Motion compensation for fine-grain scalable video

1. A fine-grain scalable video data apparatus comprising:

an encoder for encoding input video data as minimum bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing a minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data, and for encoding the input video data as intermediate bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing an intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data; and

an adaptive motion compensator in signal communication with the encoder for predicting whether a decoded version of the intermediate bitrate macroblock data has an accumulated predicted drift error frame energy exceeding a maximum threshold.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the input video data is fine-grain scalable between the minimum bitrate and a maximum bitrate, the intermediate bitrate falling anywhere therebetween.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the encoder comprises the adaptive motion compensator.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 , the encoder comprising:

an enhancement layer frame buffer;

the adaptive motion compensator in signal communication with the enhancement layer frame buffer; and

a drift frame buffer in signal communication with the adaptive motion compensator.

5. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 , the adaptive motion compensator comprising:

a group-of-pictures detector for resetting a drift frame buffer for each new group-of-pictures;

an energy unit for computing the energy of an intermediate-rate prediction relative to the drift frame buffer; and

a prediction unit for selecting one of the intermediate-rate prediction and a minimum-rate prediction for each block of pixels to be predicted from the data of the previous picture using motion vectors for the macroblock data.

6. A fine-grain scalable video data apparatus for receiving encoded video macroblock data wherein each macroblock is capable of being represented by DCT coefficients representing a minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data and DCT coefficients representing an intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data, the apparatus comprising a decoder for decoding one of the intermediate and minimum bitrate encoded DCT data for each macroblock received from an encoder to produce reconstructed macroblock data responsive to a predicted energy of an accumulated predicted drift error frame.

7. A method for performing fine-grain scalable video data operations, the method comprising:

encoding input video data as minimum bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing a minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data;

encoding the input video data as intermediate bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing an intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data; and

compensating the encoded data to predict whether a decoded version of the intermediate bitrate macroblock data has an accumulated predicted drift error frame energy exceeding a maximum threshold.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 , further comprising decoding one of the intermediate and minimum bitrate encoded DCT data from the encoded input video data to produce reconstructed macroblock data responsive to the predicted energy of the accumulated predicted drift error frame.

9. A method as defined in claim 7 wherein the input video data is fine-grain scalable between the minimum bitrate and a maximum bitrate, the intermediate bitrate falling anywhere therebetween.

10. A method as defined in claim 7 , further comprising compensating enhancement layer block data with enhancement layer data of a previous picture and motion vectors to produce compensated enhancement layer block data such that DCT is performed with respect to the compensated enhancement layer block data to produce the enhancement layer DCT data.

11. A method for receiving encoded video macroblock data wherein each macroblock is capable of being represented by DCT coefficients representing a minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data and DCT coefficients representing an intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data, the method comprising decoding one of the intermediate and minimum bitrate encoded DCT data for each macroblock received from the encoder to produce reconstructed macroblock data responsive to a predicted energy of an accumulated predicted drift error frame.

12. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform steps for performing fine-grain scalable video data operations, the steps comprising:

encoding input video data as minimum bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing a minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data;

encoding the input video data as intermediate bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing an intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data; and

compensating the encoded data to predict whether a decoded version of the intermediate bitrate macroblock data will have an accumulated predicted drift error frame energy exceeding a maximum threshold.

13. A program storage device as defined in claim 12 , the steps further comprising decoding one of the intermediate and minimum bitrate encoded DCT data from the encoded input video data to produce reconstructed macroblock data responsive to the predicted energy of the accumulated predicted drift error frame.

14. A program storage device as defined in claim 12 wherein the input video data is fine-grain scalable between the minimum bitrate and a maximum bitrate, the intermediate bitrate falling anywhere therebetween.

15. A program storage device as defined in claim 12 , the steps further comprising compensating enhancement layer block data with enhancement layer data of a previous picture and motion vectors to produce compensated enhancement layer block data such that DCT is performed with respect to the compensated enhancement layer block data to produce the enhancement layer DCT data.

16. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform steps for receiving encoded video macroblock data wherein each macroblock is capable of being represented by DCT coefficients representing a minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data and DCT coefficients representing an intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data, the steps comprising decoding one of the intermediate and minimum bitrate encoded DCT data for each macroblock received from the encoder to produce reconstructed macroblock data responsive to a predicted energy of an accumulated predicted drift error frame.

17. A fine-grain scalable video data system for performing fine-grain scalable video data operations, the system comprising:

minimum encoding means for encoding input video data as minimum bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing a minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data;

intermediate encoding means for encoding the input video data as intermediate bitrate macroblock data to produce DCT data having DCT coefficients representing an intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data; and

compensating means for compensating the encoded data to predict whether a decoded version of the intermediate bitrate macroblock data will have an accumulated predicted drift error frame energy exceeding a maximum threshold.

18. A system as defined in claim 17 , further comprising decoding means for decoding one of the intermediate and minimum bitrate encoded DCT data from the encoded input video data to produce reconstructed macroblock data responsive to the predicted energy of the accumulated predicted drift error frame.

19. A system as defined in claim 17 wherein the input video data is fine-grain scalable between the minimum bitrate and a maximum bitrate, the intermediate bitrate falling anywhere therebetween.

20. A system as defined in claim 17 , further comprising compensating means for compensating enhancement layer block data with enhancement layer data of a previous picture and motion vectors to produce compensated enhancement layer block data such that DCT is performed with respect to the compensated enhancement layer block data to produce the enhancement layer DCT data.

21. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the encoder comprises:

a bit plane coder for bit plane coding a subset of bit planes for an enhancement layer bitstream corresponding to the intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data;

a variable length coder having an input in signal communication with an output of said bit plane coder for outputting the enhancement layer bitstream; and

a combiner having a first input for receiving inverse quantized DCT coefficients of a base layer corresponding to minimum bitrate version of the macroblock data and a second input in signal communication with an output of said bit plane coder, wherein said combiner combines the inverse quantized DCT coefficients of the base layer and the output of the bit plane coder for the subset of the bit planes in the enhancement layer to obtain a reconstructed enhancement layer frame corresponding to the intermediate bitrate version of the macroblock data.