EP0753970A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Hierarchical video coding device and decoding device
Assignee: Sharp Corp
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Filing: 1996-07-09
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2016-07-09
Abstract
Abstract In a video coding device capable of making coded data have a hierarchical structure, a specified area of each frame is selected, the position and the shape of the selected area are encoded, a pixel value of the selected area is encoded as lower-layer coded data, a pixel value of a whole image is encoded as first upper-layer coded data by using pixel values of already decoded images of the lower-layer and the first upper layer and a pixel value of the selected area is encoded as second upper-layer coded data by using pixel values of already decoded images of the lower-layer and the second upper layer. By the video coding device and video decoding device mentioned above, decoding a part of coded data makes it possible to reproduce only a selected area of a lower image-quality or reproduce a whole image of a lower image-quality or reproduce a whole image with a selected area of a higher image-quality and other areas of a lower image- quality. In encoding and decoding a background video-sequence and a plurality of foreground part-video- sequences, a coding device (101, 102, 103, 122, 123, 120) encodes position information of part-video-sequences and a decoding device (105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 124, 125, 121) prepares weight values necessary for weighted-mean image synthesizing on the basis of the coded data of the position information data, whereby each part-video-sequences is synthesized with the background video-sequence by using the weighted mean values. And in laying a plurality of part-video-sequences over a background video-sequence by using weighted mean values, an amount of coded data can be reduced because the weighted mean values are prepared from binarized information. Furthermore, a synthesized video-sequence has a smoothed boundary between the part images and the background image can be smoothly synthesized without any visual defect since the weighted mean data prepared from the binarized information gets a value of 0 to 1. In synthesizing an lower-layer frame from preceding and proceeding lower-layer frames by using a first part-area-information and a second part-area-information of lower-layer frames existing temporally before and after the synthesizable frame, the temporally preceding and proceeding lower-layer frames previously averaged with weight is used for synthesizing an overlapped portion of a first part-area with a second part-area or an area not belonging to the first part-area and the second part-area on the synthesizable frame, the temporally proceeding lower-layer frame used for synthesizing an area belonging to the first part-area only and the temporally preceding lower-layer frame is used for synthesizing an area belonging to the second part-area only. By the video coding device and video decoding device with the synthesizing method as above described, the synthesyzing image is free from the distortion occurred in the prior art image aforementioned.
Inventors
- 👤 Hiroyuki Katata
- 👤 Hiroshi Kusao
- 👤 Norio Ito
- 👤 Toshio Nomura
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 11:20
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N19/00; H04N19/50; H04N19/503; H04N19/51; H04N19/577; H04N19/10; H04N19/102; H04N19/103; H04N19/107; H04N19/169; H04N19/17; H04N19/30; H04N19/37; H04N19/53; H04N19/60; H04N19/61; H04N19/20
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 24
Claim 1
Independent Claim
212 words
A video coding device capable of giving a hierarchical structure to coded data, comprising: an lower-layer coding means (4); two upper-layer coding means (1, 2); an area-selecting means (5) for selecting a specified area of each frame; an area-position-and-shape coding means (6) for coding a position and a shape of a selected area of each frame; an lower-layer coding means (4) for coding a pixel value of a selected area only to be of a relatively low image- quality; a first upper-layer coding means (1) for predictively coding a pixel value of a whole image of each frame to be of a relatively low image-quality by using an already decoded pixel value of an lower-layer coded data and an already decoded pixel value of the first upper-layer coded data; a second upper-layer coding means (2) for predictively coding a pixel value of a selected area of each frame to be of a relatively high image quality by using an already decoded pixel value of an lower-layer coded data and an already decoded pixel value of the first upper-layer coded data; and a coded data integrating means (3) for integrating coded data obtained by the above-mentioned coding means (1, 2, 4, 6) so as to giving a hierarchical structure to the coded data.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
58 words
A video coding device as defined in claim 1, characterized in that the first upper-layer coding means (1) does not encode a pixel value of a selected area and encodes a pixel value of an area other than the selected area by using already decoded pixel values of an lower-layer coded data and a first upper-layer coded data.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
84 words
A video decoding device for decoding a video-image from data encoded by the video-coding device according to claim 1 or 2, comprising: a coded data separating means (7) for separately extracting area position and shape codes and a lower-layer code from the coded data; an area-position-and-shape decoding means (8) for decoding the position code and the shape code; and an lower-layer decoding means (9) for decoding the lower-layer code, characterized in that it decodes a selected area to be of a relatively low image-quality.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
102 words
A video decoding device for decoding a video-image from data encoded by the video-coding device according to claim 1 or 2, comprising: a coded data separating means (10) for separately extracting area position and shape codes, a first upper-layer code and a lower-layer code from the coded data; an area-position-and-shape decoding means (9) for decoding the position code and the shape code; an lower-layer decoding means (8) for decoding the lower-layer code; and a first upper-layer decoding means (11) for decoding the first upper-layer code, characterized in that it decodes a whole area of video-image to be of a relatively low image-quality.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
101 words
A video decoding device for simply decoding a video-image from data encoded by the video-coding device according to claim 1 or 2, comprising: a coded data separating means (10) for separately extracting area position and shape codes, a second upper-layer code and an lower-layer code from the coded data; an area-position-and-shape decoding means (9) for decoding the position code and the shape code; an lower-layer decoding means (8) for decoding the lower-layer code; and a second upper layer decoding means (13) for decoding the second upper-layer code, characterized in that it decodes a selected area to be of a high image-quality.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
128 words
A video decoding device for decoding a video-image from data encoded by the video-coding device according to claim 1 or 2, comprising: a coded data separating means (10) for separating the coded data into area position and shape codes, a first upper- layer code, a second upper-layer code and an lower-layer code; an area-position-and-shape decoding means (9) for decoding the position code and the shape code; an lower-layer decoding means (8) for decoding the lower- layer code; a first upper-layer decoding means (11) for decoding the first upper-layer code; and a second upper-layer decoding means (13) for decoding the second upper-layer code, characterized in that it decodes a selected area to be of a relatively high image-quality and decodes other areas to be of a relatively low-image quality.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
61 words
A video coding device for use in a system for encoding and decoding a background video-sequence for forming a background video and a plurality of part-video-sequences for forming a foreground part-video to combine each part-video-sequence with the background video-sequence by using mean weight values by a decoding side, which has a coding portion (103) which encodes area-position-and-shape information of each part-video-sequence
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
37 words
A video coding device as defined in claim 7, characterized in that the weight values for weighted-mean synthesizing are prepared from data showing area-position-and-shape information for a plurality of part-video-sequences and weights each video-sequence and then encoded.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
59 words
A video coding device as defined in claim 8, characterized in that it is provided with a coding portion (101, 102, 122, 123) for encoding an image of the video by block, a portion (110, 121, 120) for obtaining a representative weight-value for each coding block and a portion (108, 109) for weighting each block with the representative weight-value;
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
52 words
A video coding device as defined in claim 8, characterized in that it is provided with a portion (122, 123, 131 to 134) for transforming and coding, a portion (120) for obtaining a representative weight-value by each transformed block and a portion (132) for weighting each transformed block with the representative weight-value.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
57 words
A video decoding device for decoding coded data generated by the video coding device defined in claim 7, which is capable of decoding area-position-and-shape information of a plurality of part-video-sequences, preparing weight values for synthesizing with weighted mean values from the decoded area-position-and-shape information, combining each part-video-sequence with a background video-sequence by using the weighted mean values.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
60 words
A video decoding device for decoding coded data generated by the video coding device defined in claim 8, which is capable of decoding area-position-and-shape information of a plurality of part-video-sequences, preparing weight values for synthesizing with weighted mean values from the decoded area-position-and-shape information and weighting each part-video-sequence with weight values being reverse to those applied at the coding device.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
69 words
A video decoding device for decoding the coded data generated by the video coding device defined in claim 9, which is provided with a decoding portion (105, 106, 124, 125) for decoding an image of the video by block and is capable of obtaining representative weight values for each decoded block and weighting each decoded block with representative weight values being reverse to those applied at the coding device.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
64 words
A video decoding device for decoding the coded data generated by the video coding device defined in claim 10, which is provided with a portion (124, 125, 141 to 144) for transforming and decoding and is capable of obtaining representative weight values for each transformed block and weighting each transformed block with the representative weight-values being reverse to those applied at the coding device.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
192 words
A video coding device and a video decoding device for hierarchically encoding and decoding a video sequence by previously separating the video sequence into lower-layer frames codable at a lower frame rate and upper-layer frames whose one or more specified part-areas only are decodable at a higher frame rate, and by synthesizing an upper-layer part area with an lower-layer frame when decoding, which in case of decoding an upper frame in the absence of an lower-layer frame corresponding to said upper-layer frame synthesizes the absent lower-layer frame from preceding and proceeding lower-layer frames by using a first part-area-information and a second part-area-information of lower-layer frames existing temporally before and after the synthesizable frame and by weighted averaging the lower-layer frames existing temporally before and after the synthesizable lower-layer frame for synthesizing thereon an overlapped portion of a first part-area with a second part-area and an area not belonging to the first part-area and the second part-area, by using the lower-layer frame existing temporally after the synthesizable frame for synthesizing only the first part-area and by using the lower-layer frame existing temporally before the synthesizable frame for synthesizing only the second part area.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
72 words
A video-coding device and a video-decoding device as defined in claim 15, characterized in that the lower-layer frame is synthesized by using two lower-layer frames existing temporally near to the synthesizable frame or only the first lower-layer frame or only the second lower-layer frame for synthesizing an overlapped portion of the first part-area and the second part-area and an area not belonging to the first part area and the second part area.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
94 words
A video-coding device and a video-decoding device as defined in claim 15 or claim 16, characterized in that it is provided with motion parameter estimating means (231) for estimating an interframe motion parameter between the first lower-layer frame and the second lower-layer frame and deforming means (232) for deforming the first lower-layer frame, the second lower-layer frame, the first part-area and the second part-area by motion compensation of the motion parameter based on the temporal position of the synthesizable lower-layer frame, and it synthesizes the lower-layer image by using respective deformed images and area-information.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
61 words
A video-coding device and a video-decoding device as defined in claim 17, characterized in that the motion vector information obtained by motion compensative prediction coding is used in synthesizing the lower-layer frame and the deforming means (232) use a motion vector of each block as the motion parameter or determine a parameter representing a whole image from the block motion vectors.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
106 words
A video-coding device and a video-decoding device for encoding and decoding video by using area information representing a shape of an object-area or a shape of a part-area, which is provided with area-information approximating means (241) for approximating the area-information by a plurality of geometrical figures in encoding and decoding the area-information, approximated area-information coding and decoding means (242, 252), non-approximated area-information coding and decoding means for encoding and decoding the area-information without approximation and adaptive selecting means for adaptively selecting either of the approximated area-information coding and decoding means (242, 252) and the non-approximated area-information coding and decoding means to effectively encoding and decoding area-information.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
69 words
A video-coding device and a video-decoding device as defined in claim 19, characterized in that it is provided with area-information converting means for converting the area information into eight-directional quantized data, difference-data calculating means for determining a difference between the eight-directional quantized data and variable-length coding and decoding means for variable-length encoding and decoding the difference data and it may efficiently perform reversible coding and decoding of the area-information.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
84 words
A video-coding device and a video-decoding device as defined in claim 19, characterized in that it is provided with interframe-differential calculating means for determining an interframe difference of geometrical figure information in coding and decoding the approximated area-information, variable-length coding and decoding means for variable-length coding and decoding the difference data, change-information adding means for adding information indicating no change of area-information when the difference data being all 0, and thereby, it may reversibly encode and decode the approximated area-information at a high efficiency.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
163 words
A video coding device and a video decoding device for encoding and decoding a video sequence by previously separating the video sequence into lower-layer frames codable at a lower frame rate and upper-layer frames whose one or more specified part-areas only are decodable at a higher frame rate, wherein a weight-information generating device is used for generating, from binarized part-area information, many-valued weight information usable for synthesizing an upper-layer video-sequence with an lower-layer video-sequence by weighted averaging method and is provided with horizontal-length detecting means for detecting a length of each horizontal line of each area-information by horizontally scanning therein, first weight-function deciding means for determining a horizontal weight-function from the horizontal line length, vertical-length detecting means for detecting a length of each vertical line of each area-information by vertically scanning therein and second weight-function deciding means for determining a vertical weight-function from the vertical line length and which generates the many-valued weight-information by using the horizontally-directed weight and the vertically directed weight.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
116 words
A video-coding device and a video-decoding device for encoding and decoding video by using area information representing a shape of an object-area or a shape of a part-area, which is provided with mean-value calculating means (271) for determining a mean value of pixels in an area from input image and corresponding thereto area information in adaptively changing-over from interframe prediction coding to intraframe coding, storing means (272) for storing the mean value, difference calculating means (273) for determining a difference between mean values of a preceding frame and a current frame and comparing means (274) for comparing the difference with a specified value and which selects the intraframe coding when the difference exceeds the specified value.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
118 words
A video-coding device for separating a video-sequence into background image areas and a plurality of foreground part-images and separately encoding each separated background area and each part-image area, which is provided with area discriminating means (281) for determining whether coding data and coding blocks exist in or out of a part area, coded-data-amount calculating means (285) for separately calculating the number of coded data in the part-image area and the number of coded data in the background image area and distribution ratio calculating means (284) for determining distribution ratios of the target number of coding-data to the part-image area and the background-image area and which may adaptively determine the ratios of distributing the target number of coding data.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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