Method and apparatus for dependent coding in low-delay video compression
View Patent ↗An apparatus comprising an encoder circuit and a storage circuit. The encoder circuit may be configured to generate a reliability score and a referral score for each partition in an input data stream. The input data stream may be encoded based upon the reliability score and the referral score for each partition. The storage circuit may be configured to store the reliability score for each partition of the input data stream.
1. An apparatus comprising:
an encoder circuit configured to generate a reliability score and a referral score for each partition in an input data stream, wherein the input data stream is encoded based upon the reliability score and the referral score for each of said partitions; and
a storage circuit configured to store the reliability score for each of said partitions of said input data stream, wherein said encoder circuit is further configured to refine said reliability score and said referral score for each of said partitions over a number of iterations.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder circuit is further configured to generate one or more of said partitions for each macroblock of said input data stream.
3. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said encoding circuit is configured to consolidate encoding parameters for different partitions of a macroblock to generate a macroblock-wise parameter that may be transmitted using a standard-compliant bitstream.
4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said reliability score is incorporated into motion estimation, intra prediction and mode decision processes of said encoder circuit.
5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder circuit is further configured to determine a motion estimation or intra prediction partition size for a current partition based on pixel-wise reliability and said referral scores of a reference block.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder circuit is further configured to refine said reliability score and said referral score in a current iteration based on temporal and spatial prediction dependencies established from a previous iteration.
7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder circuit is further configured to generate said referral score by extrapolating a motion trajectory from old frames that have already been encoded to new frames yet to be encoded in all partitioning modes of said new frame.
8. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder circuit is further configured to select one or more encoding parameters based on one or both of said reliability score and said referral score.
9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said encoder circuit is further configured to select one or more quantization parameters (QP) based on one or both of said reliability score and said referral score.
10. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said generation of each of said reliability scores is based on quality values of each of a plurality of reference pixels used to predict said partitions.
11. An apparatus comprising:
means for generating a reliability score and a referral score for each partition of an input data stream, wherein the input data stream is encoded based upon the reliability score and the referral score for each partition; and
means for storing the reliability score for each partition of said input data stream, wherein said means for generating said reliability score is further configured to refine said reliability score and said referral score for each of said partitions over a number of iterations.
12. A method for accounting for prediction dependencies in an encoding process comprising the steps of:
(A) generating a reliability score and a referral score for each partition of an input data stream using a circuit;
(B) storing the reliability score for each of said partitions of said input data stream in a memory; and
(C) encoding said input data stream based upon the reliability score and the referral score for each of said partitions, wherein said encoding includes refining said reliability score and said referral score in a current iteration based on temporal and spatial prediction dependencies established from a previous iteration.
13. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising the step of:
generating one or more of said partitions for each macroblock of said input data stream.
14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said reliability score is determined during a motion estimation and mode decision process.
15. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said encoding includes determining a motion estimation or intra prediction partition size for a current partition based on pixel-wise reliability and said referral scores of a reference block.
16. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said encoding includes refining said reliability score and said referral score over a number of iterations.
17. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said referral score is generated by extrapolating a motion trajectory from old frames that have already been encoded to new frames yet to be encoded in all partitioning modes of said new frame.
18. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said encoding includes selecting one or more encoding parameters based on one or both of said reliability score and said referral score.
19. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said encoding includes selecting one or more quantization parameters (QP) based on one or both of said reliability score and said referral score.
20. The method according to claim 12 , wherein said generation of each of said reliability scores is based on quality values of each of a plurality of reference pixels used to predict said partitions.