Digital Image Block Boundary Artifact Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Digital image processing often introduces block boundary artifacts due to lossy compression and manipulation, leading to grid effects and information loss at the boundaries of scrambled images.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the creation of a uniform grid of boxes in a digital image, where boundary pixels are replicated to generate a thicker frame, and the image is scrambled, with center rows and columns from an offset grid used to replace boundary artifacts during descrambling, reducing distortion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the digital image is scrambled and compressed, then the image can be transmitted and stored efficiently, but block boundary artifacts are introduced at the boundaries of scrambled blocks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by replicating boundary pixels to create a thicker frame before the scrambling and compression operations occur. This preparatory step ensures that when the image is later unscrambled, the boundary information is already preserved in an expanded form, preventing the loss of boundary data during compression and eliminating block artifacts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements beforehand cushioning by creating a protective buffer zone around each block boundary through pixel replication. This thicker frame acts as a cushion that absorbs the harmful effects of compression and scrambling operations, ensuring that boundary information is not lost or corrupted during the encoding process.
2Loss of substance
If lossy compression is applied to the scrambled image, then the file size is reduced, but information at the boundaries is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by duplicating boundary pixels to create an expanded frame before compression. This ensures that even when lossy compression removes some data, the replicated boundary information remains available to reconstruct the original boundaries accurately after unscrambling.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of boundary pixel thickness by replicating pixels to create a thicker frame. This parameter change ensures that boundary information occupies more space in the compressed image, making it more resistant to information loss during lossy compression while maintaining overall file size efficiency.
3Extent of automation
If the image is divided into a grid of boxes for scrambling, then the scrambling process can be implemented, but grid effects and block artifacts are introduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by treating boundary pixels differently from interior pixels. Specifically, boundary pixels are replicated to create a thicker frame, giving them enhanced local quality that protects them from the harmful grid effects introduced by the scrambling process, while interior pixels remain unchanged.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-processing the image to create a thicker boundary frame before applying the grid-based scrambling. This preliminary step ensures that when the grid effects occur during scrambling, the boundary information is already protected and will not manifest as visible block artifacts in the final image.
Data Source
AI summary
In one aspect, in one aspect, a computerized method useful for reducing block boundary artifacts in a digital image processing that includes the step of obtaining an original digital image to scrambled. The method includes the step of generating a uniform grid of boxes in the digital image. At a boundary of each box in the uniform grid of boxes, a frame for each box is generated by replicating each of a set of boundary pixels a specified number of times to generate a thicker boundary. The method incudes the step of scrambling the uniform grid of boxes of the digital image.