US 2014/0369617 A1 · IMAGE ENCODING APPARATUS, IMAGE ENCODING METHOD, AND PROGRAM

Abstract

An amount of code is reduced for blocks in which visible degradation is not easily susceptible, while a large amount of code is assigned to blocks whose degradation in image quality is easily perceptible thereby suppressing the number of blocks for which a process is performed to achieve high quality image and thus suppressing an increase in the total amount of code. An input image is encoded in units of blocks. A block evaluation value for the block is calculated. The block is divided into N sub-blocks where N is equal to or greater than 2, and a sub-block evaluation value is calculated for each sub-block. A quantization parameter for the block is controlled based on the block evaluation value and the sub-block evaluation values.

Claims21

Dependent claims

An image processing apparatus comprising:

an evaluation unit configured to determine an evaluation value of a block with a predetermined size in an image frame based on image data corresponding to the block and determine evaluation values of a plurality of sub-blocks divided from the block based on image data corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks;
and
a determination unit configured to determine an encoding parameter for use in encoding the image data corresponding to the block based on the evaluation value of the block and the evaluation values of the plurality of sub-blocks.

A storage medium storing a computer-readable program, the program comprising:

determining an evaluation value of a block with a predetermined size in an image frame based on image data corresponding to the block and determining evaluation values of a plurality of sub-blocks divided form the block based on image data corresponding to the plurality of sub-blocks;
and
determining an encoding parameter for use in encoding the image data corresponding to the block based on the determined evaluation value of the block and the determined evaluation values of the plurality of sub-blocks.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

14/301,162Filed 10 Jun 2014

Priority

JP 2013-12459313 Jun 2013

Published

18 Dec 2014

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification5 codes

H04N 19/154
Characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding: measured or subjectively estimated visual…
H04N 19/124
Characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding: quantisation
H04N 19/14
Incoming video signal characteristics or properties: coding unit complexity, e.g. amount of activity or edge presence estimation
H04N 19/176
The unit being an image region, e.g. an object: the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock

Image encoding apparatus, image encoding method, and program

Life of this patent

Image encoding apparatus, image encoding method, and program

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21