# US 5,706,366 A · Apparatus for encoding an image signal having a still object using an image warping technique

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- Number: US 5,706,366 A
- Document ID: US5706366A
- Status: Granted
- Kind: A
- Application number: 08/532,034
- Filed: 1995-09-22
- Granted: 1998-01-06
- Earliest claimed: 1995-03-02
- Assignees: Daewoo Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Hae-Mook Jung
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US5706366A

## CPC

- G06T 9/20: Contour coding, e.g. using detection of edges
- H04N 19/503: involving temporal prediction (adaptive coding with adaptive selection between spatial and temporal predictive coding H04N19/107; adaptive coding with adaptive selection among a plurality of temporal predictive coding modes H04N19/109)
- H04N 19/543: using regions
- H04N 19/649: {the transform being applied to non rectangular image segments}
- H04N 19/20: using video object coding
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

## Abstract

An apparatus for encoding an image signal having a still object generates a first encoded image signal by encoding a contour signal detected at a first encoding channel, the contour signal providing boundary information for tracing an object boundary in a video frame. The video frame is divided into a plurality of processing blocks with a predetermined identical size. Each of the processing blocks selectively coupled to an image reconstruction device or a second encoding channel in response to a control signal indicating whether or not a part of the object boundary exists in each of the processing blocks. The image reconstruction device generates reconstructed processing blocks based on the processing blocks applied thereto.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An apparatus for encoding an image signal in a video frame having a still object, wherein the image signal includes non-zero values assigned for pixels within the still object and zero values assigned for pixels outside thereof, which comprises:
means for detecting a boundary of the object included in the video frame to generate a contour signal providing boundary information for tracing the object boundary;
means for encoding the contour signal to generate a first encoded image signal;
means for dividing the video frame into a plurality of processing blocks having a predetermined identical size;
means for generating a control signal indicating whether or not a part of the object boundary in the video frame exists in each of the processing blocks;
means for providing a first and a second set of processing blocks in response to the control signal, said first set of processing blocks comprising those blocks containing a part of the object boundary, and said second set of processing blocks comprising those blocks not containing a part of the object boundary;
means for generating a reconstructed processing block based on the first set of processing blocks;
means for encoding the reconstructed processing block or the second set of processing blocks, to thereby produce a second encoded image signal; and
means for formatting the first and the second encoded image signal,
wherein said means for generating a reconstructed processing block comprises:
means for assigning values of each of a plurality of non-object block boundary pixels of each processing block in the first set, based on a value of a corresponding nearest object boundary pixels in that processing, thereby creating an image mapped processing block;
means for calculating a first set of displacement vectors representing distances from each of said non-object block boundary pixels whose values had been assigned, to its corresponding nearest object boundary pixel; and
means for updating values of each of a plurality of non-block boundary pixels in the image mapping processing block based on said first set of displacement vectors.

### Claim 2

An apparatus for encoding an image signal in a video frame having a still object, wherein the image signal includes non-zero values assigned for pixels within the still object and zero values assigned for pixels outside thereof, which comprises:
means for detecting a boundary of the object included in the video frame to generate a contour signal providing boundary information for tracing the object boundary;
means for encoding the contour signal to generate a first encoded images signal;
means for dividing the video frame into a plurality of processing blocks having pedetermined identical size; means for generating a control signal indicating whether or not a part of the object boundary in the video frame exists in each of the processing blocks;
means for providing a first and a second set of processing blocks in response to the control signal;
means for generating a reconstructed processing block based on the first set of processing blocks;
means for encoding the reconstructed processing block or the second set of processing blocks, to thereby produce a second encoded image signal; and
means for formatting the first and the second encoded image signal;
wherein said reconstructed processing block generating means includes:
means for assigning the pixel values from a set of object boundary pixels lying on the object boundary to their nearest non-object regional block boundary pixels lying on a block boundary that does not form a part of the object based on the contour information of the object in the video frame and calculating displacements between the non-object regional block boundary pixels and the object boundary pixels corresponding thereto, to thereby generate a first set of displacement vectors and an image mapped processing block;
means for generating a second set of displacement vectors for non-block boundary pixels that do not form a part of the block boundary of each of the first set of processing blocks by linearly interpolating the first set of displacement vectors; and
means for generating the reconstruction processing block based on the first set of displacement vectors and the image mapped processing block data.