Image Encoding Dithering for Legacy Display Compatibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video technologies face challenges with increased pixel bit depth, leading to visual banding artifacts and compatibility issues when displaying extended-color-precision images on legacy systems, due to increased data requirements and variation in lesser significant bits, which complicates data compression and backward compatibility.
Innovation Solution
An image processing system that encodes extended-color-precision images into legacy-color-precision format using dithering patterns to maintain visual quality without banding artifacts, allowing for decoding back into extended-color-precision for display on compatible systems, utilizing a combination of image encoding and decoding processes to manage bit depth and color precision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If extended-color-precision images are displayed directly on legacy systems, then color precision and visual quality are improved, but compatibility and system reliability deteriorate due to visual banding artifacts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediate encoding process that converts extended-color-precision images into legacy-color-precision format using dithering patterns. This intermediary representation maintains visual quality while ensuring compatibility with legacy display systems, effectively mediating between high-precision source images and legacy display capabilities
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the color precision parameter from extended precision (e.g., 10-12 bits per channel) to legacy precision (8 bits per channel) through controlled dithering. This parameter transformation allows the image to be displayed on legacy systems without visual banding artifacts while preserving the essence of the original high-precision image
2Measurement precision
If extended-color-precision format is used, then image quality is improved, but data requirements and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary color information from extended-color-precision images by applying dithering patterns during encoding. This extraction process removes excess precision data that would otherwise increase device complexity, while retaining sufficient information to prevent visual banding artifacts in the final display
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the color precision data into different components during encoding, separating the essential visual information from the excess precision data. This segmentation allows legacy systems to process only the necessary 8-bit per channel data while the encoding/decoding system handles the conversion, reducing overall system complexity
3Measurement precision
If bit depth is increased to reduce banding artifacts, then visual quality is improved, but compatibility with legacy systems deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic encoding/decoding system that adapts the color precision representation based on the target display system's capabilities. The system dynamically converts between extended-color-precision and legacy-color-precision formats, allowing the same image data to be optimally displayed on both legacy and advanced display systems without sacrificing visual quality
Data Source
AI summary
For at least one component of a digitized image, if a magnitude of a difference between a pixel component value and a representative image-cell-value is less than a threshold for each pixel of a subset of pixels of an image cell of a digitized image, the corresponding pixel component values of corresponding pixels of a corresponding processed image cell are set to the representative image-cell-value. Otherwise, at least the most significant portion of the corresponding pixel component values of the corresponding pixels of the corresponding processed image cell are set to the value of pixel component values of the digitized image.