US 11,146,827 B2Granted

System and method for reducing blocking artifacts and providing improved coding efficiency

AssigneeARRIS Enterprises LLC

InventorsDavid M. Baylon, Ajay Luthra

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Abstract

A system and method of reducing blocking artifacts and providing enhanced coding efficiency based, as least in part, upon evaluation of relative smoothness of signals at a coding boundary. In some embodiments, a boundary threshold difference can be established beyond which it is determined that the difference is representative of a natural or intended boundary and filtering can be applied to those boundaries having differences below the boundary threshold difference. In some further embodiments, the ramps of the signal across the boundary can be evaluated to determine whether weak or strong filtering might be appropriate. In some further embodiments, weak filtering can be performed that reduces blocking artifacts, improves coding efficiency, but does not distort ramp signals across the boundary.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method for decoding video data comprising one or more processors configured to:

(a) receiving a bitstream indicating how a coding tree unit was partitioned into coding units according to a partitioning structure that allows root nodes to be partitioned with quadtree partitioning and with symmetric binary partitioning, wherein a root node is recursively partitionable using at least one of said symmetric binary partitioning and said quadtree partitioning;
(b) parsing said bitstream to determine how the coding tree unit was partitioned using quadtree partitioning, and/or said symmetric binary partitioning;
(c) parsing said bitstream to determine a symmetry of said partitioning, to determine if at least one of said quadtree partitioning and/or said symmetric binary partitioning was used to partition a parent coding unit into child nodes, wherein said symmetric binary partitioning splits a parent node of said parent coding unit into two child nodes of equal size that are rectangular in shape, and quadtree partitioning splits a parent node in both a horizontal partition and a vertical partition resulting in four equally sized partitions that are square in shape;
(d) identifying each of the child nodes within each respective parent coding unit, wherein a node can be recursively partitioned into smaller nodes;
(f) decoding the identified child nodes based upon,
(i) acquiring first pixel information regarding pixels on a first side of a coding boundary consistent with said partitioning structure;
(ii) acquiring second pixel information regarding pixels on a second side of said coding boundary;
(iii) determining a strength of said boundary based at least in part on said first pixel information and said second pixel information;
(iv) determining a desired deblocking filter based, at least in part, on said boundary strength;
(v) using the determined deblocking filter to determine new first pixel information and new second pixel information based at least in part on said boundary strength;
(g) wherein said step of using the determined deblocking filter to determine said new first pixel information and said new second pixel information is based is based upon a weak filter based, at least in part, on the difference of six times a difference between pixel values immediately adjacent to said boundary and two times a difference between pixel that are one pixel away from said boundary plus a fixed value.

8 more elements

A method for decoding video data comprising one or more processors configured to:

(a) receiving a bitstream indicating how a coding tree unit was partitioned into coding units according to a partitioning structure that allows root nodes to be partitioned with quadtree partitioning and with symmetric binary partitioning, wherein a root node is recursively partitionable using at least one of said symmetric binary partitioning and said quadtree partitioning;
(b) parsing said bitstream to determine how the coding tree unit was partitioned using quadtree partitioning, and/or said symmetric binary partitioning;
(c) parsing said bitstream to determine a symmetry of said partitioning, to determine if at least one of said quadtree partitioning and/or said symmetric binary partitioning was used to partition a parent coding unit into child nodes, wherein said symmetric binary partitioning splits a parent node of said parent coding unit into two child nodes of equal size that are rectangular in shape, and quadtree partitioning splits a parent node in both a horizontal partition and a vertical partition resulting in four equally sized partitions that are square in shape;
(d) identifying each of the child nodes within each respective parent coding unit, wherein a node can be recursively partitioned into smaller nodes;
(f) decoding the identified child nodes based upon,
(i) acquiring first pixel information regarding pixels on a first side of a coding boundary consistent with said partitioning structure;
(ii) acquiring second pixel information regarding pixels on a second side of said coding boundary;
(iii) determining a strength of said boundary based at least in part on said first pixel information and said second pixel information;
(iv) determining a desired deblocking filter based, at least in part, on said boundary strength;
(v) using the determined deblocking filter to determine new first pixel information and new second pixel information based at least in part on said boundary strength;
(g) determining a first value of a first smoothness of said first pixels on said first side of said coding boundary;
(h) determining a second value of a second smoothness of said second pixels on said second side of said coding boundary;
and
(i) defining a smoothness threshold;
(j) wherein said step of using the determined deblocking filter to determine said new first pixel information and said new second pixel information is based, at least in part, on whether a difference between said first value and said second value is below a first predefined threshold.

12 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/902,012Filed 15 Jun 2020 · continuation
Priority: 2 Oct 2017
Published: US 2020/0314453 A11 Oct 2020
Granted: 12 Oct 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

H04N 19/86
Using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression: involving reduction of coding artifacts, e.g. of blockiness
H04N 19/117
Characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding: filters, e.g. for pre-processing or…
H04N 19/119
Characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding: adaptive subdivision aspects, e.g. subdivision…
H04N 19/14
Incoming video signal characteristics or properties: coding unit complexity, e.g. amount of activity or edge presence estimation

Family

Application62/566,860Us provisional application · filed 2 Oct 2017
Application16/150,250Parent of this continuation · filed 2 Oct 2018
US 2020/0314453 A1Pre-grant publication · published 1 Oct 2020
US 10,701,402 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2019/0104323 A1Published application
US 11,146,827 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.