Preprocessing image data

A computing device comprising:

• a memory comprising computer-executable instructions;
• a processor configured to execute the computer-executable instructions and cause the computing device to:
• receive, at a preprocessing network, image data from one or more images;
• and
• process the image data using the preprocessing network to generate an output pixel representation for encoding with an external encoder,
• wherein a set of inter-connected weights of the preprocessing network are trained to optimize a combination of:
• at least one quality score indicative of a quality of the output pixel representation;
• and
• a rate score indicative of a number of bits required by the external encoder to encode the output pixel representation, and
• wherein, during an initial setup or training phase, the at least one quality score is optimized in a direction of improved visual quality or reconstruction, and the rate score is optimized in a direction of lower rate.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a preprocessing network, image data from one or more images;
• and
• processing the image data using the preprocessing network to generate an output pixel representation for encoding with an external encoder,
• wherein a set of inter-connected weights of the preprocessing network are trained to optimize a combination of:
• at least one quality score indicative of a quality of the output pixel representation;
• and
• a rate score indicative of a number of bits required by the external encoder to encode the output pixel representation, and
• wherein, during an initial setup or training phase, the at least one quality score is optimized in a direction of improved visual quality or reconstruction, and the rate score is optimized in a direction of lower rate.