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US5706009A Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Quantizing apparatus and quantizing method

Assignee: Sony Corp
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Filing: 1995-12-20
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Granted: 1998-01-06
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Expires: 2015-12-20
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Abstract

Abstract A difference signal generated in a prediction encoding process is block-segmented by a block segmenting circuit 2. Thus, the level distribution of the block-segmented difference signal is concentrated to a narrower portion than the level distribution of one entire screen. Reference values DR and MIN of each block of the difference signal are detected. A quantizing step width Δ and shift data ΔS are determined corresponding to such reference values and the number of quantizing bits N. A quantizing circuit 6 quantizes the difference signal with Δ. The difference signal is shifted and quantized so that the level 0 of the difference signal is obtained as 0 on the decoding side. A flag FLG and a that represent the quantized value of the level 0 are transmitted as side information along with the quantized value Q.

Inventors

  • 👤 Tetsujiro Kondo
  • 👤 Yasuhiro Fujimori
  • 👤 Kenji Takahashi
  • 👤 Kunio Kawaguchi

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-09 13:30
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N19/00; H04N19/90; H04N19/98; H04N19/50; H04N19/503; H04N19/51; H04N19/60; H04N19/63; H04N19/10; H04N19/102; H04N19/115; H04N19/134; H04N19/146

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 26
Claim 1
Independent Claim 124 words
A quantizing apparatus for quantizing a difference signal representing the difference between a sample value of an input digital signal and a predicted value, wherein said difference signal has a most concentrated distribution for a portion of said input digital signal different than the distribution for the entire input digital signal, said apparatus comprising: means for obtaining a difference value between one of representative values of which the difference signal is quantized and said most concentrated distribution to be quantized; means for shifting a quantizing representative value corresponding to the difference value so that the signal to be quantized accords with said most concentrated distribution of the signal to be quantized; and means for performing a quantizing operation corresponding to the shifted representative value.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 124 words
A quantizing apparatus for quantizing a difference signal representing the difference between a sample value of an input digital signal and a predicted value, wherein said difference signal has a most concentrated distribution for a portion of said input digital signal different than the distribution for the entire input digital signal, said apparatus comprising: means for obtaining a difference value between one of representative values of which the difference signal is quantized and said most concentrated distribution to be quantized; means for shifting a quantizing representative value corresponding to the difference value so that the signal to be quantized accords with said most concentrated distribution of the signal to be quantized; and means for performing a quantizing operation corresponding to the shifted representative value.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 21 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising: means for transmitting the difference signal as coded side information.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 31 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, further comprising: means for transmitting, as a code corresponding to a representative value, the difference signal quantized as the coded side information.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 37 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 2, further comprising: means for transmitting both a code corresponding to a representative value of the quantized difference signal and data defining a quantizing condition as the side information.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 24 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 4, further comprising: means for transmitting data defining a quantizing step width as the quantizing condition.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 24 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 4, further comprising: means for transmitting data defining a signal distribution width as the quantizing condition.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 33 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising: means for selecting a quantizing step width corresponding to the distribution of the shifted represented value of the signal to be quantized.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 27 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein the quantizing step width selected corresponding to the distribution of the signal to be quantized is optimized.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 39 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein a quantizing step width is selected so that a restored error of the signal to be quantized becomes minimum, thereby determining an optimum value of the signal distribution width.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 41 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein an evaluation range of the quantizing step width is limited corresponding to a feature amount of the signal to be quantized, thereby determining an optimum value of the signal distribution width.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 52 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein an evaluation range of the quantizing step width is limited and the quantizing step width is determined so that an absolute restored value error of the signal to be quantized becomes minimum, thereby determining an optimum value of the quantizing step width.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 149 words
A quantizing apparatus for quantizing a difference signal representing the difference between a sample value of an input digital signal and a predicted value, comprising: means for obtaining a difference value between one of representative values of which the difference signal is quantized and a most concentrated value of a signal value to be quantized; means for shifting a quantizing representative value corresponding to the difference value so that the signal to be quantized accords with a most concentrated value of the signal to be quantized; and means for performing a quantizing operation corresponding to the shifted representative value, wherein an output signal of said quantizing means is transmitted, and wherein both a code corresponding to a representative value of which the difference signal is quantized and data defining a quantizing condition are transmitted as side information so that a restored value of the reference value is not changed.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim 149 words
A quantizing apparatus for quantizing a difference signal representing the difference between a sample value of an input digital signal and a predicted value, comprising: means for obtaining a difference value between one of representative values of which the difference signal is quantized and a most concentrated value of a signal value to be quantized; means for shifting a quantizing representative value corresponding to the difference value so that the signal to be quantized accords with a most concentrated value of the signal to be quantized; and means for performing a quantizing operation corresponding to the shifted representative value, wherein an output signal of said quantizing means is transmitted, and wherein both a code corresponding to a representative value of which the difference signal is quantized and data defining a quantizing condition are transmitted as side information so that a restored value of the reference value is not changed.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim 58 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein both a code corresponding to a representing value of which the difference signal is quantized and data defining a quantizing condition as side information are transmitted as side information, and wherein a quantizing region is shifted so that a restored value of the reference value is not changed.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim 37 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 1 further comprising: plane encoding means for dividing a quantized signal for each bit plane; and variable length encoding means for variable length encoding each of the bit planes.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim 40 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising: selecting means for selecting one of a plurality of quantizers which generates a shifted representative value that accords with a most concentrated value of the signal to be quantized.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim 121 words
A quantizing method for quantizing a difference signal representing the difference between a sample value of an input digital signal and a predicted value, wherein said difference signal has most concentrated distribution for a portion of said entire input digital signal different from said distribution for the entire input digital signal, said method comprising the steps of: obtaining a difference value between one of representative values of which the difference signal is quantized and said most concentrated distribution to be quantized: shifting a quantizing representative value corresponding to the difference value so that the signal to be quantized accords with said most concentrated distribution of the signal to be quantized; and performing a quantizing operation corresponding to the shifted representative value.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim 121 words
A quantizing method for quantizing a difference signal representing the difference between a sample value of an input digital signal and a predicted value, wherein said difference signal has most concentrated distribution for a portion of said entire input digital signal different from said distribution for the entire input digital signal, said method comprising the steps of: obtaining a difference value between one of representative values of which the difference signal is quantized and said most concentrated distribution to be quantized: shifting a quantizing representative value corresponding to the difference value so that the signal to be quantized accords with said most concentrated distribution of the signal to be quantized; and performing a quantizing operation corresponding to the shifted representative value.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim 85 words
A quantizer, comprising: level detecting means for forming a block composed of a plurality of spatially and/or temporally adjacent pixels and for detecting a particular level of which the pixels of the block are concentrated; compensation amount generating means for generating a compensation amount corresponding to the detected particular level; compensating means for compensating a reference value of the block with the compensation amount; normalizing means for normalizing the pixels of the block corresponding to the reference value; and means for quantizing the normalized pixels.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim 85 words
A quantizer, comprising: level detecting means for forming a block composed of a plurality of spatially and/or temporally adjacent pixels and for detecting a particular level of which the pixels of the block are concentrated; compensation amount generating means for generating a compensation amount corresponding to the detected particular level; compensating means for compensating a reference value of the block with the compensation amount; normalizing means for normalizing the pixels of the block corresponding to the reference value; and means for quantizing the normalized pixels.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim 45 words
The quantizer as set forth in claim 17, wherein said level detecting means comprises: level distribution measuring means for measuring the frequency of the level of each of the pixels of the block; and means for detecting the particular level corresponding to the measured frequency.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim 23 words
The quantizing apparatus as set forth in claim 18, wherein 1/4 or more of the pixels of the block include the measured frequency.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim 45 words
The quantizer as set forth in claim 17, wherein the reference value of the block is a maximum value or a minimum value of the block, and wherein the compensation amount is added to the maximum value and/or the minimum value of the reference value.
Claim 25
Independent Claim 74 words
A method for quantizing pixel information, comprising the steps of: forming a block composed of a plurality of spatially and/or temporally adjacent pixels and detecting a particular level of which the pixels of the block are concentrated; generating a compensation amount corresponding to the detected particular level; compensating a reference value of the block with the compensation amount; normalizing the pixels of the block corresponding to the reference value; and quantizing the normalized pixels.
Claim 26
Independent Claim 74 words
A method for quantizing pixel information, comprising the steps of: forming a block composed of a plurality of spatially and/or temporally adjacent pixels and detecting a particular level of which the pixels of the block are concentrated; generating a compensation amount corresponding to the detected particular level; compensating a reference value of the block with the compensation amount; normalizing the pixels of the block corresponding to the reference value; and quantizing the normalized pixels.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

US4151550A Cited

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 2001-01-05 2001-07-07 2002-01-06 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 2005-01-05 2005-07-07 2006-01-06 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2009-01-05 2009-07-07 2010-01-06 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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