Separate plane compression
OwnerKendyl A. Romaninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of distinguishing between regions of an image, separating and masking the original image into multiple image planes, and compressing each separated image plane with a compression method that is optimal for its characteristics. From a video stream, separate image streams can be compressed with different methods, and the separate image streams can be stored or transmitted at different rates. Alternatively, frame differencing can be applied to the separated streams. One method of distinguishing the region of interest is use of an input device to allow the viewer or broadcaster to dynamically select the shape, size, or position of the region. An alternate method of distinguishing the regions of interest is automated analysis of the characteristics of various regions of an image.
Claims21
A method for compressing a stream of original video frames comprising the steps of:
- a) selecting a current frame from said stream of original video frame,
- b) distinguishing between regions of the current frame, wherein at least one of said regions is nonrectangular,
- c) separating said current frame into a plurality of image planes, wherein at least one plane contains all of the pixels from said at least one nonrectangular region, and wherein at least one other plane contains none of the pixels from said at least one nonrectangular region,
- d) selecting one of a plurality of distinct compression methods for each of said image planes, wherein the distinct compression method is selected based on the characteristics of the corresponding image plane,
- e) compressing each of said image planes into encoded data using the corresponding distinct compression method,
- f) selecting the next frame from said stream as the current frame, and
- g) repeating steps b) through f) while frames are remaining in the stream,
- whereby the overall compressed size for said stream, namely the combined size of the encoded data for each image plane, is less than the compressed size when each frame of said stream is compressed with a single compression method selected based on the characteristics of the entire stream.
A system for compressing a video stream, said system comprising:
- a) an image source providing said video stream, said video stream comprising a plurality of video frames,
- b) a means for separating each frame into a plurality of planes, wherein at least one plane contains pixels from a region of greater interest and mask pixels having a uniform pixel value, and at least another plane contains pixels from another region of lesser interest, and
- c) a means for compressing each of said plurality of planes into one of a plurality of encoded images, wherein said compressing means comprises a plurality of distinct compression methods, wherein said plane containing the region of greater interest is compressed using a high quality compression method, and wherein said plane containing the region of lesser interest is compressed using a low quality compression method,
- whereby the overall compressed size for said video stream, namely the combined size of the encoded images, is less than the compressed size when each frame of the video stream is compressed with a single high quality compression method.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.