Image Frame Latent Interpolation for Lower-Bandwidth Video Calls
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The high bandwidth requirements for video and audio transmission in video conferencing are expensive and inefficient, necessitating a need for effective compression methods to reduce bandwidth usage.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a sending unit with a frame selector and encoder to generate compressed latent vectors, and a receiving unit with an interpolator and decoder to reconstruct frames, enabling efficient transmission and reconstruction of image frames through latent vector interpolation and enhancement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If video content is transmitted with high quality and full resolution, then image quality is improved, but bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The video transmission system segments the full-resolution video stream into multiple lower-resolution sub-streams. Each sub-stream contains a portion of the visual information at reduced resolution, which when combined at the receiver reconstructs the original high-quality video. This segmentation allows bandwidth to be distributed across multiple channels while maintaining overall image quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the video data from spatial domain to frequency domain using transform coding (e.g., DCT, wavelet transform). By representing video information in the frequency domain, the system can selectively transmit important frequency components and discard less significant ones, achieving compression while preserving perceptual quality. This dimensional transformation enables efficient allocation of bandwidth to the most visually important information.
2Quantity of substance
If video compression is applied to reduce bandwidth, then bandwidth requirements are reduced, but image quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The video compression system applies different compression ratios to different regions of the video frame based on their importance. High-motion or high-attention regions (such as faces, text, or objects of interest) are compressed less to preserve quality, while low-importance regions are compressed more aggressively. This local quality approach ensures that bandwidth is allocated efficiently while maintaining perceived image quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates quality feedback mechanisms where the receiver evaluates the quality of received video frames and sends feedback to the transmitter. Based on this feedback, the transmitter dynamically adjusts compression parameters to maintain acceptable quality levels while optimizing bandwidth usage. This closed-loop control ensures quality is preserved even under varying network conditions.
3Speed
If frame rate is increased to improve video smoothness, then video quality is improved, but data transmission volume increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs motion estimation and prediction before encoding each frame. By predicting the content of the current frame based on previous frames and compensating for motion, the system can represent video information more efficiently. This preliminary prediction action reduces the amount of data that needs to be transmitted while maintaining smooth video playback at higher frame rates.
Solution Approach 2:
The video transmission system uses periodic intra-frame refreshes where every Nth frame is transmitted as a complete intra-frame (I-frame) without relying on previous frames. Between these periodic I-frames, predictive frames (P-frames or B-frames) are transmitted with reference to previous frames. This periodic structure ensures that error propagation is limited while maintaining smooth playback, and allows the system to achieve higher effective frame rates with reduced data transmission volume.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for the transmission and receiving of data comprising: a sending unit configured to receive frames of an object of interest, the sending unit comprising: a frame selector creating selected frames by selecting frames from the frames of the object of interest at set intervals, the frames not selected by the frame selector remaining on the sending unit; an encoder generating from the selected frames, selected frame latent vectors being a compressed representation of the frames of the object of interest; the sending unit sending the selected frame latent vectors to a receiving unit. The receiving unit, configured to receive the selected frame latent vectors, comprises: an interpolator reconstructing by interpolation a number of in-between latent vectors between two successive selected frame latent vectors; the interpolator sending both the received selected frame latent vectors and reconstructed in-between latent vectors to a decoder; and the decoder decoding both the received selected frame latent vectors and reconstructed in-between latent vectors and generating frames.