Method, apparatus, and system for encoding and decoding side information for multimedia transmission

• US 7,643,558 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2003
• Issued: 01/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Garudadri, Harinath, Ramchandran, Kannan
• Primary Examiner(s): RAO, ANAND SHASHIKANT
• Application Number:
  US10/396,982
• Publication Number:
  US 20040194008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,479 Days
• Field of Search: 37524001-24029
• US Class Current: 375/240.23
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/29 combining two or more codes or code structures, e.g. product codes, generalised product codes, concatenated codes, inner and outer codes
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/6513 Support of multiple code types, e.g. unified decoder for LDPC and turbo codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/37 with arrangements for assigning different transmission priorities to video input data or to video coded data

Abstract

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method and apparatus is provided in which input data (e.g., input video data) is encoded in accordance with a first coding standard (e.g., MPEG-4) to generate encoded data. The input data is also encoded based on a reconstruction of the input data to generate encoded side information associated with the input data. The encoded data are transmitted to a destination (e.g., a decoding subsystem) over a first channel and the encoded side information are transmitted to the destination over a second channel. The encoded data and the encoded side information are decoded and combined at the destination to generate output data.

Claims

1. A method performed by an encoding apparatus, the method comprising:

encoding, with a first encoder of the encoding apparatus, input data in accordance with an encoding standard to generate encoded input data;

encoding, with a second encoder of the encoding apparatus, the input data based on a reconstruction of the input data by performing a syndrome coding process to generate encoded side data comprising an index that identifies one of a plurality of codeword sets associated with the input data;

transmitting the encoded input data to a destination over a first channel; and

transmitting the encoded side data to the destination over a second channel.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the encoding standard is a standard compatible with MPEG-4 standard.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the encoding standard is a standard compatible with H.263 standard.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the input data comprises video data.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein frames of the input data to be encoded are divided into non-overlapping spatial blocks of pixels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein encoding the side data further comprises:

correlating blocks of the input data with corresponding blocks in the reconstruction of the encoded input data; and

classifying the blocks based on the correlation.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein classifying the blocks comprises classifying the blocks based on energy differences between the blocks and the corresponding reconstructed blocks in the same location.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein classifying the blocks comprises classifying the blocks into one or more classes, wherein each of the classes corresponds to a particular degree of correlation.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

quantizing the input data to generate one or more quantized codewords for the input data, wherein the codeword sets comprise the quantized codewords; and

performing the syndrome coding process with respect to the one or more quantized codewords to generate the encoded side data.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein a quantizing parameter used to quantize the input data is determined based on statistics of residual data corresponding to a difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the residual data comprises prediction error information generated from the encoding of the input data.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising performing a refinement quantization process on the encoded side data.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

adding an error protection code to the encoded side data.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining the plurality of codeword sets, wherein each of the codeword sets comprises at least two codewords of a space of possible codewords, and further wherein performing the syndrome coding process comprises selecting the index that identifies the one of the plurality of codeword sets associated with the encoded input data.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising generating the plurality of codeword sets based on the input data and a reconstruction of the encoded input data.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein generating the plurality of codeword sets comprises:

determining a correlation between the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data; and

generating the plurality of codeword sets based on at least the correlation between the input data and the reconstruction-of the encoded input data.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein selecting the index comprises selecting the index using a convolution operation between a quantized codeword for the input data and a parity check matrix of a channel code.

14. A method performed by a decoding apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving, at the decoding apparatus via a first channel, encoded input data;

receiving, at the decoding apparatus via a second channel, encoded side data comprising an index, produced according to a syndrome coding process, that identifies one of a plurality of codeword sets associated with the encoded input data received via the first channel;

decoding, in the decoding apparatus, the encoded input data received via the first channel;

decoding, in the decoding apparatus, the encoded side data received via the second channel to obtain the index;

combining, in the decoding apparatus, the decoded data received via the first channel and the decoded side data received via the second channel to generate decoded video output data.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein decoding the encoded side data comprises:

performing, with the decoding apparatus, a motion search process when motion information of the encoded input data received via the first channel contain errors.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein decoding the encoded side data comprises:

performing a syndrome decoding process to recover quantized codewords of the codeword set corresponding to the index of the encoded side data received from the second channel.

37. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

maintaining the plurality of codeword sets, wherein each of the sets of the plurality of sets comprises at least two codewords of a space of possible codewords.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a first encoder that encodes input data in accordance with a coding standard, and transmits the encoded input data to a destination over a first channel;

a second encoder that receives the input data and a reconstruction of the input data, encodes the input data based on the reconstruction of the input data by performing a syndrome coding process to generate encoded side date wherein the encoded side data comprises an index that identifies one of a plurality of codeword sets associated with the input data, and transmits the encoded side data to the destination over a second channel.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the coding standard is compatible with MPEG-4 standard.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the second encoder comprises a classification unit to classify blocks of the input data based on their correlation with corresponding blocks in the reconstruction of the input data.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the coding standard is compatible with H.263 standard.

21. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the input data comprises video data.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 wherein frames of the input data to be encoded are divided into non-overlapping spatial blocks of pixels.

23. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the classification unit classifies the blocks of the input data based on energy differences between the blocks and the corresponding reconstructed blocks in the same location in the reconstruction of the input data.

24. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the classification unit classifies the blocks into one or more classes, and further wherein each of the classes corresponds to a particular degree of correlation.

25. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising:

a quantization unit to quantize the input data to generate one or more quantized codewords for the input data, wherein the codeword sets comprise the quantized codewords; and

a syndrome coding unit to perform the syndrome coding process with respect to the quantized codewords to generate the encoded side data.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein a quantizing parameter used to quantize the input data is determined based on statistics of residual data corresponding to a difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the residual data comprises prediction error information generated from the encoding of the input data.

28. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the encoded side data is further refined through a refinement quantization process.

29. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising:

an error protection unit to add an error protection code to the encoded side data.

38. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the second encoder maintains the plurality of codeword sets and wherein each of the sets comprises at least two codewords of a space of possible codewords.

39. The apparatus of claim 38, wherein the second encoder generates the plurality of codeword sets based on the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the second encoder determines a difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data and generates the plurality of codeword sets based on at least the difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data.

30. A computer-readable medium encoded with a computer program which, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to:

encode, with a first encoder of an encoding apparatus, input data in accordance with a encoding standard to generate encoded input data;

encode, with a second encoder of the encoding apparatus, the input data based on a reconstruction of the input data by performing a syndrome coding process to generate encoded side data comprising an index that identifies one of a plurality of codeword sets associated with the input data;

transmit the encoded input data to a destination over a first channel; and

transmit the encoded side data to the destination over a second channel.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 30 wherein the computer program causes the at least one processor to:

quantize the input data to generate one or more quantized codewords for the input data, wherein the codeword sets comprise the quantized codewords.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 31 wherein the computer program cause the at least one processor to:

perform the syndrome coding process with respect to the quantized codewords to generate the encoded side data.

41. The computer-readable medium of claim 30, wherein the computer program causes the at least one processor to:

maintain, with the second encoder, the plurality of codeword sets, wherein each of the sets of the plurality of sets comprises at least two codewords of a space of possible codewords.

42. The computer-readable medium of claim 41, wherein the computer program causes the at least one processor to:

determine, with the second encoder, a difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data; and

generate, with the second encoder, the plurality of codeword sets based on at least the difference between the input data and the reconstruction of the encoded input data.