Image analysis – Image compression or coding
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-10
2003-10-28
Johnson, Timothy M. (Department: 2623)
Image analysis
Image compression or coding
C375S240260, C382S284000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06640011
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal-editing devices and signal-editing methods for editing digital signals, and more particularly to a signal-editing device and a signal-editing method which are suitable for editing digital signals, such as still images, moving images, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, when digital signals, such as still images or moving images, are edited, a single entire image frame of the images is processed as an editing processing unit. Particularly, when the digital signal is processed where various transformations, such as compressions and color space conversions, are performed, an original signal (e.g., an RGB signal) is obtained by performing inverse-transformation on the entire image, which is edited, and which in turn is re-transformed. Since the digital signals, such as the images, require a mass storage capacity, they are normally transferred or stored in a compressed format.
FIG. 22
shows one example of a process in a case in which a single image frame of a digital video (DV) signal is edited where the image is encoded by performing entropy coding or the like.
In the editing process, as shown in
FIG. 22
, the digital signal input from a tape or a hard disk is processed in order of entropy decoding (step S
1001
), dequantization (step S
1002
), inverse discrete cosine transform (step S
1003
), and RGB converting block synthesis (step S
1004
). Finally, data obtained by the above-described steps is edited (step S
1005
).
Subsequent to the above-mentioned editing process, the inverse transformations are processed in order of YC
b
C
r
converting block definer (step S
1006
), discrete cosine transform (DCT) (step S
1007
), quantization (step S
1008
), and entropy coding (step S
1009
).
When the above-described compressed image is edited, compression and decompression processes consume a considerable amount of CPU time. Particularly, when those processes are performed with a software implementation, the working efficiency is substantially reduced.
Even when the image-editing is performed with a hardware implementation, since inverse transformation and re-transformation bring about errors or changes in compression conditions, image-deterioration occurs in the entire image.
As is shown in
FIG. 23
, when a title-characters-block
10001
a
is inserted on an image
1001
, image-deterioration occurs in a region where the title-characters-block
1001
a
does not reside. Particularly, when a series of various effects is applied to the same image, serious image-deterioration occurs.
The image editing process normally includes a step of decompressing the entire image into the original image (e.g., the RGB signal), a step of performing a desired processing on the original signal, and a step of re-compressing the signal obtained by the above processing. However, editing-processing such as insertion of the title-characters-block and an image-switching are often performed on a local portion of the entire image. In these cases, no processing needs to be performed on the remainder which is the major portion of the entire image.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a signal editing device and signal editing method capable of performing fast digital signal processing with less image deterioration.
To this end, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a signal editing device includes a dividing device for dividing a digital signal into processing blocks as processing units and a processing device for processing the digital signal independently in units of the processing blocks. Since the digital signal is divided by the dividing device into processing blocks as a processing unit which are independent from one another, processing can be performed only on minimum required regions that need to be processed.
In a signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention, the digital signal may represent a still image or a moving image and the dividing device may divide the digital signal into the processing blocks in a domain among the space-domain, the time-domain, and the frequency-domain.
In a signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention, the digital signal may be compression-coded in compression-coded processing units and the dividing device may divide the digital signal into the processing blocks as the compression-coded processing units.
A signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention may further include a processing block extracting device for extracting a processing block requiring the processing of the digital signal and a processing block requiring no processing of the digital signal.
A signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention may further include a duplicating device for duplicating the processing block requiring no processing, which is extracted by the processing block extracting device.
A signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention may further include a decoding device for decoding the digital signal in a predetermined format and for outputting the decoded signal to the processing device and an encoding device for encoding an output signal from the processing means in a predetermined format, and the digital signal may be compression-coded.
In a signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention, the decoding device may includes a plurality of decoding processing steps, and the encoding device includes a plurality of encoding processing steps corresponding to the processing steps.
In a signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention, the processing device may perform synthesizing processing on a plurality of the processing blocks.
In a signal editing device according to a first aspect of the present invention, the processing device may perform processing on the processing blocks by using predetermined processing steps, and the predetermined processing steps may be created before the processing is performed.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a signal editing method includes the steps of dividing a digital signal into processing blocks as processing units and processing the digital signal independently in a unit of the processing blocks.
In the signal editing method according to a second aspect of the present invention, the digital signal may represent a still image or a moving image, and the digital signal may be divided into the processing blocks in a domain among the space-domain, the time-domain, and the frequency-domain.
The above configuration enables the signal editing device of the present invention to be a fast and high-quality editing for a digital signal, such as a still image or a moving image, which is implemented by software or hardware.
Specifically, when image editing processing is performed in the space domain, for example, when image-switching processing with a “horizontal wipe” is processed by performing synthesizing processing on two images, a particular processing (synthesis) is performed only on an image-switching boundary regions on which synthesizing processing needs to be performed, while mere duplication of a part of a source image is performed on the remainder, major part of the images. Thus, fast and high quality image editing is obtained.
When image editing processing, such as “title-insertion” processing, is performed, the processing is performed as a processing unit only on regions which relate to “title-insertion” processing, whereby fast image editing processing is obtained while image deterioration caused by image editing is suppressed.
When image editing processing is performed in the time domain, for example, when image-switching processing is performed, the processing is performed only on image frames which relate to image-switching processing while the other image frames are just duplicated, whereby fast and high quality image editing is obtained.
Image editing proces
Frommer William S.
Frommer & Lawrence & Haug LLP
Johnson Timothy M.
Savit Glenn F.
Sony Corporation
LandOfFree
Signal-editing device and signal-editing method does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Signal-editing device and signal-editing method, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Signal-editing device and signal-editing method will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3142192