Low latency visually lossless switching between different compression ratios

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9729938-B2
Application number	US-201514834595-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 25, 2015
Priority date	Jan 24, 2015
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods for low-delay video streaming featuring multiple video compression ratios. One embodiment of the system includes: a real-time video encoder (RT-VE) that receives an incoming high-definition uncompressed video (HD-UV), processes the incoming HD-UV according to first and second compression ratios, and sends the processed video over a resource reservation communication link to a real-time video decoder (RT-VD). The compression delay added by the RT-VE is below the duration of a single video frame, and the RT-VD converts the processed video into an outgoing HD-UV. Wherein on-the-fly switches between the first and second compression ratios, while continuing to receive the incoming HD-UV uninterruptedly, are both visually lossless switches and maintain a total delay between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV that is below duration of two video frames.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A low-delay video streaming system comprising multiple video compression ratios, comprising:
a real-time video encoder (RT-VE) configured to receive an incoming high-definition uncompressed video (HD-UV), process the incoming HD-UV according to at least one of first and second compression ratios, and send the processed video over a resource reservation communication link to a real-time video decoder (RT-VD);
wherein the first compression ratio is up to 5:1 and the second compression ratio is both deeper than the first compression ratio and up to 10:1;
wherein compression delay added by the RT-VE is below duration of a single video frame for both compression ratios; and
the RT-VD is configured to convert the processed video into an outgoing HD-UV;
wherein on-the-fly switches between the first and second compression ratios, by the RT-VD, while continuing to receive the incoming HD-UV uninterruptedly, are both visually lossless switches and maintain a total delay between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV that is below duration of two video frames.

2. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the visually lossless switches indicate that a comparison between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV demonstrates that video synchronization signals and video timing signals are undamaged as a result of the on-the-fly switches.

3. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the visually lossless switches indicate that a comparison between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV demonstrates that the on-the-fly switches between the first and second compression ratios do not result in a missing video frame.

4. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the visually lossless switches indicate that a comparison between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV demonstrates that the on-the-fly switches between the first and second compression ratios do not result in a missing video frame line.

5. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the visually lossless switches indicate that a comparison between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV demonstrates that the on-the-fly switches between the first and second compression ratios do not result in a missing video blanking signal.

6. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the visually lossless switches indicate that no pixels are lost, excluding color depth.

7. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the visually lossless switches indicate that a user watching the outgoing HD-UV is not expected to perceive an interruption in the HD video quality due to the switches between the first and second compression ratios.

8. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , further comprising a controller configured to set the compression ratio of the low-delay video streaming system.

9. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 8 , wherein the controller is implemented as part of at least one of the following elements: the RT-VE, the RT-VD, and a network controller.

10. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to switch on-the-fly from the first compression ratio to the second compression ratio in order free up bandwidth for a new additional video stream.

11. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the total delay between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV is below the duration of a single video frame.

12. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the on-the-fly switches between the first and second compression ratios do not interrupt the flow of the uncompressed video from the decoder.

13. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the total delay does not change when switching on-the-fly between the first and second compression ratios.

14. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the RT-VE comprises a buffer configured to store the incoming HD-UV for the purpose of making the calculations required to compress the incoming HD-UV into processed video, and the capacity of the buffer is below the capacity needed to store two HD-UV frames.

15. The low-delay video streaming system of claim 1 , wherein the RT-VD comprises a buffer configured to store the incoming processed video for the purpose of making the calculations required to extract the outgoing HD-UV from the processed video, and the capacity of the buffer is below the capacity needed to store two outgoing HD-UV frames.

16. A method for low-delay video streaming comprising multiple video compression ratios, comprising:
receiving, by a real-time video encoder (RT-VE), an incoming high-definition uncompressed video (HD-UV);
converting the incoming HD-UV to a first compressed video, according to a first compression ratio of up to 5:1, while adding compression delay below duration of a single video frame;
sending the first compressed video to a real-time video decoder (RT-VD);
converting, by the RT-VD, the first compressed video into an outgoing HD-UV;
while continuing to receive the incoming HD-UV uninterruptedly, switching on-the-fly to converting the incoming HD-UV to a second compressed video, according to a second compression ratio of up to 10:1, while adding compression delay below duration of a single video frame; wherein the second compression ratio is deeper than the first compression ratio;
sending the second compressed video to the RT-VD; and
converting, by the RT-VD, the second compressed video into the outgoing HD-UV;
wherein the switching on-the-fly from the first compressed video to the second compressed video is a visually lossless switching that maintains a total delay, between corresponding frames of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV, below duration of two video frames.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the total delay does not change when switching on-the-fly between the first compressed video and the second compressed video.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising storing, by the RT-VE, less than two HD-UV frames in order to compress the incoming HD-UV into the second compressed video.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising storing, by the RT-VD, less than one compressed video frame in order to extract the outgoing HD-UV from the first compressed video.

20. A low-delay communication system that supports visually lossless switches between different video compression ratios, comprising:
a real-time video encoder (RT-VE) configured to receive an incoming high-definition uncompressed video (HD-UV), and compress the incoming HD-UV into compressed video using: a first intra-frame compression of ratio of up to 5:1, or a second intra-frame compression of ratio of up to 10:1, wherein the second intra-frame compression ratio is deeper than the first intra-frame compression ratio; and
a real-time video decoder (RT-VD) configured to receive the compressed video and decompress the compressed video into an outgoing HD-UV;
wherein, while continuing to receive the incoming HD-UV uninterruptedly, the delay between corresponding video pixels of the incoming HD-UV and the outgoing HD-UV is below duration of two HD video frames, and on-the-fly switches between the first and second compression ratios are visually lossless.

21. The low-delay communication system of claim 20 , wherein the on-the-f

Assignees

• Valens Semiconductor Ltd

Inventors

• Lida Eyran

Classifications

• H04N21/64769 Primary

  for rate control (flow control in packet networks H04L47/10) · CPC title

• H04N19/42

  characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation (H04N19/635 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04N19/30

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

• H04N21/234309

  by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo (conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01) · CPC title

• H04N21/23439

  for generating different versions · CPC title