Abstract: For transmitting video data over a powerline communications transmission channel, a first communication device: obtains video data in the form of a succession of uncompressed images; determines the capacity of the transmission channel; performs a wavelet-decomposition of each uncompressed image, thereby obtaining data having different resolutions; compresses each wavelet-decomposed image, on the basis of the determined capacity of the powerline communications transmission channel; and performs transmission in pulse form with spreading of each compressed image to a second communication device, to introduce data redundancy, the rate of which, for each data item of said compressed image, is defined on the basis of the resolution of said video data item, the redundancy of the data having the lowest resolution being higher than the one of the data having any other resolution.

Abstract: A video decoding apparatus includes: a decoder to determine a size of a minimum block unit among block units in which quantization parameter information is decoded from a bitstream, determine a current block to be decoded by dividing a block larger than 16×16 into one or more blocks, decode, from the bitstream, a skip information and the motion information for deriving the motion vector of the current block without decoding information on residual signals of the current block, and decode, from the bitstream, prediction information of the current block and quantized transform coefficients of the current block; and a video reconstructor to determine the motion vector of the current block using the decoded motion information, reconstruct residual signals from the quantized transform coefficients by inversely quantizing the quantized transform coefficients using a quantization parameter, and reconstruct the current block based on the prediction information and the reconstructed residual signals.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus capable of reducing a capacity of a storage element includes: a first variable-length decoding unit that sequentially outputs, for each first unit of processing, one or more components included in the first unit of processing, by performing a first process on a coded stream; a reordering unit that sequentially outputs, for each second unit of processing different from the first unit of processing, one or more components included in the second unit of processing, by reordering the components outputted from the first variable-length decoding unit; and a second inverse quantization unit that performs a second process on the components outputted from the reordering unit, for each second unit of processing.

Abstract: Disclosed are a system, apparatus, computer programs and methods for indicating proper temporal layer switching points for temporal scalable coding. Various embodiments provide an apparatus and method for properly indicating temporal layer switching points in a scalable video bit stream or in a scalable video file container. Using these indications, a decoder can determine where to perform temporal layer switching, after which all of the pictures at and below the desired temporal layer can be correctly decoded.

Abstract: A video encoding/decoding apparatus and method are disclosed. The video encoding/decoding apparatus includes: a video encoder for encoding a differential value between a quantization parameter value of a macroblock of a video and a quantization parameter value of a subblock in an extended macroblock based on additional information on the macroblock and the subblock; and a video decoder for reconstructing a differential value of a quantization parameter encoded by the video encoder, reconstructing a residual block based on a reconstructed differential value of the quantization parameter, and reconstructing the video based on the residual block reconstructed.

Abstract: A method for processing a plurality of multilayer bit streams includes receiving a plurality of multilayer bit streams each having a base layer and at least one enhancement layer. One or more of the enhancement layers are extracted in whole or in part from at least one of the multilayer bit streams so that the plurality of multilayer bit streams are collectively reduced in their total bandwidth. Each of the multilayer bit streams are rewritten to a single layer bit stream. The single layer bit streams are multiplexed to form a multiplexed single layer bit stream.

Abstract: When compression encoding processing of an image is performed in units of macroblocks using a pipeline structure, an application of a skip mode or the like according to MPEG4AVC to compression encode an encoding target block requires motion vectors and the like of adjacent blocks of the encoding target block. However, depending on a structure of the pipeline stages, the motion vectors may not be determined. In such cases, the skip mode cannot be applied to compression encode the encoding target block. This problem can be solved by (i) calculating all motion information candidates, of the encoding target block, corresponding to all motion information selectable by a previous block of the encoding target block, and (ii) selecting, as the motion information of the encoding target block in the skip mode, the motion information corresponding to the motion information determined for the previous block.

Abstract: A video compression framework based on parametric object and background compression is proposed. At the encoder, an object is detected and frames are segmented into regions corresponding to the foreground object and the background. The encoder generates object motion and appearance parameters. The motion or warping parameters may include at least two parameters for object translation; two parameters for object scaling in two primary axes and one object orientation parameter indicating a rotation of the object. Particle filtering may be employed to generate the object motion parameters. The proposed methodology is the formalization of the concept and usability for perceptual quality scalability layer for Region(s) of Interest. A coded video sequence format is proposed which aims at “network friendly” video representation supporting appearance and generalized motion of object(s).

Abstract: A vision system for obtaining an image of a patterned retarder comprising first and second patterns having different optical axes is provided. The vision system comprises a camera, a ½ wavelength plate arranged in front of a lens of the camera, a rotatable ¼ wavelength plate arranged in front of the ½ wavelength plate.

Abstract: A display device and a method for controlling the same are disclosed in which a threshold range for generating a panorama image is indicated in accordance with a bending angle of a bending portion provided between a first area of a body provided with a first camera and a second area of a body provided with a second camera, whereby the panorama image may be generated using the first camera and the second camera.

Abstract: A Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) method and apparatus including a QAM transmit modulator with at least one unbalanced mixer, which creates an asymmetric two-dimensional (2-D) QAM symbol constellation. The asymmetrical symbol constellation provides baseband symbol clock signal leakage sufficient to facilitate quick and simple baseband symbol clock recovery and signal channel compensation at the QAM receiver without significantly degrading the system bit-error rate (BER). While slightly degrading static BER, overall system performance is improved when considering baseband symbol clock recovery and received signal compensation for an imperfect signal channel. This allows QAM to be deployed in systems where QAM is otherwise prohibitively expensive and improves overall system performance for any existing QAM system application without additional bandwidth, cost or complexity.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for 3D video coding system are disclosed. Embodiments according to the present invention apply SAO process (sample adaptive offset process) to at least one dependent-view image of the processed multi-view images if processed multi-view images are received. Also embodiments according to the present invention apply the SAO process to at least one dependent-view image of the processed multi-view images or at least one depth map of the processed multi-view depth maps if both processed multi-view images and the processed multi-view depth maps are received. The SAO can be applied to each color component of the processed multi-view images or the processed multi-view depth maps. The SAO parameters associated with a target region in one dependent-view image or in one depth map corresponding to one view may share or may be predicted by second SAO parameters associated with a source region corresponding to another view.

Abstract: This application discloses a system and related methods (called Fast Track) to effortlessly navigate across multiple cameras, e.g. video surveillance cameras distributed in a facility. Fast Track simplifies the act of following a suspicious individual roaming in a facility, e.g. by eliminating the need for security operators to memorize camera placement and coverage, and to manually control pan-tilt-zoom (hereinafter “PTZ”) cameras, and by simplifying the process to reduce the risk of operator error. Combinations of novel scoring and control methods generally provide an automatic identification of optimal cameras and pre-emptive re-direction of PTZ cameras. Extensions to these methods enable two new capabilities: Cooperative PTZ Control (e.g. coordinating PTZs to cover a 3D map viewport optimally) and Self-Healing Perimeters, to automatically reassign and redirect multiple PTZ cameras to fill gaps in a security perimeter.

Abstract: Influences of physiological stereoscopic elements are removed by image processing using projection transformation. A horopter-plane image projection unit 311 is designed to project a non-stereo image supplied via a signal line 129 onto a cylindrical plane (horopter plane) including a horopter circle. The size of the horopter circle is specified using, for example, the radius as horopter circle information. Additionally, the relationship with two eyes is specified by the interocular distance. A display surface right-eye projection unit 316 is designed to project an image projected on the horopter plane onto a display surface for the right eye. A display surface left-eye projection unit 317 is designed to project the image projected on the horopter plane onto a display surface for the left eye. Therefore, retinal images that are identical to each other are supplied to the two eyes to remove influences of physiological stereoscopic elements, and stereoscopic depth is given.

Abstract: A computer implemented method for automatically identifying shot changes in a video sequence in real-time or near-real-time is disclosed. Optical flow energy change differences between frames, sum-of-square differences between optical-flow-compensated frames, and hue histogram changes within frames are analyzed and stored in frame buffers. A feature vector formed from a combination of these measurements is compared to a feature vector formed from thresholds based on tunable recall and precision to declare the presence or absence of a shot change.

Abstract: A vehicle image processing apparatus includes: a group of cameras; a drawing unit that converts a captured image into an image viewed along a line of sight running from a predetermined position in a predetermined direction; a viewing-line-of-sight changing unit that detects whether a first line of sight is switched to a second line of sight; and a viewing-line-of-sight generation/updating unit that acquires parameters concerning the first and second lines of sight after detecting the switching and generates a parameter which is gradually changed from the parameter of the first line of sight to the parameter of the second line of sight. Moreover, the drawing unit generates, on the basis of the gradually changed parameter, an image which is gradually changed from an image viewed along the first line of sight to an image viewed along the second line of sight.

Abstract: A system and method for impairments compensation filtering is described that can be used either in conjunction with video coding, or standalone for postprocessing. It uses a wiener filtering approach in conjunction with an efficient codebook representation.

Abstract: A system and method for a low complexity and robust spatiotemporal combining for video enhancement is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes computing a standard deviation estimate between a video frame and a temporally neighboring frame of the video frame in a video sequence, computing an error value, for each sub-block of pixels within a block of pixels in a current video frame, between pixel values within the sub-block in the current video frame and corresponding motion compensated pixel values in a temporally neighboring video frame of the current video frame, computing a temporal weighting factor for each sub-block of pixels as a function of the error value and the standard deviation estimate, and combining the block of pixels in the current video frame and their corresponding motion compensated pixel values in the temporally neighboring video frame using the computed temporal weighting factor.

Abstract: In a code amount estimating method, when encoding quantized values of coefficients of a larger-sized orthogonal transformation than an orthogonal transformation size assigned to a variable length encoding table, the quantized values are rearranged in a one-dimensional form, so as to obtain run-level sets. The number of groups is computed based on a proportion between an orthogonal transformation area corresponding to the orthogonal transformation size assigned to the variable length encoding table and an orthogonal transformation area for an encoding target. The Run-Level sets are classified into groups having the number of groups. Each Run is divided by the number of groups, and the obtained quotient is set as Run. A code length of each Run-Level set in each group is determined by referring to the variable length encoding table. The amount of generated code is estimated to be the total sum of the code lengths of all groups.

Abstract: A video decoding method includes: decoding a skip information indicating whether or not a current block to be decoded is a skip block; when the skip information indicates that the current block is the skip block, decoding motion information of the current block, determining a motion vector of the current block, and reconstructing the current block directly from a predicted block, without decoding information on residual signals of the current block; and when the skip information indicates that the current block is not the skip block, decoding prediction information of the current block from the bitstream, decoding information on a quantization parameter and transform coefficients which correspond to the current block, when at least one of the transform coefficients is not zero, reconstructing residual signals from the transform coefficients and reconstructing the current block based on the prediction information and the reconstructed residual signals.