Multiplex method and associated functional data structure for combining digital video signals

A method for coding a set of at least two digital images received from at least two video participants in a multipoint control unit without decompressing the digital images, wherein the digital images are chronologically synchronous images of different chronological image sequences in different data sets of the at least two video participants, the method comprising:

• dividing the digital images from the video participants into macroblocks of pixels coded with color value statements that include intraprediction macroblocks that occurs in an area that is divided into first spaces and a second space without decompressing the digital images, each of the first spaces being occupied by the macroblocks of a respective one of the digital images, the second space spacing the first spaces from each other, the second space being occupied by pixels with a default color value for intraprediction to avoid decompression errors during intraprediction and wherein all the pixels of the second space have the default color value;
• and
• compressing each of the digital images into at least:
• a first data stream portion having at least one portion of the macroblocks that is reduced by at least physical redundancies for transmission of the compressed digital images to video conference participants as a compilation of the different chronologically synchronous images received from the at least two video participants, and
• a second data stream portion assigned to the first data stream portion that describes the redundancies;
• and
• wherein for each of the intraprediction macroblocks, the first data stream portion is reduced by color value statements with correlations to color values from at least one line of pixels that are arranged outside of the intraprediction macroblock on an edge of that intraprediction macroblock and wherein pixels outside the compressed image have the default color value;
• wherein the default color value is a pre-selected color value and each and every pixel in the second space has a same color value to separate the first spaces from the second space for separation of the different digital images received from the at least two video participants that are compressed into the first data stream portion during the compressing of each of the images so that the first data stream portion is decompressible and decodable for displaying the at least two digital images of the compilation of the different chronologically synchronous images;
• and
• the second data stream portion comprises intrapredictors to describe the correlations.

A multipoint control unit, comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive digital images from devices of multiple video participants via a telecommunication network, the digital images being chronologically synchronous images of different chronological image sequences in different data sets received from the devices of the video participants;
• a non-transitory storage medium having encoding software stored thereon that configures the multipoint control unit to encode the received digital images, the encoding performed by the multipoint control unit via the encoding software comprising:
• dividing the digital images into macroblocks of pixels coded with color value statements that include intraprediction macroblocks that occur in an area that is divided into first spaces and a second space without decompressing the compressed digital images, each of the first spaces being occupied by the macroblocks of a respective one of the digital images, the second space spacing the first spaces from each other, the second space being occupied by pixels with a default color value for intraprediction to avoid decompression errors during intraprediction, wherein all the pixels of the second space have the default color value,
• compressing each of the divided digital images into at least:
• a first data stream portion having at least one portion of the macroblocks that is reduced by at least physical redundancies for transmission of the compressed images to video conference participants as a compilation of the different chronologically synchronous images received from the at least two video participants, and
• a second data stream portion assigned to the first data stream portion that describes the redundancies, and
• for each of the intraprediction macroblocks, the first data stream portion is reduced by color value statements with correlations to color values from at least one line of pixels that are arranged outside of the intraprediction macroblock on an edge of that intraprediction macroblock and wherein pixels outside the compressed image have the default color value and the second data stream portion comprises intrapredictors to describe the correlations;
• wherein the default color value is a pre-selected color value and each and every pixel in the second space has a same color value to separate the first spaces from the second space for separation of the different digital images received from the at least two video participants that are compressed into the first data stream portion during the compressing of each of the images so that the first data stream portion is decompressible and decodable for displaying the at least two digital images of the compilation of the different chronologically synchronous images;
• and
• a transmitter configured to send data encoded by the multipoint control unit via the telecommunications network;
• and
• wherein the encoding performed by the multipoint control unit is performed without first decompressing the compressed digital images.