Monochrome Enhancement Layer Codec Color Fidelity
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing video codecs using a monochrome enhancement layer for computational and space efficiency result in a visible color difference between the original enhanced image and the reconstructed enhanced image, leading to a suboptimal image quality.
Innovation Solution
An image encoder and decoder system that employs a tone mapper to generate a base image using RGB gains set close to or the same as each other, and an enhancement layer to generate a tone curve and/or gain map, allowing for efficient compression and reconstruction of enhanced images with minimal loss.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a monochrome enhancement layer is used for compression, then computational and space efficiency is improved, but image quality deteriorates due to visible color differences
Solution Approach 1:
The image is segmented into a base layer (luminance information) and an enhancement layer (chrominance information). The base layer is encoded with high precision while the enhancement layer uses monochrome compression, achieving both efficiency and quality.
Solution Approach 2:
Different quality levels are applied to different components of the image. The luminance component (base layer) is maintained with high quality while the chrominance component (enhancement layer) uses compressed monochrome encoding, optimizing the trade-off between efficiency and perceived image quality.
2Loss of substance
If a monochrome enhancement layer is used, then compression ratio is improved, but color accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The image data is segmented into base layer and enhancement layer, with the enhancement layer containing chrominance information that is separately processed to maintain color accuracy while enabling compression.
Solution Approach 2:
The final image is constructed as a composite of the base layer and enhancement layer, combining luminance and chrominance information to achieve both compression and color accuracy.
3Manufacturing precision
If RGB gains are set differently to maintain color accuracy, then color fidelity is improved, but computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
RGB gains are set to uniform values (R=G=B) to simplify the tone mapping process while maintaining adequate color fidelity. This homogeneous approach reduces computational complexity compared to using different gains for each color channel.
Data Source
AI summary
An image encoder includes a tone mapper, an enhancement layer and an image file generator. The tone mapper is used to generate a base image according to an enhanced image and red green blue (RGB) gains. The RGB gains are set close to or the same as each other. The enhancement layer is used to generate a tone curve and/or a gain map of the base image and the enhanced image according to the tone mapper and/or a group including the base image and the enhanced image. The image file generator is used to generate an image file according to the base image and at least one member of a group including the tone curve and the gain map.