Method for computational graceful degradation in an audiovisual compression system

• US 6,408,099 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2001
• Issued: 06/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sun Patent Trust
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tan, Thiow Keng
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Phuoc
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bayat, Ali
• Application Number:
  US09/750,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20010001016A1
• Time in Patent Office: 532 Days
• Field of Search: 382/244, 382/243, 382/246, 382/250, 382/251, 382/253, 382/240, 382/232, 382/233, 348/400.1, 348/401.1, 348/403.1, 348/404.1, 348/406.1, 348/407.1, 348/408.1, 348/409.1, 348/410.1, 348/411.1, 348/412.1, 348/413.1, 348/414.1, 348/415.1, 348/416.1, 348/417.1, 348/418.1, 348/419.1, 348/420.1, 348/421.1, 348/422.1, 348/430.1, 348/431.1, 340/345, 340/146.3, 358/260, 358/133, 358/261
• US Class Current: 382/232
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/127 Prioritisation of hardware or computational resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/14 Coding unit complexity, e.g. amount of activity or edge presence estimation H04N19/146 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/146 Data rate or code amount at the encoder output
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/149 by estimating the code amount by means of a model, e.g. mathematical model or statistical model
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/15 by monitoring actual compressed data size at the memory before deciding storage at the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/156 Availability of hardware or computational resources, e.g. encoding based on power-saving criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 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 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 19/51 Motion estimation or motion compensation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 : Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/45452 : applied to an object-based stream, e.g. MPEG-4 streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4621 : Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 : specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program

Abstract

The invention disclosed here is a method for an encoder to encode audiovisual information for transmission to the decoder without any prior knowledge of the computational capabilities of the decoder. A descriptor containing parameters that can be used to estimate the complexity of the decoding process is embedded in the system stream. The encoder also encodes the video information in such a manner that the decoder can choose to ignore some of the information and only decode a subset of the encoded information in order to reduce the computational requirements. This method allows more than one decoder to decode the same bitstream giving different resolutions depending on the computational capability of the decoder.

Claims

1. A method for encoding a visual object, comprising:

encoding a visual object to obtain compressed coded data, wherein the compressed coded data is obtained through at least one of a plurality of different operations which can be performed on a block by block basis;

generating a descriptor capable of including information of a respective parameter related to the number of times that each of said operations was performed in a unit of blocks, said descriptor associated with a complexity of decoding the compressed coded data; and

multiplexing the descriptor with the compressed coded data;

wherein the operations include at least one of;

a block entropy encoding operation;

a block motion compensation operation;

a block quantization operation; and

a block transforming operation.

2. A method for encoding a visual object having a plurality of pictures, comprising:

encoding a visual object to obtain compressed coded data, wherein the compressed coded data is obtained through segmenting each picture in a plurality of blocks and through performing at least one of a plurality of different operations on a block by block basis;

generating a descriptor related to the number of times that each of said operations was performed during encoding said picture, said descriptor associated with a complexity of decoding the compressed coded data; and

multiplexing the descriptor with the compressed coded data;

wherein the operations include at least one of;

a block entropy encoding operation;

a block motion compensation operation;

a block quantization operation; and

a block transforming operation.