# US 10,771,818 B2 · Method and apparatus for determining the severity of corruption in a picture > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,771,818 B2 - Document ID: US10771818B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/409,415 - Filed: 2019-05-10 - Published: 2019-08-29 - Granted: 2020-09-08 - Earliest claimed: 2015-12-28 - Assignees: ATI Technologies ULC - Applicants: Ati Technologies Ulc - Inventors: Ihab Amer; Gabor Sines; Khaled Mammou; Haibo Liu; Edward Harold; Lei Zhang; Fabio Gulino; Ehsan Mirhadi; Ho Hin Lau - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10771818B2 ## CPC - H04N 19/65: using error resilience - H04N 19/44: Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder - H04N 21/44008: {involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59)} - H04N 21/44209: {Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network (arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896)} - H04N 21/6375: for requesting retransmission {, e.g. of data packets lost or corrupted during transmission from server}(ARQ protocols H04L1/18; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16) - H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION ## Abstract An encoder encodes pixels representative of a picture in a multimedia stream, generates a first approximate signature based on approximate values of pixels in a reconstructed copy of the picture, and transmits the encoded pixels and the first approximate signature. A decoder receives a first packet including the encoded pixels and the first approximate signature, decodes the encoded pixels, and transmits a first signal in response to comparing the first approximate signature and a second approximate signature generated based on approximate values of the decoded pixels. If a corrupted packet is detected, the multimedia application requests an intra-coded picture in response to the first approximate signature differing from the second approximate signature. The second signal instructs the decoder to bypass requesting an intra-coded picture and to continue decoding received packets in response to the first approximate signature being equal to the second approximate signature. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An apparatus comprising: a decoder circuit configured to: receive a first packet including encoded pixels representative of a picture in a multimedia stream; receive a first approximate signature generated based on approximate values of pixels in a copy of the picture, wherein the copy of the picture is reconstructed by decoding the encoded pixels prior to transmission of the encoded pixels to the decoder circuit; decode the encoded pixels; generate a second approximate signature based on the decoded pixels; and transmit a first signal that is generated based on a comparison of the first approximate signature and the second approximate signature. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the decoder circuit is configured to generate the approximate values of the decoded pixels by masking a subset of a plurality of bits representative of the decoded pixels. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the decoder circuit is configured to generate the approximate values of the decoded pixels by grouping subsets of the pixels into blocks and averaging the values of the pixels in the blocks. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the decoder circuit is configured to generate the second approximate signature by at least one of hashing the approximate values of the pixels or applying a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to the approximate values of the pixels. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the decoder circuit is configured to replicate a second packet to replace a corrupted third packet, wherein the first packet was encoded based on the third packet, and wherein the decoder circuit is configured to decode the encoded pixels in the first packet based on encoded pixels in the second packet. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the decoder circuit is configured to transmit a first signal that indicates whether the first approximate signature is equal to the second approximate signature. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the decoder circuit is configured to receive a second signal in response to transmitting the first signal and in response to detecting corruption of the third packet. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a multimedia application configured to receive the first signal and transmit, to the decoder circuit, a second signal in response to receiving the first signal and in response to corruption of a second packet. ### Claim 9 An apparatus comprising: a decoder circuit configured to: receive a first packet including encoded pixels representative of a picture in a multimedia stream; receive a first approximate signature generated based on approximate values of pixels in a reconstructed copy of the picture; decode the encoded pixels; transmit a first signal that is generated based on a comparison of the first approximate signature and a second approximate signature generated based on approximate values of the decoded pixels, wherein the first signal indicates whether the first approximate signature is equal to the second approximate signature; replicate a second packet to replace a corrupted third packet, wherein the first packet was encoded based on the third packet, and wherein decoding the encoded pixels in the first packet comprises decoding the encoded pixels in the first packet based on encoded pixels in the second packet receive a second signal in response to transmitting the first signal and in response to detecting corruption of the third packet; and wherein the second signal comprises instructions to request an intra-coded picture in response to the first approximate signature differing from the second approximate signature. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the decoder circuit is configured to receive, in response to the first approximate signature being equal to the second approximate signature, instructions to bypass requesting an intra-coded picture and to continue decoding received packets. ### Claim 11 An apparatus comprising: a decoder circuit configured to: receive a first packet including encoded pixels representative of a picture in a multimedia stream; receive a first approximate signature generated based on approximate values of pixels in a reconstructed copy of the picture; decode the encoded pixels; transmit a first signal in response to comparing the first approximate signature and a second approximate signature generated based on approximate values of the decoded pixels; and a multimedia application configured to: receive the first signal; and transmit, to the decoder circuit, a second signal in response to receiving the first signal and in response to corruption of a second packet, wherein the second signal comprises instructions to request an intra-coded picture in response to the first signal indicating that the first approximate signature differs from the second approximate signature. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the multimedia application is configured to transmit, in response to the first approximate signature being equal to the second approximate signature, instructions to bypass requesting an intra-coded picture and to continue decoding received packets. ### Claim 13 An apparatus comprising: an encoder circuit configured to: encode pixels representative of a picture in a multimedia stream; decode the encoded pixels to generate pixels representative of a copy of the picture; generate a first approximate signature based on approximate values of the pixels in the copy of the picture by at least one of hashing the approximate values of the pixels or applying a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to the approximate values of the pixels; and transmit the encoded pixels and the first approximate signature. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the encoder circuit is configured to generate the approximate values of the pixels by masking a subset of a plurality of bits representative of the pixels. ### Claim 15 (depends on 13) The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the encoder circuit is configured to generate the approximate values of the pixels by grouping subsets of the pixels into blocks and averaging the values of the pixels in the blocks. ### Claim 16 (depends on 13) The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the encoder circuit is configured to encode an intra-coded picture in response to receiving instructions and transmit the intra-coded picture. ### Claim 17 An apparatus comprising: an encoder circuit configured to: encode pixels representative of a picture in a multimedia stream; generate a first approximate signature based on approximate values of pixels in a reconstructed copy of the picture; transmit the encoded pixels and the first approximate signature; and receive instructions to generate an intra-coded picture in response to the first approximate signature differing from a second approximate signature generated based on approximate decoded values of the pixels.