| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090073005 | COMPLEXITY-AWARE ENCODING - Techniques for encoding data based at least in part upon an awareness of the decoding complexity of the encoded data and the ability of a target decoder to decode the encoded data are disclosed. In some embodiments, a set of data is encoded based at least in part upon a state of a target decoder to which the encoded set of data is to be provided. In some embodiments, a set of data is encoded based at least in part upon the states of multiple decoders to which the encoded set of data is to be provided. | 03-19-2009 |
| 20090092184 | POWER SAVING DECODER ARCHITECTURE - A method and system are provided for decoding coded video data by turning off or not loading at least one functional unit or functional subunit of the decoder while decoding a portion of the coded video data. A schedule may be created prior to substantive decoding and then the schedule may be used to decode coded video data. The coded video data may be reordered based on the functional units or subunits the portions of the coded video data need for decoding. The portions of the coded video data are reordered into their original order in an output buffer after being decoded. The decoder may determine which functional units or subunits are needed for decoding based on administration information included with the coded video data. The decoder may decode portions of the coded video data in parallel. | 04-09-2009 |
| 20090304071 | ADAPTIVE APPLICATION OF ENTROPY CODING METHODS - Disclosed is an exemplary video coder and method that provide a video decoder control method for analyzing data to schedule coding of the data. Input data may be encoded to a plurality of different encoding. It may be determined if a minimum number of the plurality of different encodings comply with at least one of a bitrate constraint and a computational complexity constraint. An encoding may be selected from the compliant encodings that maximizes the quality of the decoded data. Quality may be determined based on at least one predetermined metric related to the selected encoding; and the selected encoding may be delivered to an output buffer. | 12-10-2009 |
| 20090304077 | REFRESH METHOD AND APPARATUS - Apparatuses and methods for improving coding processes and coding parameters for coding video data are provided for. A coder may select coding parameters for video data according to a default coding policy. The default coding policy may include selection of prediction modes (e.g., intra-coding or inter-coding) for each pixel group in each frame. A video coder may select some pixel groups in a frame to be coded as refresh pixel groups as an exception to the default assignment policies. The selection of refresh pixel groups may be based on prediction relationships among multiple frames of source video data. The default coding of the refresh pixel groups is then modified to enhanced the coding of the refresh pixel groups. The refresh pixel groups may permit fewer intra (I) frames be sent and/or may improve the quality of the recovered video. | 12-10-2009 |
| 20090304086 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VIDEO CODER AND DECODER JOINT OPTIMIZATION - Embodiments of the present invention provide apparatuses and methods of coding video. The apparatuses and methods may further provide coding a source video sequence according to a block-based coding process, estimating processing capabilities of a target decoder, determining if the estimated processing capabilities are sufficient to perform deblocking filtering. If not sufficient, the apparatuses and methods may provide computing deblocking filter strengths for pixel blocks of the source video sequence to be used at decoding, and transmitting the deblocking filter strengths in a coded video data signal with the coded video data. Moreover, if not sufficient, the apparatuses and methods may provide changing coding parameters including, but not limited to, block sizes, transform sizes, and Qmatrix. | 12-10-2009 |
| 20090310685 | HIGH-YIELD MULTI-THREADING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR VIDEO ENCODERS/TRANSCODERS/DECODERS WITH DYNAMIC VIDEO REORDERING AND MULTI-LEVEL VIDEO CODING DEPENDENCY MANAGEMENT - Disclosed is an exemplary video coder and video coding method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The exemplary video coder includes a scheduler, a plurality of processors and a multiplexer. The scheduler can examine processing units in an input buffer to determine an order for the processing unit to be coded by a processor. If the processing unit under examination depends on a processing unit not yet processed, the processing unit under examination can be merged with other processing units, if any, that share a similar dependency. If the processing unit under examination does not depend on any processing units not yet processed, it can be sent to a next available processor for coding. When a processing unit is sent to a processor, any merged processing units that depend on sent processing unit can also be sent to a next available processor. | 12-17-2009 |
| 20100008419 | Hierarchical Bi-Directional P Frames - Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, methods and apparatuses for generating forward, backward or bi-directional P frames. Prior to encoding a sequence of video frames, P frames within the video sequence can be reordered to include causal and/or non-causal references to one or more reference frames. This allows any block partition of a bi-directional P frame to include a single reference to a reference frame that is temporally displayed either before or after the bi-directional P frame. Compression and visual quality can therefore be improved. Hierarchical frame structures can be constructed using bi-directional P frames to better accommodate low complexity decoding profiles. Multilayered encoded video bitstreams can be generated based on the hierarchical frame structures and can include a first layer of anchor frames and one or more second layers that include bi-directional P frames that reference the anchor frames and/or any frame in any lower level layer. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20100011117 | VIDEO STREAMING USING MULTIPLE CHANNELS - Systems and methods for streaming video over multiple HTTP channels are provided. The client may have control over the channels, allowing the client to control the amount and source of data received. Data requested by the client may be separated into a set of layers, with each layer being assigned to a separate channel. The client may adjust the number of layers requested based on a variety of factors. Layers may be requested from multiple remote sources, providing the client with additional control over the specific bandwidth profile of received data. | 01-14-2010 |
| 20100150230 | VIDEO CODING SYSTEM USING SUB-CHANNELS AND CONSTRAINED PREDICTION REFERENCES TO PROTECT AGAINST DATA TRANSMISSION ERRORS - A coding technique is disclosed in which frames of a video sequence are assigned to one of a plurality of sub-channels to be transmitted to a decoder. The frames are coded according to predictive coding techniques such that ordinarily prediction references of the frames in each sub-channel only reach the reference frames that occur within the same sub-channel. Thus, if transmission errors arise with respect to one sub-channel, decoding may occur for other sub-channels until the transmission error is detected and corrected. The decoder may also try to reconstruct the frames in the failed sub-channel by interpolating from the frames in other channels. Furthermore, when feedback scheme is available between the encoder and decoder, the encoder may restart the failed sub-channel by coding the next frames in the sub-channel by predicting from correctly received frames in other sub-channels. And the encoder and decoder may resume normal encoding and decoding once the restart frame is sent and received, respectively. Additionally, the encoder and decoder can maintain an identical and correctly received long-term reference frame that can be used to restart all sub-channels in cases all sub-channels are corrupted at one point. The long-term reference frame can be refreshed periodically. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100246688 | BLIND NOISE ANALYSIS FOR VIDEO COMPRESSION - Example embodiments of the present invention provide a method or device for coding source video. The method or device may provide for a segment of video frames from the source video, computing a noise map for the segment of the source video where the noise map is computed from differences among pixels selected from spatially-distributed sampling patterns in the segment, computing control parameter adjustments based on the noise map, and coding the selected segment of source video according to control parameters generated from a default coding policy and the control parameter adjustments, where the default coding policy includes default control parameters of the encoder. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20100246689 | DYNAMIC DITHERING FOR VIDEO COMPRESSION - A method and device for dithering video from a decoder. The method and device provide: selecting a segment of video frames from the video; computing a noise map for the segment of the video, the noise map computed from differences among pixels selected from spatially-distributed sampling patterns in the segment; determining contours of quantization artifacts within the video frame based on the noise map and a histogram of pixel values in the video frame; computing a gradient measurement of pixel values along the contours; identifying regions along the contours of quantization artifacts to apply dithering based on the noise map and the gradient measurement; determining a dithering strength based on the noise map and the gradient measurement; and applying dithering noise to the identified regions at the determined dithering strength. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20100246691 | RESTORE FILTER FOR RESTORING PREPROCESSED VIDEO IMAGE - Embodiments of the present invention provides a method and device for processing a source video. The method and device may provide computing an artifact estimation from differences among pixels selected from spatially-distributed sampling patterns in the source video; filtering the source video to produce a filtered version of the source video, computing a blending factor based on the artifact estimation in the source video, and computing an output video by blending the source video and the filtered version of the source video based on the blending factor. | 09-30-2010 |
| 20100309975 | IMAGE ACQUISITION AND TRANSCODING SYSTEM - A method and system are provided to encode a video sequence into a compressed bitstream. An encoder receives a video sequence from an image-capture device, together with metadata associated with the video sequence, and codes the video sequence into a first compressed bitstream using the metadata to select or revise a coding parameter associated with a coding operation. Optionally, the video sequence may be conditioned for coding by a preprocessor, which also may use the metadata to select or revise a preprocessing parameter associated with a preprocessing operation. The encoder may itself generate metadata associated with the first compressed bitstream, which may be used together with any metadata received by the encoder, to transcode the first compressed bitstream into a second compressed bitstream. The compressed bitstreams may be decoded by a decoder to generate recovered video data, and the recovered video data may be conditioned for viewing by a postprocessor, which may use the metadata to select or revise a postprocessing parameter associated with a postprocessing operation. | 12-09-2010 |
| 20100309985 | VIDEO PROCESSING FOR MASKING CODING ARTIFACTS USING DYNAMIC NOISE MAPS - A video decoder system includes a video decoding engine, noise database, artifact estimator and post-processing unit. The video coder may generate recovered video from a data stream of coded video data, which may have visually-perceptible artifacts introduced as a byproduct of compression. The noise database may store a plurality of previously developed noise patches. The artifact estimator may estimate the location of coding artifacts present in the recovered video and select noise patches from the database to mask the artifacts and the post-processing unit may integrate the selected noise patches into the recovered video. In this manner, the video decoder may generate post-processed noise which may mask artifacts that otherwise would be generated by a video coding process. | 12-09-2010 |
| 20100309987 | IMAGE ACQUISITION AND ENCODING SYSTEM - A method and system are provided to encode a video sequence into a compressed bitstream. An encoder receives a video sequence from an image-capture device, together with metadata associated with the video sequence, and codes the video sequence into a first compressed bitstream using the metadata to select or revise a coding parameter associated with a coding operation. Optionally, the video sequence may be conditioned for coding by a preprocessor, which also may use the metadata to select or revise a preprocessing parameter associated with a preprocessing operation. The encoder may itself generate metadata associated with the first compressed bitstream, which may be used together with any metadata received by the encoder, to transcode the first compressed bitstream into a second compressed bitstream. The compressed bitstreams may be decoded by a decoder to generate recovered video data, and the recovered video data may be conditioned for viewing by a postprocessor, which may use the metadata to select or revise a postprocessing parameter associated with a postprocessing operation. | 12-09-2010 |
| 20110038416 | VIDEO CODER PROVIDING IMPROVED VISUAL QUALITY DURING USE OF HETEROGENEOUS CODING MODES - A video coding system reduces perceptible artifacts introduced to coded video due to selection of disparate coding modes among adjacent partitions of video. When coding modes are assigned to partitions of video that likely would introduce visually perceptible coding artifacts during decode, the partitions may be subject to a coding process in which a selected partition is coded according to coding modes that correspond to neighboring partitions, then decoded. The decoded data of the selected partition may be recoded according to a different coding mode. Coding artifacts that otherwise might be introduced by the different coding mode may be avoided by first coding the corresponding partition in a manner that is consistent with neighboring partitions, then decoding the coded partition and re-coding the decoded data according to the different mode. In an embodiment, a quantization parameter may be reduced between a first code and the recode. The coding technique may be applied to partitions of various scales—e.g., to pixel blocks or frames. | 02-17-2011 |
| 20110090303 | Facial Pose Improvement with Perspective Distortion Correction - Methods, systems, and apparatus are presented for reducing distortion in an image, such as a video image. A video image can be captured by an image capture device, e.g. during a video conferencing session. Distortion correction processing, such as the application of one or more warping techniques, can be applied to the captured image to produce a distortion corrected image, which can be transmitted to one or more participants. The warping techniques can be performed in accordance with one or more warp parameters specifying a transformation of the captured image. Further, the warp parameters can be generated in accordance with an orientation of the image capture device, which can be determined based on sensor data or can be a fixed value. Additionally or alternatively, the warp parameters can be determined in accordance with a reference image or model to which the captured image should be warped. | 04-21-2011 |
| 20110149087 | Joint Bandwidth Detection Algorithm For Real-Time Communication - A video coding system and method for increasing a transmitted output bit rate of a video encoding system by altering the content of the bit stream. A video encoder may receive a coding mode signal from a computer application for coding source video data, the coding mode signal indicating a target bit rate having a risk factor related to transmission error associated to the target bit rate. The coded bitstream may be modified based on the risk factor indicated in the coding mode signal. A modified coded bitstream may be outputted at the target bit rate and at a reduced coding efficiency, and the channel may be tested for transmission errors. Based on the test results, a revised coding mode signal indicating the same target bit rate, but a revised risk factor may be provided. The coded bitstream may be revised by removing the modifications previously made to the coded bitstream and a revised coded bitstream having greater coding efficiency may be output at the target bit rate. | 06-23-2011 |
