Dynamic Voxel Point Cloud Compression With Selective Motion Compensation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing 3D video compression methods are computationally intensive and time-consuming, failing to effectively utilize temporal redundancies, leading to inefficiencies in encoding and decoding dynamic voxelized point clouds.

Innovation Solution

Implementing motion-compensated inter-frame coding and intra-frame coding techniques for 3D-point-cloud blocks, with voxel-distortion-correction filters, to reduce bit rate and computational resources while maintaining visual quality.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If motion-compensated inter-frame coding is implemented, then bit rate is reduced and compression efficiency is improved, but computational complexity and resource usage increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebit rateVSAvoidcomputational complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The point cloud is divided into multiple 3D blocks that are processed independently using motion-compensated prediction. Each block uses motion vectors to reference corresponding blocks from previous frames, reducing the bit rate while distributing the computational load across blocks rather than processing the entire point cloud as one unit.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Motion vectors and prediction information are prepared and stored from previous frames before encoding the current frame. This preliminary action allows the encoder to quickly reference past data during compression, reducing the bit rate without requiring complex real-time calculations during the actual encoding process.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Productivity

If motion-compensated inter-frame coding is implemented, then compression speed is improved, but computational resource usage increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompression speedVSAvoidcomputational resource usage

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

Instead of重新encoding entire point cloud blocks that have not changed significantly, the system copies reference blocks from previous frames using motion vectors. This copying approach dramatically speeds up compression while the sparse distribution of motion vector data keeps computational resource usage manageable.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

Solution Approach 2:

Motion compensation is applied selectively to different regions of the point cloud based on local motion characteristics. Areas with high motion use full motion-compensated prediction, while static or low-motion areas use simpler encoding, optimizing both compression speed and resource usage according to local requirements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

3Manufacturing precision

If voxel-distortion-correction filters are applied, then geometry accuracy is improved, but computational complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvegeometry accuracyVSAvoidcomputational complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies lightweight voxel-distortion-correction filters that provide sufficient geometry accuracy for visual applications without requiring complex computational geometry processing. These simplified filters are computationally inexpensive and provide adequate precision for the intended use case.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #27Cheap short-living objects (Disposable)

Solution Approach 2:

Distortion correction is applied selectively to regions where geometry accuracy is most critical, rather than uniformly across the entire point cloud. This partial application of correction filters maintains geometry accuracy where needed while reducing overall computational complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS12537976B2Motion-compensated compression of dynamic voxelized point clouds

Publication Date: 2026.01.27 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Disclosed herein are exemplary embodiments of innovations in the area of point cloud encoding and decoding. Example embodiments can reduce the computational complexity and/or computational resource usage during 3D video encoding by selectively encoding one or more 3D-point-cloud blocks using an inter-frame coding (e.g., motion compensation) technique that allows for previously encoded/decoded frames to be used in predicting current frames being encoded. Alternatively, one or more 3D-point-cloud block can be encoded using an intra-frame encoding approach. The selection of which encoding mode to use can be based, for example, on a threshold that is evaluated relative to rate-distortion performance for both intra-frame and inter-frame encoding. Still further, embodiments of the disclosed technology can use one or more voxel-distortion-correction filters to correct distortion errors that may occur during voxel compression. Such filters are uniquely adapted for the particular challenges presented when compressing 3D image data. Corresponding decoding techniques are also disclosed.