Video Overlay Compression Switching for Lower Memory Bandwidth
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image processing methods for overlaying graphics onto video frames incur significant memory bandwidth costs due to frequent loading of uncompressed raster format representations, especially when the overlay content does not change frequently.
Innovation Solution
An image-processing device determines whether the overlay content has been updated within a time period and provides a compressed representation, such as RLE format, when the content remains unchanged, reducing memory bandwidth by reusing the compressed representation for multiple frames.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the uncompressed raster format representation of the overlay is loaded for each video frame, then the overlay can be rendered efficiently and fast, but the memory bandwidth consumption increases considerably
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the representation format parameter of the overlay from uncompressed raster format to compressed format (such as RLE or JPEG) when the overlay content does not change frequently. This parameter change reduces memory bandwidth consumption while maintaining acceptable rendering performance, as the compressed format requires less memory bandwidth to load and can be decoded efficiently by modern GPUs.
2Loss of energy
If the compressed representation of the overlay is provided, then the memory bandwidth consumption is reduced, but the processing time increases due to compression overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent dynamically selects between compressed and uncompressed overlay representations based on whether the overlay content has changed. When content changes frequently, uncompressed format is used to minimize processing time. When content remains static, compressed format is used to reduce memory bandwidth consumption. This dynamic adaptation allows the system to optimize for the appropriate metric based on current operational conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs compression of the overlay in advance and stores the compressed representation, so that during video frame processing, the pre-compressed overlay can be loaded efficiently without incurring compression overhead at rendering time. This preliminary compression action separates the compression cost from the rendering pipeline, reducing real-time processing time while maintaining memory bandwidth benefits.
3Manufacturing precision
If the uncompressed representation of the overlay is added to each video frame, then the overlay quality is maintained, but the memory bandwidth cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the format parameter from uncompressed to compressed representation, which reduces memory bandwidth cost. Modern compression algorithms and GPU decoders maintain visual quality comparable to uncompressed formats while significantly reducing memory bandwidth requirements, thus achieving a favorable trade-off between quality and resource consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for adding an overlay to a video sequence includes determining whether a content of the overlay is updated within a time period; then determining whether to provide a second representation of the overlay in a compressed format, wherein it is determined to provide the second representation in response to determining that the content of the overlay is not updated within the time period, and wherein it is determined to not provide the second representation of the overlay in response to determining that the content of the overlay is updated within the time period; and when the second representation of the overlay has been provided, adding the second representation of the overlay to a video frame of the video sequence if a compression ratio of the second representation of the overlay with respect to a first representation of the overlay in an uncompressed format is above a threshold.