Patents by Inventor Ya-Qin Zhang
Ya-Qin Zhang has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20050074065Abstract: A video encoding system and method utilizes a three-dimensional (3-D) wavelet transform and entropy coding that utilize motion information in a way to reduce the sensitivity to motion. In one implementation, the coding process initially estimates motion trajectories of pixels in a video object from frame to frame in a video sequence to account for motion of the video object throughout the frames. After motion estimation, a wavelet transform is applied to produce coefficients within different sub-bands. The wavelet coefficients are coded independently for each sub-band to permit easy separation at a decoder, making resolution scalability and temporal scalability natural and easy. In particular, the coefficients are assigned various contexts based on the significance of neighboring samples in previous, current, and next frame, thereby taking advantage of any motion information between frames.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 9, 2004Publication date: April 7, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jizheng Xu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Publication number: 20050069036Abstract: A scalable layered video coding scheme that encodes video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video, adds error resilience to the enhancement layer. Unique resynchronization marks are inserted into the enhancement layer bitstream in headers associated with each video packet, headers associated with each bit plane, and headers associated with each video-of-plane (VOP) segment. Following transmission of the enhancement layer bitstream, the decoder tries to detect errors in the packets. Upon detection, the decoder seeks forward in the bitstream for the next known resynchronization mark. Once this mark is found, the decoder is able to begin decoding the next video packet. With the addition of many resynchronization marks within each frame, the decoder can recover very quickly and with minimal data loss in the event of a packet loss or channel error in the received enhancement layer i bitstream.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 29, 2004Publication date: March 31, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Ya-Qin Zhang, Shipeng Li, Feng Wu, Rong Yan
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Publication number: 20050063463Abstract: A scalable layered video coding scheme that encodes video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video, adds error resilience to the enhancement layer. Unique resynchronization marks are inserted into the enhancement layer bitstream in headers associated with each video packet, headers associated with each bit plane, and headers associated with each video-of-plane (VOP) segment. Following transmission of the enhancement layer bitstream, the decoder tries to detect errors in the packets. Upon detection, the decoder seeks forward in the bitstream for the next known resynchronization mark. Once this mark is found, the decoder is able to begin decoding the next video packet. With the addition of many resynchronization marks within each frame, the decoder can recover very quickly and with minimal data loss in the event of a packet loss or channel error in the received enhancement layer bitstream.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 29, 2004Publication date: March 24, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Ya-Qin Zhang, Shipeng Li, Feng Wu, Rong Yan
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Publication number: 20050041745Abstract: A scalable layered video coding scheme that encodes video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video, adds error resilience to the enhancement layer. Unique resynchronization marks are inserted into the enhancement layer bitstream in headers associated with each video packet, headers associated with each bit plane, and headers associated with each video-of-plane (VOP) segment. Following transmission of the enhancement layer bitstream, the decoder tries to detect errors in the packets. Upon detection, the decoder seeks forward in the bitstream for the next known resynchronization mark. Once this mark is found, the decoder is able to begin decoding the next video packet. With the addition of many resynchronization marks within each frame, the decoder can recover very quickly and with minimal data loss in the event of a packet loss or channel error in the received enhancement layer bitstream.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 20, 2004Publication date: February 24, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Ya-Qin Zhang, Shipeng Li, Feng Wu, Rong Yan
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Patent number: 6850564Abstract: An apparatus and method for dynamically varying the frame rate of an image sequence is disclosed. In one embodiment, the image sequence is encoded and stored at different frame rates (e.g., 30, 25, 20 fps and so on). Alternatively, only the motion information, e.g., motion vectors, for the other frame rates are stored.Type: GrantFiled: August 31, 1998Date of Patent: February 1, 2005Assignee: Sarnoff CorporationInventors: Sassan Pejhan, Ya-Qin Zhang, Tihao Chiang
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Publication number: 20050008076Abstract: A video encoding system and method utilizes a three-dimensional (3-D) wavelet transform and entropy coding that utilize motion information in a way to reduce the sensitivity to motion. In one implementation, the coding process initially estimates motion trajectories of pixels in a video object from frame to frame in a video sequence to account for motion of the video object throughout the frames. After motion estimation, a 3-D wavelet transform is applied in two parts. First, a temporal 1-D wavelet transform is applied to the corresponding pixels along the motion trajectories in a time direction. The temporal wavelet transform produces decomposed frames of temporal wavelet transforms, where the spatial correlation within each frame is well preserved. Second, a spatial 2-D wavelet transform is applied to all frames containing the temporal wavelet coefficients. The wavelet transforms produce coefficients within different sub-bands. The process then codes wavelet coefficients.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 29, 2004Publication date: January 13, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jizheng Xu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Publication number: 20050002457Abstract: A video encoding system and method utilizes a three-dimensional (3-D) wavelet transform and entropy coding that utilize motion information in a way to reduce the sensitivity to motion. In one implementation, the coding process initially estimates motion trajectories of pixels in a video object from frame to frame in a video sequence to account for motion of the video object throughout the frames. After motion estimation, a 3-D wavelet transform is applied in two parts. First, a temporal 1-D wavelet transform is applied to the corresponding pixels along the motion trajectories in a time direction. The temporal wavelet transform produces decomposed frames of temporal wavelet transforms, where the spatial correlation within each frame is well preserved. Second, a spatial 2-D wavelet transform is applied to all frames containing the temporal wavelet coefficients. The wavelet transforms produce coefficients within different sub-bands. The process then codes wavelet coefficients.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 29, 2004Publication date: January 6, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jizheng Xu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Publication number: 20040264567Abstract: A video encoding system and method utilizes a three-dimensional (3-D) wavelet transform and entropy coding that utilize motion information in a way to reduce the sensitivity to motion. In one implementation, the coding process initially estimates motion trajectories of pixels in a video object from frame to frame in a video sequence to account for motion of the video object throughout the frames. After motion estimation, a 3-D wavelet transform is applied in two parts. First, a temporal 1-D wavelet transform is applied to the corresponding pixels along the motion trajectories in a time direction. The temporal wavelet transform produces decomposed frames of temporal wavelet transforms, where the spatial correlation within each frame is well preserved. Second, a spatial 2-D wavelet transform is applied to all frames containing the temporal wavelet coefficients. The wavelet transforms produce coefficients within different sub-bands. The process then codes wavelet coefficients.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 29, 2004Publication date: December 30, 2004Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jizheng Xu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Publication number: 20040258157Abstract: A video coding system and method utilizes a 3-D wavelet transform that is memory efficient and reduces boundary effect across frame boundaries. The transform employs a lifting-based scheme and buffers wavelet coefficients at intermediate lifting steps towards the end of one GOP (group of pictures) until intermediate coefficients from the beginning of the next GOP are available. The wavelet transform scheme does not physically break the video sequence into GOPs, but processes the sequence without intermission. In this manner, the system simulates an infinite wavelet transformation across frame boundaries and the boundary effect is significantly reduced or essentially eliminated. Moreover, the buffering is very small and the scheme can be used to implement other decomposition structures. The wavelet transform scheme provides superb video playback quality with little or no boundary effects.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 6, 2004Publication date: December 23, 2004Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jizheng Xu, Shipeng Li, Zixiang Xiong, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Publication number: 20040252886Abstract: Automatic video object extraction that defines substantially precise objects is disclosed. In one embodiment, color segmentation and motion segmentation are performed on a source video. The color segmentation segments the video by substantially uniform color regions thereof. The motion segmentation segments the video by moving regions thereof. The color regions and the moving regions are then combined to define the video objects. In varying embodiments, pre-processing and post-processing is performed to further clean the source video and the video objects defined, respectively.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 13, 2004Publication date: December 16, 2004Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jinhui Pan, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Patent number: 6816194Abstract: A scalable layered video coding scheme that encodes video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video, adds error resilience to the enhancement layer. Unique resynchronization marks are inserted into the enhancement layer bitstream in headers associated with each video packet, headers associated with each bit plane, and headers associated with each video-of-plane (VOP) segment. Following transmission of the enhancement layer bitstream, the decoder tries to detect errors in the packets. Upon detection, the decoder seeks forward in the bitstream for the next known resynchronization mark. Once this mark is found, the decoder is able to begin decoding the next video packet. With the addition of many resynchronization marks within each frame, the decoder can recover very quickly and with minimal data loss in the event of a packet loss or channel error in the received enhancement layer bitstream.Type: GrantFiled: February 16, 2001Date of Patent: November 9, 2004Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Ya-Qin Zhang, Shipeng Li, Feng Wu, Rong Yan
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Publication number: 20040190617Abstract: An accelerated video decoding system utilizes a graphics processing unit to perform motion compensation, image reconstruction, and color space conversion processes, while utilizing a central processing unit to perform other decoding processes.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 28, 2003Publication date: September 30, 2004Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATIONInventors: Guobin Shen, Lihua Zhu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang, Richard F. Rashid
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Patent number: 6795504Abstract: A video coding system and method utilizes a 3-D wavelet transform that is memory efficient and reduces boundary effect across frame boundaries. The transform employs a lifting-based scheme and buffers wavelet coefficients at intermediate lifting steps towards the end of one GOP (group of pictures) until intermediate coefficients from the beginning of the next GOP are available. The wavelet transform scheme does not physically break the video sequence into GOPs, but processes the sequence without intermission. In this manner, the system simulates an infinite wavelet transformation across frame boundaries and the boundary effect is significantly reduced or essentially eliminated. Moreover, the buffering is very small and the scheme can be used to implement other decomposition structures. The wavelet transform scheme provides superb video playback quality with little or no boundary effects.Type: GrantFiled: June 21, 2000Date of Patent: September 21, 2004Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jizheng Xu, Shipeng Li, Zixiang Xiong, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Patent number: 6785329Abstract: Automatic video object extraction that defines substantially precise objects is disclosed. In one embodiment, color segmentation and motion segmentation are performed on a source video. The color segmentation segments the video by substantially uniform color regions thereof. The motion segmentation segments the video by moving regions thereof. The color regions and the moving regions are then combined to define the video objects. In varying embodiments, pre-processing and post-processing is performed to further clean the source video and the video objects defined, respectively.Type: GrantFiled: December 21, 1999Date of Patent: August 31, 2004Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jinhui Pan, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Publication number: 20040071358Abstract: An image distribution system has a source that encodes digital images and transmits them over an error-prone channel to a destination. The source has an image coder that processes the digital images using vector transformation followed by vector quantization. This produces groups of vectors and quantized values that are representative of the images. The image coder orders the vectors in the codebooks and assigns vector indexes to the vectors such that a bit error occurring at a less significant bit in a vector index results in less distortion than a bit error occurring at a more significant bit. Depending upon the format and the capabilities of the source and destination, the image coder may allocate different numbers of bits to different groups of vectors according to a bit allocation map for this allocation process. The source also has a UEP (Unequal Error Protection) coder that layers the vector indexes according to their significance.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 23, 2003Publication date: April 15, 2004Inventors: Jun Xin, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Patent number: 6700933Abstract: A video encoding scheme employs progressive fine-granularity layered coding to encode video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video. Some of the enhancement layers in a current frame are predicted from at least one same or lower quality layer in a reference frame, whereby the lower quality layer is not necessarily the base layer. Use of multiple reference layers of different quality results in occasional fluctuations in the encoded image data. The video encoding scheme efficiently eliminates such fluctuations by predicting higher quality data from the lower quality data encoded in the base layer and a low quality enhancement layer.Type: GrantFiled: February 15, 2000Date of Patent: March 2, 2004Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Feng Wu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Patent number: 6690833Abstract: A method and apparatus for selecting a quantizer scale for each macroblock within a frame to optimize the coding rate is presented. A quantizer scale is selected for each macroblock within each frame such that the target bit rate for the frame is achieved while maintaining a uniform visual quality over the entire frame.Type: GrantFiled: June 18, 1998Date of Patent: February 10, 2004Assignee: Sarnoff CorporationInventors: Tihao Chiang, Hung-Ju Lee, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Publication number: 20040005095Abstract: A video encoding scheme employs progressive fine-granularity layered coding to encode video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video. Some of the enhancement layers in a current frame are predicted from at least one lower quality layer in a reference frame, whereby the lower quality layer is not necessarily the base layer.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 2, 2003Publication date: January 8, 2004Inventors: Feng Wu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Patent number: 6621935Abstract: An image distribution system has a source that encodes digital images and transmits them over an error-prone channel to a destination. The source has an image coder that processes the digital images using vector transformation followed by vector quantization. This produces groups of vectors and quantized values that are representative of the images. The image coder orders the vectors in the codebooks and assigns vector indexes to the vectors such that a bit error occurring at a less significant bit in a vector index results in less distortion than a bit error occurring at a more significant bit. Depending upon the format and the capabilities of the source and destination, the image coder may allocate different numbers of bits to different groups of vectors according to a bit allocation map for this allocation process. The source also has a UEP (Unequal Error Protection) coder that layers the vector indexes according to their significance.Type: GrantFiled: May 1, 2000Date of Patent: September 16, 2003Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jun Xin, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang
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Patent number: 6614936Abstract: A video encoding scheme employs progressive fine-granularity layered coding to encode video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video. Some of the enhancement layers in a current frame are predicted from at least one lower quality layer in a reference frame, whereby the lower quality layer is not necessarily the base layer.Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 1999Date of Patent: September 2, 2003Assignee: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Feng Wu, Shipeng Li, Ya-Qin Zhang