Complexity control of video codec
AssigneeBarco N.V.
InventorsThijs VERMEIR, Jurgen SLOWACK
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Means for controlling the computational complexity related to video encoding that includes a dynamic rate distortion cost error threshold and constrains the encoding complexity to a given complexity target. The solution is selective and provides fast convergence while incurring only a limited loss in rate distortion performance.
Claims21
1-50. (canceled)
A method for adaptive use of image frame processing resources comprising a central processing unit connected to at least one memory, the central processing unit being configured to receive frames of a video signal, the method comprising:
- each frame being split into coding units comprising pixels, defining a threshold for a rate distortion cost error, the difference between a corresponding complexity and a complexity threshold is stored in the memory as a reference for the calculation of an updated rate distortion cost error threshold, wherein the difference between the complexity resulting from the updated rate distortion cost error threshold, and the former complexity threshold is smaller or equal to the difference between the former complexity and the complexity threshold.
A system for adaptive use of image frame processing resources comprising a central processing unit connected to at least one memory, the central processing unit being configured to receive frames of a video signal, each frame being split into coding units comprising pixels, the central processing unit defining a rate distortion cost error threshold, the difference between the corresponding complexity and a complexity threshold is stored in the memory as a reference for the calculation of an updated rate distortion cost error threshold, wherein the difference between the complexity resulting from the updated rate distortion cost error threshold, and the former complexity threshold is smaller or equal to the difference between the former complexity and the complexity threshold.
A controller for adaptive use of image frame processing resources for video compression, the image frame processing resources varying dynamically in time, wherein the video signal comprises image frames processed at a video rate, wherein an image frame is expressed in a number of coding units, a coding unit having a predefined maximum size, the controller being adapted to receive said image frame and for recursively splitting coding units into a quad-tree structure of different coding units having levels and sub-levels, wherein in a quad-tree structure, each level or sub-level is recursively split into parts, a depth of a specific coding unit being defined by the number of recursive splits of coding units that have been used in order to reach the specific coding unit, whereby the size of the specific coding unit is the maximum size divided by the number of recursive splits, a coding unit at a certain depth being encodable with a first number of different coding modes, further comprising the controller bring adapted to determine a rate distortion cost for a second number of coding modes, the second number being less or equal to the first number of different coding modes for the specific coding unit, the controller being adapted for determining of the second number such as to maximise the use of dynamically for the encoder available image frame processing resources,
- the difference between the rate distortion cost for the first and second number of coding modes is the rate distortion cost error, and the difference between the rate distortion cost error and a targeted rate distortion cost error has a minimum value for a certain coding mode, the controller being adapted to select said certain coding mode to encode the coding unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.