Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for performing spatial scalable compression of video information captured in a plurality of frames including an encoder for encoding and outputting the captured video frames into a compressed data stream, comprising a base layer comprising an encoded bitstream having a relatively low resolution, a high resolution enhancement layer comprising a residual signal having a relatively high resolution, and wherein a dead zone operation unit attenuates the residual signal, the residual signal being the difference between the original frames and the upscaled frames from the base layer. As a result, the number of bits needed for the compressed data stream is reduced for a given observed video quality.

Abstract: The invention relates to a video encoder (201) for encoding a video signal. The video encoder comprises a segmentation processor (207) which divides the picture into picture regions. Preferably, picture regions having a high degree of flatness or uniformity are determined in this way. A characteristics processor (209) determine a spatial frequency characteristic for each picture region, and a coding controller (211) selects an encoding block size, such as a prediction block size for motion estimation, in response to the spatial frequency characteristic. An encode processor (213) encodes the picture using the selected encoding block size. Specifically, increasing block sizes are selected for increasing degrees of uniformity or flatness indicated by the spatial frequency characteristic. Thereby, an increasing proportion of high frequency components and a consistent choice of encoding block sizes are maintained, and thus the coding artefacts from many encoders having variable prediction block sizes is reduced.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing spatial scalable compression of a video stream is disclosed. The video stream is downsampled to reduce the resolution of the video stream. The downsampled video stream is encoded to produce a base stream. The base stream is decoded and upconverted to produce a reconstructed video stream. The reconstructed video stream is subtracted from the video stream to produce a residual stream. It is then determined which segments or pixels in each frame have a predetermined chance of having a predetermined characteristic. A gain value for the content of each segment or pixel is calculated, wherein the gain for pixels which have the predetermined chance of having the predetermined characteristic is biased toward 1 and the gain for other pixels is biased toward 0. The residual stream is multiplied by the gain values so as to remove bits from the residual stream which do not correspond to the predetermined characteristic.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for processing an analog signal. The method involves hiding a digital watermark signal in the analog signal by combining the watermark signal with the analog signal (103). The watermark signal may be detected and extracted by a device (108) receiving the analog signal. The method includes embedding a key in the watermark signal, such that the key may be extracted and used by an encoding device (108) for encrypting digital content that is based on the analog signal. The invention also relates to an encoding device, which is arranged to perform such encryption.

Abstract: Method for encoding a digital video stream, comprising the steps of encoding a video sequence into a full frame sequence, forming a decimated frame sequence by removing a predetermined number of frames from the full frame sequence by means of temporal decimation, locally decoding the full frame sequence, locally decoding the decimated frame sequence, temporally interpolating the decoded decimated frame sequence by means of an interpolator, comparing the locally decoded frames of the full frame sequence with the corresponding frames of the locally interpolated frame sequence, determining residual information for a frame based on at least the comparison for that frame, and providing an output stream comprising the decimated frame sequence and the determined residual information.

Abstract: In macroblock-based coding systems such as MPEG-1 video, MPEG-2 video and MPEG-4 visual, an encoder in the invention decides on macroblock level whether the macroblock is to be encoded or whether local motion-compensated interpolation processing at a compatible decoder can be used to reconstruct the macroblock. In the latter case, the macroblock is skipped. If the decoder detects a skipped macroblock, the decoder reconstructs the macroblock and overwrites the data conventionally generated in MPEG under the skipped macro-block condition.