Image analysis – Image compression or coding – Interframe coding
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-22
2001-05-01
Couso, Jose L. (Department: 2721)
Image analysis
Image compression or coding
Interframe coding
Reexamination Certificate
active
06226413
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention is related to the use of motion estimation using motion compensation and segmentation in video coding, in particular for using motion estimation, motion compensation, and segmentation for bit plane coded moving pictures.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Compression of moving digitalized pictures, e.g. video pictures, is a field that becomes of interest when they are to be transmitted. This is due to the large amount of information associated with a single image or frame of the moving picture and the restrictions to the bandwidths of the channels on which they are transmitted. Thus, when the capacity of the channel used is lower than the capacity required for transmitting the moving pictures as they are, some kind of compression will be needed.
Fortunately there is much redundancy associated with moving pictures, both within a single frame, spatial redundancy, and between successive frames of the moving picture, temporal redundancy. Exploitation of these redundancies will result in a reduction of the information, and hence a lower bit rate will be required.
STATE OF THE ART
Object based segmentation, i.e. a segmentation of the frames of a moving picture where the boundaries of the segments follow the edges of meaningful objects, and motion estimation based on such a segmentation is a common used technique in research to efficiently perform motion compensation in order to exploit the redundancies of successive frames in a moving picture.
Such methods are know from:
(A) M. Bober and J. Kittler, “General motion estimation and segmentation”, Proceedings of conference on pattern recognition and image analysis, pp. 1-10, Valencia 1992,
(B) M. Bober and J. Kittler, “Estimation and segmentation of complex motion for image coding”, Proceedings of picture coding symposium, pp. 1-2 Lausanne, 1993.
One of the most significant drawbacks of the present approaches of this technique is that the information associated with the motion parameters and the contours of the segments need to be coded and transmitted. This results in a bit stream which in particular when very low bit rates are available can require as much as 50% of the available bandwidth.
Methods of compressing pictures, in particular moving pictures, which uses bit plane coding are described in our Swedish patent applications No. 9502557-3, 9503735-4 and 9503736-2.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a device which provides, by means of object based segmentation and motion estimation, a motion compensation which can reduce the necessary bit rate when transmitting digitalized moving pictures without having to transmit the contours of the segments and the motion parameters, and hence significantly reduce the required capacity of the used channel.
This object is achieved with a bit plane coding technique using an incremental object based segmentation and motion estimation of the different bit planes, bit plane by bit plane, where the motion estimation is renewed and improved after each transmitted bit plane. The segmentation of the image, which is carried out so that the boundaries of the segments follow the boundaries of the objects inside the image, i.e. object based segmentation, is thus also renewed and improved after each transmitted bit plane.
The method of transmitting a bit plane coded moving picture can be divided into the following substeps:
1. The most significant bit plane of an image, e.g. a frame of a moving picture, is encoded according to some suitable coding algorithm possibly without the use of any segmentation or motion compensation and the bit plane is received and decoded by the intended receiver. The method used for coding the most significant bit plane can be any suitable algorithm, e.g. a method according to any of the ones described in the above mentioned Swedish patent applications Nos. 9502557-3, 9503735-4 and 9503736-2.
2. Based on the information provided by this most significant bit plane both the encoder and the decoder, i.e. the transmitting part and the receiving part of a transmission system, perform a segmentation in such a manner that the resulting segments correspond to the objects inside the image, i.e. an object based segmentation, and a motion estimation based on this segmentation.
3. Thereafter, the next to most significant bit plane is encoded and transmitted on the channel using a motion compensation based on the motion estimation carried out in step 2. The next to most significant plane is then decoded by the receiver.
4. Based on the information that is now at hand both in the transmitter and the receiver, i.e. the most and next to most significant bitplanes of the image, a new and improved segmentation and a new and improved motion estimation is performed.
5. The steps 3 and 4 are then repeated for the less significant planes in decreasing order of their significance down to the least significant bit plane that is to be transmitted.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4652935 (1987-03-01), Endoh et al.
patent: 4682869 (1987-07-01), Itoh et al.
patent: 4874164 (1989-10-01), Miner et al.
patent: 4876597 (1989-10-01), Roy et al.
patent: 5177796 (1993-01-01), Feig et al.
patent: 5212742 (1993-05-01), Normile et al.
patent: 5255331 (1993-10-01), Kelly
patent: 5353132 (1994-10-01), Katsuma
patent: 5442458 (1995-08-01), Rabbani et al.
patent: 5485533 (1996-01-01), Hatano et al.
patent: 5594473 (1997-01-01), Miner et al.
patent: 5717394 (1998-02-01), Scharwz et al.
patent: 5745607 (1998-04-01), Maeda
patent: 5748786 (1998-05-01), Zandi et al.
patent: 5831678 (1998-11-01), Proctor
patent: 5867602 (1999-02-01), Zandi et al.
patent: 5881176 (1999-03-01), Keith et al.
patent: 5923785 (1999-07-01), Dube
patent: 0 400 998 A2 (1990-12-01), None
patent: 0 467 040 A2 (1992-01-01), None
patent: 0 595 599 A2 (1994-05-01), None
Couso Jose L.
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
LandOfFree
Method for motion estimation does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method for motion estimation, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method for motion estimation will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2482934