Frame Buffer Compression Circuitry With Adaptive Lossy-Lossless Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing bandwidth requirements for high-resolution and high-frame rate video processing in image processing apparatuses lead to processing capacity limitations, resulting in decreased speed during recording and playback operations, prompting the need for data compression techniques.
Innovation Solution
An image processing apparatus equipped with frame buffer compressing circuitry that operates in either lossy or lossless modes, selecting the mode based on accumulated compressibility to compress or decompress data, using encoder and decoder circuits to manage compression and decompression processes, and storing compressed data in memory for access by multi-media IP.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If data compression is applied to reduce bandwidth usage, then bandwidth efficiency improves, but image quality may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic mode switching between lossless and lossy compression based on real-time analysis of image characteristics. The system evaluates factors such as image complexity, motion magnitude, and predicted compressibility to adaptively select the optimal compression mode for each frame or block, thereby optimizing the trade-off between bandwidth efficiency and image quality on a per-frame basis rather than using a fixed compression approach
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes compression parameters dynamically by adjusting the compression mode (lossless/lossy), block size, and prediction precision based on image content analysis. When images are simple or motion is small, the system uses lossless compression with larger blocks to save bandwidth. When image complexity increases or motion is large, it switches to lossy compression with smaller blocks to maintain quality, thus adapting parameters to resolve the contradiction between bandwidth efficiency and image quality
2Quantity of substance
If lossy compression is used to reduce data size, then bandwidth efficiency improves, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the image data into multiple blocks and processes each block independently with different compression modes. By dividing the frame buffer into smaller manageable blocks, the system can apply lossy compression to only those blocks where it benefits bandwidth efficiency while maintaining lossless compression for critical regions, thereby reducing overall data size without requiring complex full-frame processing
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial lossy compression only to specific blocks where image content allows it, rather than applying lossy compression uniformly to the entire frame. This selective approach reduces data size effectively while limiting the complexity increase to only the necessary portions of the image processing pipeline
3Manufacturing precision
If compression mode switching is implemented to optimize image quality, then image quality improves, but the number of blocks processed increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary analysis of image characteristics (such as motion magnitude, gradient, and predicted compressibility) before committing to a compression mode for each block. This pre-analysis allows the system to make informed decisions about which blocks require lossless compression for quality preservation and which can use lossy compression, avoiding unnecessary processing of blocks that would benefit from simpler compression approaches
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing apparatus includes a memory configured to store compressed data; and frame buffer compressing circuitry which includes encoder circuitry configured to compress at least some of source data to generate the compressed data and transmit the compressed data to the memory, and decoder circuitry configured to read and decompress the compressed data from the memory, in which the compressed data includes a payload and a header including actual compressed data and flag, the frame buffer compressing circuitry is configured to reflect a result obtained by comparing an accumulated compressibility corresponding to the compressed data with a reference compressibility in the flag, and is configured to perform compression or decompression in a lossy mode or a lossless mode depending on the flag.