3561results about "Image coding" patented technology

A network adapter for a synchronous logical ring network operates on existing physical twisted-pair telephone topologies. Information propagates around the logical ring, reaching every device on each revolution around the network. Network devices are full-duplex, transmitting and receiving information on every clock cycle. Network devices arbitrate to be elected the network clock device. By synchronizing all network devices to a single reference clock, and providing fixed frames of information propagating around the network at consistent time intervals, the logical ring network ensures that information propagates from one device to another at consistent time intervals. The fixed-length frames are divided into two independent streams: a data stream for the distribution of real-time continuous digital media streams; and a system command stream for the distribution of system commands.

An interlaced image processing module and corresponding method facilitate improved processing of interlaced motion images. In one embodiment, the interlaced image processing module receives image data frames having interlaced first and second fields and produces a reference field and error field. The reference field corresponds to the still image content of the interlaced frame, whereas the error field corresponds to the motion content of the interlaced frame, particularly the motion between fields. Motion between fields is thus represented in the error field, without redundant representation of the still image content provided by the first field. Where there is little motion between fields, the error terms will be small so the predictor preserves the coding efficiency provided by any auto-correlation in the image. Further, the interlaced image processing method does not rely upon pixel group classification, and thus avoids classification errors, and the loss of coding efficiency from still image content in motion classified blocks. Finally, problems presented by relative motion between fields are avoided, as are local artifacts. Another embodiment transforms the interlaced fields into frame data having a high frequency field and a low frequency field.

To achieve an image encoding apparatus that has extensibility by not limiting an image to be referenced, and that can reduce processing time satisfactorily if the processing of an ordinary frame is skipped, the apparatus of the present invention comprises: motion detecting means for detecting a motion vector for each block of a prescribed size from a reference image and an input image; weighted motion-compensation means for, based on the detected motion vector, extracting from the reference image an area of a prescribed size which is wider than the prescribed block size and which contains an area corresponding to each block of the input image, and for creating a predicted image for the input image by applying a predetermined weight to each of pixels in the wider area and by using the weighted pixels of the wider area; a predicted-image memory for storing the predicted image; encoding means for taking a residual between the stored predicted image and the input image, and for encoding the residual; and decoding means for decoding the encoded image data and thereby obtaining a reference image.

An memory module including parallel data compression and decompression engines for improved performance. The memory module includes MemoryF/X Technology. To improve latency and reduce performance degradations normally associated with compression and decompression techniques, the MemoryF/X Technology encompasses multiple novel techniques such as: 1) parallel lossless compression/decompression; 2) selectable compression modes such as lossless, lossy or no compression; 3) priority compression mode; 4) data cache techniques; 5) variable compression block sizes; 6) compression reordering; and 7) unique address translation, attribute, and address caches. The parallel compression and decompression algorithm allows high-speed parallel compression and high-speed parallel decompression operation. The memory module-integrated data compression and decompression capabilities remove system bottlenecks and increase performance. This allows lower cost systems due to smaller data storage, reduced bandwidth requirements, reduced power and noise.

A moving picture variable bit rate coding apparatus receives digitized moving pictures and subjects them to coding according to a variable bit rate method using real time processing in response to the input of the pictures. The apparatus performs variable bit rate coding in real time by sequentially performing blocking, conversion processing, quantization processing, and generation of bit streams in response to the input of digitized moving picture data, and setting a quantization scale used for quantization corresponding to a quantity of generated bit streams to perform coding processing and control of quantization in parallel.

A system 100 for tracking the movement of multiple objects within a predefined area using a continuation of overhead X-Y tracking cameras 24 with attached frequency selective filter 24f. Also employed are perspective Z filming cameras sets 30. Objects to be tracked, such as player 17, have been marked to include some form of frequency selective reflective material such as an ink. Typical markers include patches 7r and 7l, sticker 9 and tape 4a as well as additional body joint markers 17af through 17l. System 100 radiates selected energy 23a throughout the predefined area of tracking that is specifically chosen to reflect off said reflective materials used to mark for instance player 17. The reflected energy is then received by tracking cameras 24 while all other ambient light is blocked by filter 24f. Local Computer System 60 continuously captures images from said tracking cameras 24 which include only the minimum information created by said reflected energy. System 60 efficiently locates said markings on said multiple objects and uses this location information to determine for each marking its angle of rotation, angle of azimuth and distance from a designated origin 17o local to player 17. Local origin 17o is then expressed as a three-dimensional coordinate with respect to the origin of the playing venue 2a. The continuous stream of tracked three-dimensional coordinates, defining the body joints on players such as 17, is then transmitted to a remote computer where it can be used to drive a graphic re-animation of the object movement. Along with this re-animation, additional performance measurements may be derived from the continuous stream and automatically made available in real-time.

Conventionally there has been a case that the direct mode cannot be applied effectively depending on the block. With such being the case, information indicating whether a backward reference frame set by default can be utilized in the direct mode is provided to a decoder. A switching procedure to switch to a compensation method applicable when a collocated block has no forward motion vector for effective use, and the compensation method are also provided to the decoder. Thus, it is possible to clearly determine whether the reference frame can be used in the direct mode. Further, when the frame number has no time information, it is possible to effectively send information indicating the relationship between the reference frame and the current frame. Furthermore, the alternative mode and its switching procedure of the present invention make it possible to improve the prediction performance when the direct mode cannot be applied.

A method of reducing artifacts in an image previously processed by block transform encoding may comprise the steps of:

• • determining block boundaries;
  • determining an approximate metric of artifact visibility;
  • optionally interpolating across block boundaries;
  • adaptively filtering luminance;
  • optionally adaptively filtering chrominance;
  • adaptively adjusting local saturation variation; and
  • adaptively simulating high spatial frequency image detail;

wherein the adaptive steps are executed to an extent or in an amount depending on the metric or standard or measurement of artifact visibility.

An intermediate view synthesis apparatus for synthesizing an intermediate view image from a first image corresponding to a first view and a second image corresponding to a second view different from the first view, the first and second images including depth information, wherein the second image being is divided-up into a non-boundary portion, and a foreground/background boundary region, wherein the intermediate view synthesis apparatus is configured to project and merge the first image and the second image into the intermediate view to obtain an intermediate view image, with treating the foreground/background boundary region subordinated relative to the non-boundary portion. A multi-view data signal extraction apparatus for extracting a multiview data signal from a multi-view representation including a first image corresponding to a first view and a second image corresponding to a second view being different from the first view is also described, the first and second images including depth information.

With a digital camera 100, a photographed image 31 is displayed on a liquid crystal display and the user selects a desired image and specifies print specifications of the number of print sheets, a print paper size, a print color mode, etc., then print image data is prepared. The prepared print image, data is transmitted from the digital camera 100 to a color printer of an output unit. An image is printed at the color printer in accordance with the print image data.

A system and method for authenticating an image of an object, include at least one identifier associated with the object, a receiver for interrogating the at least one identifier to produce identification information, a camera system for recording an image from the object including the at least one identifier, and a composite generator for encoding the identification information from the receiver along with the image acquired by the camera system, to produce composite data.

An in-camera two-stage compression implementation is described that reduces the latency between snapshots to a fraction of that otherwise required by other systems that either process complete compression following each snapshot or that incorporate heavy, bulky, and expensive RAM hardware capable of maintaining several raw luminosity records (unprocessed file containing a digital image). In the 1st stage compression the raw luminosity record is quickly, yet partially, compressed to available RAM buffer space to allow a user to expeditiously capture a succeeding image. When the higher-priority processes, the user shooting pictures, and stage one compression subside, a 2nd stage compression, which is slower but more effective, decompresses the earlier partially-compressed images, and re-compresses them for saving in flash memory until they are distributed to a remote platform to be finally converted to the JPEG2000 format.

A method and system for image coding, wherein an image is divided into a plurality of blocks for scanning. The pixels values in the scanned block are represented by a plurality of level-run value pairs, wherein the level value is indicative of a non-zero pixel value and the run value is indicative of the number of consecutive zero pixel values preceding the non-zero pixel value. A plurality of contexts indicative of the level-run value pairs are conveyed to a decoder for allowing the decoder to reconstruct the image based on the contexts. The assignment of the contexts is also based on the level value of a preceding level-run pair. Additionally, instead of an end-of-block symbol, the number of non-zero coefficients is provided to the decoder prior to conveying the contexts thereto.

A digital video decoding system receives packetized video data representing programs conveyed on a plurality of video channels. The system includes a plurality of buffers for storing encoded video data representing images of video programs conveyed on a corresponding plurality of video channels. An individual buffer, corresponding to an individual video channel, stores sufficient encoded video data to prevent an underflow condition following switching to decode a program conveyed on the individual video channel. A processor initiates switching to decode a program conveyed on a selected one of the plurality of video channels in response to a user channel selection input. A decoder decodes encoded video data received from one of the plurality of buffers corresponding to the program conveyed on the selected video channel as determined by switching initiated by the processor. The decoder also predicts a next channel to be selected by a user based on, (a) predetermined user channel and program preference criteria, (b) predetermined user channel navigation patterns, or (c) user data entry device sensory data.

A video encoder and method are provided for encoding video signal data for at least one cross-fade picture disposed between a fade-out start picture and a fade-in end picture, where the encoder portion includes a reference picture weighting factor unit for assigning weighting factors corresponding to each of the fade-out start picture and the fade-in end picture, respectively, and the method for encoding cross-fades between pictures includes identifying pictures between which a cross-fade is desired, determining appropriate end-points for the cross-fade, and encoding the end-points prior to encoding the cross-fade picture.

A prediction method, merged method, has been introduced in the enhancement layer of a multiple layer video coding. This merged method was designed to efficiently handle the prediction of the non moving parts in coding of the enhancement layer VOP or frame. All the information for this merged mode prediction is obtained from the base layer, and no additional side information is transmitted. This prediction mode when used together with combination of the existing forward mode, backward mode, and interpolated mode, can improve the coding efficiency for enhancement layer video coding, especially in low bit rate coding. The method can be used in most multiple layer video coding schemes, especially in spatial scalability video coding.

A system comprises an encoder configured to compress attribute information and/or spatial for a point cloud and/or a decoder configured to decompress compressed attribute and/or spatial information for the point cloud. To compress the attribute and/or spatial information, the encoder is configured to convert a point cloud into an image based representation. Also, the decoder is configured to generate a decompressed point cloud based on an image based representation of a point cloud.

Image data is compressed by decomposing the image data into a plurality of resolutions or sized by wavelet decomposition, followed by compression of the resulting data sets. Adaptive Huffman code compression is optimized for compressing the data sets, predictive errors for a low frequency band and the wavelet transformed values for high frequency bands. The image data is thus compressed losslessly and in multiple resolutions such that desired resolution images can be reconstructed and transmitted in accordance with available-bandwidth and viewing capabilities.

The present invention describes a method and an arrangement for coding transform coefficients in picture and/or video coders and decoders and a corresponding computer program and a corresponding computer-readable storage medium, which can particularly be employed as a novel efficient method for binary-arithmetic coding transform coefficients in the field of video coding. For this, it is suggested that, for blocks of (video) pictures containing significant transform coefficients, coding of the transform coefficients takes place in such a way that, for each block in a scan process, the positions of significant transform coefficients in the block and subsequently, in a reverse scan order-starting from the last significant transform coefficient within the block-the values (levels) of the significant transform coefficients are determined and coded.

An apparatus and method for image data compression performs a modified zero-tree coding on a range of image bit plane values from the largest to a defined smaller value, and a vector quantizer codes the remaining values and lossless coding is performed on the results of the two coding steps. The defined smaller value can be adjusted iteratively to meet a preselected compressed image size criterion or to meet a predefined level of image quality, as determined by any suitable metric. If the image to be compressed is in RGB color space, the apparatus converts the RGB image to a less redundant color space before commencing further processing.

A method compresses a point cloud composed of a plurality of points in a three-dimensional (3D) space by first acquiring the point cloud with a sensor, wherein each point is associated with a 3D coordinate and at least one attribute. The point cloud is partitioned into an array of 3D blocks of elements, wherein some of the elements in the 3D blocks have missing points. For each 3D block, attribute values for the 3D block are predicted based on the attribute values of neighboring 3D blocks, resulting in a 3D residual block. A 3D transform is applied to each 3D residual block using locations of occupied elements to produce transform coefficients, wherein the transform coefficients have a magnitude and sign. The transform coefficients are entropy encoded according the magnitudes and sign bits to produce a bitstream.

Video encoding device including a video input processor, for receiving said video signal, a global controller, for controlling the global operation of the video encoding device, a motion estimation processor, a digital signal processor and a bit-stream processor, wherein the global controller stores encodes commands received from a host interface thereby programming the video input processor, the motion estimation processor, the digital signal processor and the bit-stream processor, the video input processor receives and stores the video signal in an external memory unit, the motion estimation processor retrieves the video signal from the memory unit, generates motion analysis of the video signal, stores the motion analysis in the memory unit and provides the motion analysis to the digital signal processor, the digital signal processor processes the video signal according to the motion analysis, thereby producing an encoding commands sequence and encoded data, the bit-stream processor produces an encoded video signal according to the encoding command sequence and the encoded data.

This invention relates to a system and method for reducing blocking artifacts introduced by current compression algorithms that compress images as independent blocks of pixels. Preferably, the methods of the invention include determining block-to-block differences in edge pixels or in overall intensities between adjacent pixel blocks, selecting pixel blocks for post-processing that appear to be in relatively featureless regions of the image, interpolating the block-to-block edge differences into a error correction matrix, and then subtracting the error correction matrix from the original pixel block. These methods are preferably implemented in special software routines that execute on micro-processor based systems or on digital signal processor based systems optimized for image decoding.

A system comprises an encoder configured to compress attribute information for a point cloud and/or a decoder configured to decompress compressed attribute information for the point cloud. Attribute values for at least one starting point are included in a compressed attribute information file and attribute correction values used to correct predicted attribute values are included in the compressed attribute information file. Attribute values are predicted based, at least in part, on attribute values of neighboring points and distances between a particular point for whom an attribute value is being predicted and the neighboring points. The predicted attribute values are compared to attribute values of a point cloud prior to compression to determine attribute correction values. A decoder follows a similar prediction process as an encoder and corrects predicted values using attribute correction values included in a compressed attribute information file.

A compression system and process include adaptive quantization for selection of one quantizer, for each video frame or frame portion, from a group of quantizers, where each quantizer is a set of predefined quantizer values, and coding of the quantized values using a common entropy coding table for all quantizers, or a separate entropy coding table for each quantizer. The entropy coding tables are obtained during a training procedure. The selection of the quantizer is based on a formula which takes into account the distortion and bit rate characteristics of each quantizer. A similar formula, based on the distortion and bit rate characteristics, is used to select the particular quantizer value within the chosen quantizer for each video signal value being coded.

Video coding efficiency is improved by jointly coding the x and y components of motion vectors with a single variable length code. The motion vector components for a block of pixels are predicted based on motion vectors of neighboring blocks of pixels. The predicted x and y components are then jointly coded by assigning a single variable length code corresponding to the pair of components, rather than a separate code for each component. If the x and y components do not have a corresponding entry in the coding table, they are coded with an escape code followed by fixed length codes.

A system and method for real time transmission of variable bit rate MPEG video traffic with consistent quality, wherein each frame is encoded with quantization parameter generated from an encoder rate controller, and encoded data is transmitted to an encoder buffer. Transmission rate about each frame interval is determined by a channel rate controller at the beginning of the frame interval. Data transmission buffered at the encoder buffer is first regulated by Leaky Bucket counter, and the regulated data is transferred to a decoder buffer in a video receiving system through network. The encoder rate controller and channel rate controller included in the VBR video transmission system control the transmission rate generated from the video encoder and that from the network with satisfying imposed constrained conditions, respectively.

A signal storage processor (101) stores signals input from a signal input unit (100) in a buffer (102) for respective lines. A vertical discrete wavelet transformer (103) reads out an index value L from the signal storage processor (101), and obtains a reference address B from the value L. If L=2, B=2. If L=4, B=0. Furthermore, the vertical discrete wavelet transformer (103) reads out the i-th column of sets of data, which are stored in the buffer (102) and are continuous in the vertical direction (i.e., data read out from four addresses (addresses in the buffer (102)) i×4+B, i×4+mod((B+1),4), i×4+mod((B+2),4), and i×4+mod((B+3),4)), and computes the one-dimensional discrete wavelet transforms of the readout data.

A method comprising entropy encoding into bits a set of data values, and packing into storage the entropy encoded bits by reversing the bits of words with unknown length and keeping in blocks the words with known lengths. For instance, in an entropy encoded data set that uses both Huffman coding and zero run coding, the class code may be reversed in bit order from right to left rather left to right while the words of known length such as the zero run code and Huffman pointer are stored left to right in blocks. This data arrangement is particularly useful in an MMX based machine.

An image display system with one or more client computers in selective communication with a visual server having image processing capabilities. The client computer generates image modifying data corresponding to a generated image, and transmits the data to the visual server. The visual server receives the image-modifying data, generates a modified image based upon the image-modifying data, and transmits the modified image as compressed data to the client. The client decompresses the modified image data and displays the modified image. In the system, the visual server and client can provide a sequential display of modified frames on client to support animation with complex 3-dimensional graphics.