresponding to one pixel color data value read from the serial string and (2) another binary state corresponding to a different pixel color data value read from the serial string.