Foveated Display Compression Bit Allocation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current display compression technologies, such as VDC-M, face challenges in efficiently managing bit allocation across different regions of an image, particularly in virtual reality (VR) applications, where human perception varies significantly across the field of view, leading to suboptimal compression ratios and increased computational complexity.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for coding video data that dynamically allocates bits based on regions of varying resolution, assigning more bits per pixel to high-resolution regions corresponding to the fixation point and fewer bits to low-resolution regions, using a processor to identify and update bit allocation for each block, ensuring visually lossless quality while optimizing bandwidth usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If fixed rate allocation is used across the entire image, then device complexity is reduced, but compression ratio deteriorates due to inefficient bit distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allocating different bit rates to different regions of the image based on their importance. The foveal region (center of visual attention) receives higher bit allocation for superior quality, while peripheral regions receive lower bit allocation. This resolves the contradiction by implementing region-specific quality optimization rather than uniform compression, improving overall compression ratio while maintaining acceptable device complexity through structured regional differentiation.
2Quantity of substance
If higher compression rates are applied, then bandwidth usage is reduced, but visual quality deteriorates in important regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by differentiating bit allocation across image regions. The foveal region maintains high visual quality through enhanced bit allocation (base bits plus enhancement bits), while peripheral regions accept lower quality at reduced bit rates. This resolves the contradiction by concentrating bandwidth resources on visually critical areas, ensuring perceptual quality where it matters most while reducing overall bandwidth consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies parameter changes by dynamically adjusting the bit allocation parameter across different spatial regions. The foveal region receives a higher bits-per-pixel parameter (including enhancement bits) compared to peripheral regions. This parameter differentiation enables the system to optimize the trade-off between bandwidth usage and visual quality, reducing total bandwidth while preserving quality in important regions.
3Ease of operation
If uniform bit allocation is used, then ease of operation is improved, but loss of information increases in high-resolution regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by implementing region-specific bit allocation strategies. The foveal region receives enhanced bit allocation to preserve fine details and minimize information loss, while peripheral regions accept coarser encoding. This resolves the contradiction by protecting critical visual information in important regions while accepting controlled information loss in less critical areas, maintaining encoding simplicity through systematic regional differentiation.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a method of coding blocks of video data representing an image using an encoder, the method including identifying, by the encoder, a first region of the image and a second region of the image, a sum of a first number of pixels in the first region and a second number of pixels in the second region being equal to a total number of pixels of the image, and allocating, by the encoder, a first number of bits including base bits for encoding the first region, and a second number of bits including base bits and enhancement bits for encoding the second region, a sum of the first number of bits and the second number of bits being equal to a total number of bits for encoding all of the pixels, wherein the second region is encoded with a greater number of bits per pixel than the first region.