Method and apparatus for encoding video by using block merging, and method and apparatus for decoding video by using block merging

• US 9,800,872 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2014
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: Lee, Tammy, Han, Woo-jin, Kim, Il-koo, Lee, Sun-il
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Tung
• Assistant Examiner(s): BECKER, JOSEPH W
• Application Number:
  US14/299,897
• Publication Number:
  US 20140286395A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,233 Days
• Field of Search: 37524002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/103 Selection of coding mode or of prediction mode
• 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 19/137 Motion inside a coding unit, e.g. average field, frame or block difference
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/139 Analysis of motion vectors, e.g. their magnitude, direction, variance or reliability
• 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 19/159 Prediction type, e.g. intra-frame, inter-frame or bidirectional frame prediction
• 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 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/196 being specially adapted for the computation of encoding parameters, e.g. by averaging previously computed encoding parameters processing of motion vectors H04N19/513
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/33 in the spatial domain
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/463 by compressing encoding parameters before transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/52 by predictive encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/56 Motion estimation with initialisation of the vector search, e.g. estimating a good candidate to initiate a search
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/96 Tree coding, e.g. quad-tree coding

Abstract

Provided are a method and apparatus for encoding a video by using block merging and a method and apparatus for decoding a video by using block merging. The method of encoding includes: determining an encoding mode indicating a current data unit for encoding of a picture and an encoding method including prediction encoding performed for the current data unit; determining an occurrence of merging with at least one neighboring data unit based on at least one of the encoding mode and a prediction mode; and determining prediction mode information, merging related information, and prediction related information, and determining encoding information of the data unit including the prediction mode information, the merging related information, and the prediction related information.

Claims

1. A method of decoding a video, the method comprising:

obtaining, from a bitstream, split information for a coding unit;

when the split information indicates a non-split for the coding unit, obtaining, from the bitstream, a skip flag for the coding unit which indicates whether a prediction mode for the coding unit is a skip mode;

when the skip flag indicates the skip mode, obtaining, from the bitstream, a merge index indicating one block among a candidate block group, and determining a motion vector of the coding unit based on a motion vector of the one block indicated by the merge index;

when the skip flag indicates a non-skip mode, obtaining, from the bitstream, a partition type and merge information of a partition, the merge information of the partition indicating whether the partition is decoded in a merge mode; and

performing motion compensation on the partition using motion information of the block which the merge index indicates,

wherein;

the candidate block group includes three or more blocks among neighboring blocks of the coding unit,

the neighboring blocks comprising;

a left-lower block located on a left side of a leftmost block among lower blocks directly below a lower border of a prediction unit in the coding unit, the left-lower block being located below a lowermost block among left blocks adjacent to a left border of the prediction unit,

a left-upper block located on a left side of a leftmost block among upper blocks directly above an upper border of the prediction unit, the left-upper block being located above an uppermost block among the left blocks adjacent to the left border of the prediction unit, and

a right-upper block located on a right side of a rightmost block among the upper blocks directly above the upper border of the prediction unit,

when the partition type is obtained from the bitstream, one or more partitions, including the partition, are determined from the coding unit based on the partition type,

an image is split into a plurality of maximum coding units, according to a maximum size of the coding unit,

a maximum coding unit, of the plurality of maximum coding units, is hierarchically split into one or more coding units of depths including at least one of a current depth and a lower depth, according to the split information,

when the split information indicates a split for the current depth, the coding unit of the current depth is split into four rectangular coding units of a lower depth, independently from neighboring coding units, and

when the split information indicates a non-split of the current depth,

one or more prediction units are obtained from the coding unit of the current depth while the skip flag indicates the non-skip mode, and

one or more transformation units are obtained from the coding unit of the current depth.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the candidate block group comprises data units that are merging candidates with a current data unit in regions neighboring the current data unit based on merging index information, and

one data unit is determined to be merged with the current data unit from among the data units in the determined candidate block group.