Color adaptation in video coding

Abstract

A receiver receives a video bitstream from an encoder, comprising encoded image portions each having a common form representing components of a channel in a color space. Each of a plurality of the encoded image portions comprises a different set of quantized values of the components, including values of one or more first ones of the components quantized according to a first scheme. The received bitstream further comprises, for each of the one or more first components, an indication of one or more characteristic points in a respective quantization level distribution according to the first scheme, but fewer points per distribution than there are quantized levels of the respective distribution. A de-quantizer at least partially de-quantizes the different quantized values of that first component using the points of the respective distribution, by reconstructing the distribution from those points.

Description

Background technique [0001] Digital cameras tend to capture images with a high color depth much higher than typically required in practice. For example, some cameras capture samples at a depth of 10 or even 12 bits per R, G, and B channel, giving a total depth of 30 to 36 bits in RGB space. [0002] The human eye on the other hand is generally not able to distinguish these many colors. Based on studies of human vision, it is estimated that a typical human being is able to perceive only about 2 million different colors. That corresponds to a total color depth of about 20 bits (6 to 7 bits per channel). [0003] If the captured data is to be encoded for transmission over a network, high color depth information incurs very high bit rates and a high processing burden in encoding. Similarly, high color depths incur significant memory resources if the data is to be encoded for storage. [0004] For this reason, raw image data captured from cameras is often quantized for the purp...

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Problems solved by technology

[0003] If the captured data is to be encoded for transmission over a network, high c...

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