# US 12,015,771 B2 · Apparatus and method for performing deblocking

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- Number: US 12,015,771 B2
- Document ID: US12015771B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 17/382,550
- Filed: 2021-07-22
- Published: 2021-11-11
- Granted: 2024-06-18
- Earliest claimed: 2018-08-10
- Assignees: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Anand Meher Kotra; Jianle Chen; Semih Esenlik; Biao Wang; Han Gao; Zhijie Zhao
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12015771B2

## CPC

- H04N 19/117: Filters, e.g. for pre-processing or post-processing (sub-band filter banks H04N19/635)
- H04N 19/105: Selection of the reference unit for prediction within a chosen coding or prediction mode, e.g. adaptive choice of position and number of pixels used for prediction
- H04N 19/132: Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
- H04N 19/134: characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding
- H04N 19/176: the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
- H04N 19/86: involving reduction of coding artifacts, e.g. of blockiness
- H04N 19/119: Adaptive subdivision aspects, e.g. subdivision of a picture into rectangular or non-rectangular coding blocks
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

## Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of picture processing. Especially, the embodiments are directed to improving the deblocking filter of an image coding device. During the deblocking, at most a number MA of sample values of the first coding block adjacent to the block edge are modified and at most a number MB of sample values of the second coding block adjacent to the block edge are modified; or at most a number MA of sample values of the second coding block adjacent to the block edge are modified and at most a number MB of sample values of the first coding block adjacent to the block edge are modified, MA≠MB.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A deblocking filter apparatus for deblocking a block edge between a first image block and a second image block, comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and
a processor in communication with the memory and upon execution of the instructions, is configured to:
determine a value of MA′ to be 5 under one condition that N being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the first image block includes sub-blocks, wherein n is a positive integer, wherein the first image block has a block size of M*N, and M and N represent a width and a height of the first image block respectively;
determine a value of MB′ to be 5 under one condition that T being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the second image block includes sub-blocks, wherein the second image block has a block size of L*T, and L and T represent a width and a height of the second image block respectively;
modify values of at most MA′ samples of the first image block as third output values, wherein the at most MA′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most MA′ samples are adjacent to the block edge; and
modify values of at most MB′ samples of the second image block as fourth output values, wherein the at most MB′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most MB′ samples are adjacent to the block edge.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 1,
wherein upon execution of the instructions, the processor is further configured to:
determine whether the block edge is to be filtered, based upon
values of at most DA′ samples of the first image block as third decision values, wherein the at most DA′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most DA′ samples are adjacent to the block edge, and
values of at most DB′ samples of the second image block as fourth decision values, wherein the at most DB′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most DB′ samples are adjacent to the block edge, and wherein DA′ and DB′ are integer numbers.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 2, wherein
DA′=MA′+1 and DB′=MB′+1.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 1, wherein
when the block edge is a horizontal block edge, a direction along the height N of the first image block is perpendicular to the block edge, and a direction along the height T of the second image block is perpendicular to the block edge, and wherein both of the heights of the first and second image blocks are an even integer 2n larger than 16.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second image block is a current block and the first image block is a neighboring block of the current block.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first image block and the second image block are transform blocks.

### Claim 7

A method for deblocking a block edge between a first image block and a second image block by a coding device, the method comprising:
determining a value of MA′ to be 5 under one condition that N being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the first image block includes sub-blocks, wherein n is a positive integer, wherein the first image block has a block size of M*N, and M and N represent a width and a height of the first image block respectively;
determining a value of MB′ to be 5 under one condition that T being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the second image block includes sub-blocks, wherein the second image block has a block size of L*T, and L and T represent a width and a height of the second image block respectively;
modifying values of at most MA′ samples of the first image block as third output values, wherein the at most MA′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most MA′ samples are adjacent to the block edge; and
modifying values of at most MB′ samples of the second image block as fourth output values, wherein the at most MB′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most MB′ samples are adjacent to the block edge.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, further comprising:
determining whether the block edge is to be filtered, based on
values of at most DA′ samples of the first image block as first decision values, wherein the at most DA′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most DA′ samples are adjacent to the block edge, and
values of at most DB′ samples of the second image block as second decision values, wherein the at most DB′ samples are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the at most DB′ samples are adjacent to the block edge, wherein DA′ and DB′ are integer numbers.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein DA′=MA′+1 and DB′=MB′+1.

### Claim 10 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein
when the block edge is a horizontal block edge, a direction along the height N of the first image block is perpendicular to the block edge, and a direction along the height T of the second image block is perpendicular to the block edge, wherein both of the heights of the first and second image blocks are an even integer 2n larger than 16.

### Claim 11 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the second image block is a current block and the first image block is a neighboring block of the current block.

### Claim 12 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the first image block and the second image block are transform blocks.

### Claim 13

A deblocking filter apparatus for deblocking a block edge between a first image block and a second image block, comprising:
a memory storing instructions; and
a processor in communication with the memory and upon execution of the instructions, is configured to:
determine a maximum filter length MA′ to be 5 under one condition that N being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the first image block includes sub-blocks, wherein n is a positive integer, wherein the first image block has a block size of M*N, and M and N represent a width and a height of the first image block respectively;
determine a maximum filter length MB′ to be 5 under one condition that T being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the second image block includes sub-blocks, wherein the second image block has a block size of L*T, and L and T represent a width and a height of the second image block respectively;
modify, based on the maximum filter length MA′, values of samples of the first image block, wherein the samples of the first image block are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the samples of the first image block are adjacent to the block edge; and
modify, based on the maximum filter length MB′, values of samples of the second image block, wherein the samples of the second image block are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the samples of the second image block are adjacent to the block edge.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 13, wherein the maximum filter length MA′ is associated with the first image block and the maximum filter length MB′ is associated with the second image block.

### Claim 15 (depends on 13)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 13, wherein the second image block is a current block and the first image block is a neighboring block of the current block.

### Claim 16 (depends on 13)

The deblocking filter apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first image block and the second image block are transform blocks.

### Claim 17

A deblocking method for deblocking a block edge between a first image block and a second image block by a coding device comprising:
determining a maximum filter length MA′ to be 5 under one condition that N being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the first image block includes sub-blocks, wherein n is a positive integer, wherein the first image block has a block size of M*N, and M and N represent a width and a height of the first image block respectively;
determining a maximum filter length MB′ to be 5 under one condition that T being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the second image block includes sub-blocks, wherein the second image block has a block size of L*T, and L and T represent a width and a height of the second image block respectively;
modifying, based on the maximum filter length MA′, values of samples of the first image block, wherein the samples of the first image block are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the samples of the first image block are adjacent to the block edge; and
modifying, based on the maximum filter length MB′, values of samples of the second image block, wherein the samples of the second image block are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the samples of the second image block are adjacent to the block edge.

### Claim 18

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations for deblocking a block edge between a first image block and a second image block in image encoding or image decoding, the operations comprising:
determining a maximum filter length MA′ to be 5 under one condition that N being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the first image block includes sub-blocks, wherein n is a positive integer, wherein the first image block has a block size of M*N, and M and N represent a width and a height of the first image block respectively;
determining a maximum filter length MB′ to be 5 under one condition that T being an even integer 2n larger than 16 when the second image block includes sub-blocks, wherein the second image block has a block size of L*T, and wherein L and T represent a width and a height of the second image block respectively;
modifying, based on the maximum filter length MA′, values of samples of the first image block, wherein the samples of the first image block are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the samples of the first image block are adjacent to the block edge; and
modifying, based on the maximum filter length MB′, values of samples of the second image block, wherein the samples of the second image block are in a line perpendicular to the block edge and the samples of the second image block are adjacent to the block edge.