Hybrid backward-compatible signal encoding and decoding

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018115778-A1
Application number	US-201715850675-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 21, 2017
Priority date	Apr 15, 2013
Publication date	Apr 26, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

Computer processor hardware: parses a data stream into first portions of encoded data and second portions of encoded data; implements a first decoder to decode the first portions of encoded data into a first rendition of a signal; implements a second decoder to decode the second portions of encoded data into reconstruction data, the reconstruction data specifying how to modify the first rendition of the signal; and applies the reconstruction data to the first rendition of the signal to produce a second rendition of the signal.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method comprising:
via computer processor hardware:
parsing a data stream into first portions of encoded data, second portions of encoded data, and third portions of encoded data;
implementing a first decoder to decode the first portions of encoded data into a first rendition of a signal at a first level of quality;
implementing a second decoder to decode the second portions of encoded data into first reconstruction data, the first reconstruction data specifying how to modify the first rendition of the signal into a second rendition of the signal at a second level of quality, the second level of quality greater than the first level of quality;
processing the first reconstruction data and the first rendition of the signal to produce a second rendition of the signal at the second level of quality;
implementing a third decoder to decode the third portions of encoded data into second reconstruction data, the second reconstruction data specifying how to modify the second rendition of the signal into a third rendition of the signal at a third level of quality, the third level of quality greater than the second level of quality; and
processing the second reconstruction data and the second rendition of the signal to produce a third rendition of the signal at the third level of quality.

2 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein the first portions of encoded data are decoded in accordance with an MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) format; and
wherein the first reconstruction data derived from the second portions of encoded data and the second reconstruction data derived from the third portions of encoded data are decoded in accordance with hierarchical encoding formats.

3 . A method comprising:
via computer processor hardware:
parsing a received data stream into decoded data and encoded data, the decoded data specifying settings associated with a first rendition of a signal;
utilizing the decoded data to produce the first rendition of the signal;
implementing a decoder to decode the encoded data into reconstruction data, the reconstruction data specifying how to modify the first rendition of the signal; and
applying the reconstruction data to the first rendition of the signal to produce a second rendition of the signal.

4 . The method as in claim 3 , wherein the encoded data is encoded in accordance with a hierarchical encoding format in which data is encoded in accordance with different resolutions in a hierarchy.

5 . The method as in claim 4 further comprising:
applying upsampling operations to produce the reconstruction data, the upsampling operations converting lower resolution display element settings to higher resolution display element settings.

6 . The method as in claim 3 , wherein the signal is a video signal specifying settings for multiple display elements;
wherein the second rendition of the signal is of a higher level of quality than the first rendition of the signal; and wherein the second rendition of the signal is of a same display element resolution as the first rendition of the signal.

7 . The method as in claim 3 , wherein implementing the decoder to decode the encoded data includes:
identifying upsampling operations as specified by the encoded data; and applying the upsampling operations to the second rendition of the signal to produce a third rendition of the signal, the third rendition of the signal being of a substantially higher display element resolution than the second rendition of the signal.

8 . The method as in claim 7 , wherein the third rendition of the signal is a preliminary rendition of the signal at the substantially higher display element resolution, wherein implementing the decoder further comprises:
utilizing the reconstruction data to modify the preliminary rendition of the signal at the substantially higher display element resolution, the modified preliminary rendition of the signal being of a higher level of quality than the preliminary rendition of the signal.

9 . A method comprising:
via computer processor hardware:
receiving a signal;
implementing a first encoder to produce first portions of encoded data to reproduce a first rendition of the signal;
implementing a second encoder to produce second portions of encoded data, the second portions of encoded data indicating how to modify the first rendition of the signal and produce a second rendition of the signal, the second rendition of the signal being of a higher level of quality than the first rendition of the signal;
producing a data stream to include the first portions of encoded data and the second portions of encoded data; and
transmitting the data stream to at least one destination.

10 . The method as in claim 9 , wherein transmitting the data stream to the at least one destination includes: initiating transmission of the data stream over an MPEG transport stream.

11 . The method as in claim 9 further comprising: producing the first portions of encoded data in accordance with an MPEG compression protocol.

12 . The method as in claim 10 further comprising: producing the second portions of encoded data according to a hierarchical encoding compression protocol, the second portions of encoded data including compressed residual data and specifying upsample operations to be applied to modify the first rendition of the signal into the second rendition of the signal.

13 . The method as in claim 9 further comprising:
tagging the first portions of encoded data with a first unique tag, the first unique tag indicating that the first portions of encoded data are to be decoded by a first decoder; and
tagging the second portions of encoded data with a second unique tag, the second unique tag indicating that the second portions of encoded data are to be decoded by a second decoder.

14 . The method as in claim 9 , wherein transmitting the data stream to the at least one destination includes:
transmitting the data stream to a first destination that decodes only the first portions of encoded data to reproduce and play back the first rendition of the signal; and transmitting the data stream to a second destination that decodes the first portions of encoded data and the second portions of encoded data, the second destination reproducing the first rendition of the signal based on the decoded first portions of encoded data, the second destination applying the decoded second portions of encoded data to the first rendition of the signal to produce and play back the second rendition of the signal.

15 . A computer processor hardware system comprising:
parser logic to parse a data stream into first portions of encoded data and second portions of encoded data; a first decoder to decode the first portions of encoded data into a first rendition of a signal; a second decoder to decode the second portions of encoded data into reconstruction data, the reconstruction data specifying how to modify the first rendition of the signal; and the second decoder applying the reconstruction data to the first rendition of the signal to produce a second rendition of the signal.

16 . The computer processor hardware system as in claim 15 , wherein the first decoder decodes the first portions of encoded data in accordance with an MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) format; and
wherein the second decoder decodes the reconstruction data derived from the second portions of encoded data in accordance with a hierarchical decoding format.

17 . The computer processor hardware system as in claim 15 , wherein the first portions of encoded dat

Assignees

• V Nova Int Ltd

Inventors

• Rossato Luca
• Meardi Guido

Classifications

• H04N19/30 Primary

  using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability (H04N19/63 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04N19/85

  using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression · CPC title

• H04N19/88

  involving rearrangement of data among different coding units, e.g. shuffling, interleaving, scrambling or permutation of pixel data or permutation of transform coefficient data among different blocks · CPC title

• H04N19/31 Primary

  in the temporal domain · CPC title

• H04N19/46 Primary

  Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process (H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence) · CPC title