US 6,888,892 B2Granted

Method for padding macroblocks

AssigneeUniversity of Washington

InventorsChris Yoochang Chung, Kerem Karadayi, Rohit Garg, Donglok Kim, Yongmin Kim

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A method for efficiently padding a macroblock of a video object plane employs two new instructions. The instructions, PadToRight and PadToLeft, are applied in alternating sequence during a PadPass 1 operation and a PadPass 2 operation. The results of these two operations are then averaged to pad each transparent pixel in each row of a macroblock that includes at least one opaque pixel. A Shift_in register is used to temporarily store data to facilitate the operation implemented by these instructions. Once the transparent pixels in each row have been padded horizontally, pixels in rows having shape data equal to zero (indicating all pixels in the row are transparent) are padded in a pre-processing step, followed by an upward propagation step. The two instructions are preferably implemented using 2:1 multiplexers implemented with an arithmetic logic unit. The method is particularly useful in set-top boxes, games, and other video applications.

Claims27

Dependent claims

A method for using a processing device to pad data in a macroblock of a video object plane, said macroblock including both texture data and shape data, comprising the steps of:

(a) providing a first instruction for padding successive data elements of the texture data in a first direction within the macroblock, by selectively copying data from a preceding data element to a current data element of the macroblock in the first direction, as a function of the shape data corresponding to the current data element;
(b) providing a second instruction for padding successive data elements of the texture data in a second direction within the macroblock, opposite the first direction, by selectively copying data from a preceding data element to a current data element of the macroblock in the second direction as a function of the shape data corresponding to the current data element;
(c) processing the data elements of the texture data with:
(i) the first instruction;
(ii) then with the second instruction, producing first padded texture data;
(iii) then again with the first instruction, producing second padded texture data;
and
(iv) averaging corresponding data elements of the first padded texture data and the second padded texture data, producing partially padded texture data;
and
(d) padding any data elements of the partially padded texture data that are not yet padded, in a third direction in the macroblock, as a function of the partially padded texture data and of the shape data.

7 more elements

A method for padding data of a macroblock in a video object plane, said macroblock including texture data and shape data, comprising the steps of:

(a) defining a first processor instruction that pads successive data elements of the texture data in a first direction along rows of the macroblock, by selectively copying data from a preceding data element in a row to a current data element in the row of the macroblock;
(b) defining a second processor instruction that pads successive data elements of the texture data in a second direction, opposite the first direction, along rows of the macroblock, by selectively copying data from a preceding data element in a row to a current data element in the row of the macroblock, along the second direction;
(c) applying the first and second processor instructions to the texture data in sequence, to pad data elements of each row of the texture data that do not include texture data, producing a partially padded macroblock;
(d) as a function of the shape data, determining each data element in the texture data of the partially padded macroblock that are yet to be padded;
and
(e) padding each data element determined in the preceding step to produce a fully padded macroblock, using data from data elements in a column of the partially padded macroblock in which the data element that is being padded is disposed.

3 more elements

A system for padding data in a macroblock of a video object plane, said macroblock including texture data and shape data, comprising:

(a) a processing device coupled to receive a video data stream conveying the macroblock;
(b) a memory coupled to the processing device, said memory including machine instructions used for processing the macroblock when implemented by the processing device, said machine instructions including:
(i) a first processor instruction for padding successive data elements of the texture data in a first direction along rows of the macroblock, by selectively copying data from a preceding data element in a row to a current data element in the row of the macroblock, along the first direction;
and
(ii) a second processor instruction for padding successive data elements of the texture data in a second direction, opposite the first direction, along rows of the macroblock, by selectively copying data from a preceding data element in a row to a current data element in the row of the macroblock, along the second direction;
and
(c) said processing device responding to the machine instructions to apply the first instruction and second instruction in sequence to rows of the texture data, producing a first set of padded data and a second set of padded data, determining an average of corresponding data elements disposed in the first and second sets of padded data, producing partially padded texture data, and then padding columns of the partially padded texture data as a function of the shape data, to produce fully padded texture data.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/015,329Filed 10 Dec 2001
Published: US 2003/0118110 A126 Jun 2003
Granted: 3 May 2005
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

G06T 9/20
Image coding: contour coding, e.g. using detection of edges
G06T 9/00
Image coding
G06T 11/10
Two-dimensional [2D] image generation: texturing; Colouring; Generation of textures or colours
H04N 19/20
Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals: using video object coding