Granted Patent B2

US 12,452,416 · App. 18/371,213 · Granted Oct 21, 2025

Inventor: Tiejun Huang (Beijing, CN)

Assignee: SPIKE VISION (BEIJING) TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

H04N19/117H04N19/132H04N19/167H04N19/182H04N19/33H04N19/60

Abstract

Claims (69)

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining, from encoded information, a pulse sequence for each pixel in a plurality of pixels in a unit time period before a specified time, wherein the encoded information is obtained by encoding respective pulse sequences for the plurality of pixels, wherein the pulse sequence for a given pixel of the plurality of pixels represents a space-time signal change at the given pixel;

calculating, for each pixel of the plurality of pixels, a pixel value of the pixel according to the pulse sequence for the pixel; and

obtaining an image at the specified time according to a space arrangement of the pixels of the plurality of pixels, in accordance with the pixel values of the plurality of pixels at the specified time.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the pulse sequence for the given pixel comprises a pulse eigenvalue indicating whether a respective pulse signal is generated for the given pixel at each instant, and wherein the encoding respective pulse sequences for the plurality of pixels comprises:

for any pulse sequence of the respective pulse sequences:

in response to an end of each unit time period, sampling the pulse sequence in the unit time period at a sampling frequency to obtain pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period; and

encoding the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period to obtain the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the sampling frequency is 2 k Hertz, k being an integer greater than or equal to 0, and wherein the encoding the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period to obtain the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period comprises:

encoding the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period into 2 k bits of data to obtain the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period.

4. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising:

determining or adjusting the sampling frequency based on a size of a local storage space, a data volume, and an output frequency of the encoded information; or

determining or adjusting the sampling frequency based on a size of the local storage space, a bitrate, and a transmission bandwidth of the encoded information; or

determining or adjusting the sampling frequency according to requirements of an observation scenario.

5. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

estimating a bitrate of the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period based on the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period.

6. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:

obtaining light intensity values of a spatial region at respective sampling instants in the unit time period based on the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to the respective sampling instants; and

detecting a target in an scenario based on the light intensity values of one or more spatial regions in the scenario at the respective sampling instants.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the pulse sequence for the given pixel comprises a pulse eigenvalue indicating whether a respective pulse signal is generated for the given pixel at each instant, and wherein the encoding respective pulse sequences for the plurality of pixels comprises:

for any pulse sequence of the respective pulse sequences:

sampling the pulse sequence at a sampling frequency to obtain pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants;

in response to an end of each unit time period, determining data to be encoded in the unit time period based on a current encoding mode and the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period, wherein the unit time period is determined based on a data frame output frequency; and

encoding, based on the current encoding mode, the data to be encoded in the unit time period to obtain the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the sampling frequency is 2 n Hertz, n being an integer greater than or equal to 1, and wherein the data frame output frequency is 2 m Hertz, m being an integer greater than or equal to 0, and m being less than n.

9. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:

obtaining the current encoding mode, wherein the current encoding mode comprises at least one of a pulse number encoding mode, an instantaneous pulse encoding mode, or a strongest pulse encoding mode.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein depending on the current encoding mode, the determining data to be encoded in the unit time period based on a current encoding mode and the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period comprises:

when the current encoding mode is the pulse number encoding mode, determining, based on the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period, a quantity of pulse signals generated in the unit time period as the data to be encoded in the unit time period, wherein the quantity of pulse signals generated in the unit time period is in a range of 2 n-m -1; or

when the current encoding mode is the instantaneous pulse encoding mode, determining, based on the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period, a pulse width of a pulse signal generated in the unit time period and being closest to a current instant as the data to be encoded in the unit time period; or

when the current encoding mode is the strongest pulse encoding mode, determining, based on the pulse eigenvalues corresponding to respective sampling instants in the unit time period, a shortest pulse width among pulse widths of pulse signals generated in the unit time period as the data to be encoded in the unit time period.

11. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the obtaining the current encoding mode comprises:

obtaining, as the current encoding mode, an encoding mode corresponding to preset encoding mode information; or

determining, as the current encoding mode, an encoding mode corresponding to received encoding mode information; or

selecting, as the current encoding mode, an encoding mode from preset encoding mode information; or

obtaining, as the current encoding mode, an encoding mode corresponding to a current application scenario.

12. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:

determining a bitrate of the encoded information based on the sampling frequency, the data frame output frequency, and a bit depth of the encoded information.

13. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:

after obtaining the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period, determining light intensity values corresponding to the encoded information based on the current encoding mode and the encoded information corresponding to the unit time period.

14. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:

determining or adjusting the sampling frequency based on a size of a local storage space, a bit depth of the encoded information, and a quantity of imaging elements comprised in an apparatus for generating the pulse signals; or

determining or adjusting the data frame output frequency based on the size of the local storage space, a bitrate and a transmission bandwidth of the encoded information; or

determining or adjusting the sampling frequency based on requirements of a current scenario.

15. The method according to claim 1 ,

wherein the calculating a pixel value of the pixel according to the pulse sequence for the pixel comprises:

acquiring a length of a time interval between adjacent pulses in the pulse sequence, calculating an intensity value corresponding to the time interval according to the length of the time interval, and obtaining a first accumulated pixel value according to one or more intensity values; and

wherein the obtaining an image at the specified time according to a space arrangement of the pixels, in accordance with pixel values of the plurality of pixels at the specified time comprises:

obtaining the image at the specified time according to the first accumulated pixel value at a pixel position corresponding to each pixel of the plurality of pixels.

16. The method according to claim 15 , wherein the obtaining an image at the specified time according to a space arrangement of the pixels, in accordance with pixel values of the plurality of pixels at the specified time comprises:

setting a first specific amount corresponding to the specified time of the pixel position, and summing the first specific amount and the first accumulated pixel value to obtain a first pixel value of the pixel position; and

obtaining the image at the specified time according to the first specific amount at pixel positions corresponding to the plurality of pixels.

17. The method according to claim 16 , wherein the obtaining an image at the specified time according to a space arrangement of the pixels, in accordance with pixel values of the plurality of pixels at the specified time comprises:

comparing the first pixel value with a pixel threshold range, and obtaining a second specific amount by adjusting the first specific amount;

summing the first accumulated pixel value and the second specific amount to obtain a second pixel value of the pixel position; and

obtaining the image at the specified time according to the second pixel value at pixel positions corresponding to the plurality of pixels.

18. The method according to claim 17 , wherein the comparing the first pixel value with a pixel threshold range, and obtaining a second specific amount by adjusting the first specific amount comprises:

obtaining the second specific amount by adjusting the value of the first specific amount if the first pixel value is not within the pixel threshold range; and

determining the first specific amount as the second specific amount if the first pixel value is within the pixel threshold range.

19. A computing device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

obtaining, from encoded information, a pulse sequence for each pixel in a plurality of pixels in a unit time period before a specified time, wherein the encoded information is obtained by encoding respective pulse sequences for the plurality of pixels, wherein the pulse sequence for a given pixel of the plurality of pixels represents a space-time signal change at the given pixel;

calculating, for each pixel of the plurality of pixels, a pixel value of the pixel according to the pulse sequence for the pixel; and

obtaining an image at the specified time according to a space arrangement of the pixels of the plurality of pixels, in accordance with the pixel values of the plurality of pixels at the specified time.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device individually or collectively, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

obtaining, from encoded information, a pulse sequence for each pixel in a plurality of pixels in a unit time period before a specified time, wherein the encoded information is obtained by encoding respective pulse sequences for the plurality of pixels, wherein the pulse sequence for a given pixel of the plurality of pixels represents a space-time signal change at the given pixel;

calculating, for each pixel of the plurality of pixels, a pixel value of the pixel according to the pulse sequence for the pixel; and

obtaining an image at the specified time according to a space arrangement of the pixels of the plurality of pixels, in accordance with the pixel values of the plurality of pixels at the specified time.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (4)

Continuity (6)

References Cited (75)