Patents by Inventor Guan-Ming Su

Guan-Ming Su 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).

  • SDR BIT DEPTH ENHANCEMENT VIA CODEWORD RANGE AMPLIFICATION IN A CODEC WITH INVERSE DISPLAY MANAGEMENT
    Publication number: 20180376146
    Abstract: Novel methods and systems for encoding standard dynamic range video to improve the final quality after converting standard dynamic range video into enhanced dynamic range video are disclosed. A dual layer codec structure that amplifies certain codeword ranges can be used to send enhanced information to the decoder in order to achieve an enhanced (higher bit depth) image signal. The enhanced standard dynamic range signal can then be up-converted to enhanced dynamic range video without banding artifacts in the areas corresponding to those certain codeword ranges.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2016
    Publication date: December 27, 2018
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventor: Guan-Ming SU
  • Specifying visual dynamic range coding operations and parameters
    Patent number: 10136162
    Abstract: Coding syntaxes in compliance with same or different VDR specifications may be signaled by upstream coding devices such as VDR encoders to downstream coding devices such as VDR decoders in a common vehicle in the form of RPU data units. VDR coding operations and operational parameters may be specified as sequence level, frame level, or partition level syntax elements in a coding syntax. Syntax elements in a coding syntax may be coded directly in one or more current RPU data units under a current RPU ID, predicted from other partitions/segments/ranges previously sent with the same current RPU ID, or predicted from other frame level or sequence level syntax elements previously sent with a previous RPU ID. A downstream device may perform decoding operations on multi-layered input image data based on received coding syntaxes to construct VDR images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sheng Qu, Peng Yin, Yan Ye, Yuwen He, Walter Gish, Guan-Ming Su, Yufei Yuan, Samir Hulyalkar
  • Efficient transcoding for backward-compatible wide dynamic range codec
    Patent number: 10136147
    Abstract: An intermediate bitstream generated by a first-stage transcoding system from an initial transmission package is received. The intermediate bitstream comprises base layer (BL) and enhancement layer (EL) signals. The combination of the BL and EL signals of the intermediate bitstream represents compressed wide dynamic range images. The BL signal of the intermediate bitstream alone represents compressed standard dynamic range images. A targeted transmission package is generated based on the intermediate bitstream. The targeted transmission package comprises BL and EL signals. The BL signal of the targeted transmission package may be directly transcoded from the BL signal of the intermediate bitstream alone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Guan-Ming Su, Tao Chen
  • Rate control adaptation for high-dynamic range images
    Patent number: 10136133
    Abstract: A high dynamic range input video signal characterized by either a gamma-based or a perceptually-quantized (PQ) source electro-optical transfer function (EOTF) is to be compressed. Given a luminance range for an image-region in the input, for a gamma-coded input signal, a rate-control adaptation method in the encoder adjusts a region-based quantization parameter (QP) so that it increases in highlight regions and decreases in dark regions, otherwise, for a PQ-coded input, the region-based QP increases in the dark areas and decreases in the highlight areas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Taoran Lu, Peng Yin, Tao Chen, Guan-Ming Su
  • LOW-COMPLEXITY LOOKUP TABLE CONSTRUCTION WITH REDUCED INTERPOLATION ERROR
    Publication number: 20180332296
    Abstract: In a method to reconstruct a high dynamic range video signal, a decoder receives parameters in the input bitstream to generate a prediction function. Using the prediction function, it generates a first set of nodes for a first prediction lookup table, wherein each node is characterized by an input node value and an output node value. Then, it modifies the output node values of one or more of the first set of nodes to generate a second set of nodes for a second prediction lookup table, and generates output prediction values using the second lookup table. Low-complexity methods to modify the output node value of a current node in the first set of nodes based on computing modified slopes between the current node and nodes surrounding the current node are presented.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2016
    Publication date: November 15, 2018
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Harshad KADU, Guan-Ming SU, Hanyang SUN
  • Piecewise inter-layer prediction for signals with enhanced dynamic range
    Patent number: 10123019
    Abstract: Pixel data of a video sequence with enhanced dynamic range (EDR) are predicted based on pixel data of a corresponding video sequence with standard dynamic range (SDR) and a piecewise inter-layer predictor. The output parameters of the piecewise predictor are computed based atleast on two sets of pre-computed values and a prediction cost criterion. The first set of pre-computed values applies to all input SDR frames and comprises a set of SDR pixel values raised to one or more integer power terms. The second set of pre-computed values is frame specific and is computed based on a histogram of an input SDR frame and pixel values of the corresponding EDR frame. The pre-computed values allow for a fast iterative algorithm to identify the best pivot points for the piecewise polynomials according to a prediction cost and to solve for the coefficients of the piecewise predictor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Guan-Ming Su, Qian Chen, Peng Yin, Ralf Willenbacher
  • Feature based bitrate allocation in non-backward compatible multi-layer codec via machine learning
    Patent number: 10123018
    Abstract: Novel methods and systems for non-backward compatible video encoding are disclosed. The bitrates of the base layer and enhancement layer are dynamically assigned based on features found in scenes in the video compared to a machine learned quality classifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sankaranarayanan Piramanayagam, Hsuan-Ting Chou, Guan-Ming Su
  • PIECEWISE-LINEAR INTER-LAYER PREDICTOR FOR HIGH-DYNAMIC RANGE VIDEO CODING
    Publication number: 20180310027
    Abstract: In a method to improve the dynamic range of high-dynamic range (HDR) signals using an enhancement layer, a piecewise-linear inter-layer predictor and a residual masking operator are applied. The generation of the piecewise-linear inter-layer prediction function is based on a computed scene-significance histogram based on the average of frame-significance histograms indicating pixel values where coding artifacts are most likely to occur. For each segment in the prediction function, its slope is inversely proportional to a measure of energy in the segment under the scene-significance histogram. Bit rate constrains for the enhancement layer are also taken into consideration in determining the piecewise-linear prediction function.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2016
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventors: Navaneeth KAMBALLUR KOTTAYIL, Guan-Ming SU
  • MULTIPLE COLOR CHANNEL MULTIPLE REGRESSION PREDICTOR
    Publication number: 20180278930
    Abstract: Inter-color image prediction is based on multi-channel multiple regression (MMR) models. Image prediction is applied to the efficient coding of images and video signals of high dynamic range. MMR models may include first order parameters, second order parameters, and cross-pixel parameters. MMR models using extension parameters incorporating neighbor pixel relations are also presented. Using minimum means-square error criteria, closed form solutions for the prediction parameters are presented for a variety of MMR models.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2018
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventors: Guan-Ming SU, Sheng QU, Hubert KOEPFER, Yufei YUAN, Samir HULYALKAR
  • Signal reshaping approximation
    Patent number: 10080026
    Abstract: Statistical values are computed based on received source images. An adaptive reshaping function is selected for one or more source images based on the one or more statistical values. A portion of source video content is adaptively reshaped, based on the selected adaptive reshaping function to generate a portion of reshaped video content. The portion of source video content is represented by the one or more source images. An approximation of an inverse of the selected adaptive reshaping function is generated. The reshaped video content and a set of adaptive reshaping parameters defining the approximation of the inverse of the selected adaptive reshaping function are encoded into a reshaped video signal. The reshaped video signal may be processed by a downstream recipient device to generate a version of reconstructed source images, for example, for rendering with a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Guan-Ming Su, Qiuwei Wang, Hsuan-Ting Chou, Navaneeth Kamballur Kottayil
  • INTER-LAYER PREDICTION FOR SIGNALS WITH ENHANCED DYNAMIC RANGE
    Publication number: 20180262769
    Abstract: Pixel data of a video sequence with enhanced dynamic range (EDR) are predicted based on pixel data of a corresponding video sequence with standard dynamic range (SDR) and an inter-layer predictor. Under a highlights clipping constrain, conventional SDR to EDR prediction is adjusted as follows: a) given a highlights threshold, the SDR to EDR predictor is adjusted to output a fixed output value for all input SDR pixel values larger than the highlights threshold, and b) given a dark-regions threshold, the residual values between the input EDR signal and its predicted value are set to zero for all input SDR pixel values lower than the dark-regions threshold. Example processes to determine the highlights and dark-regions thresholds and whether highlights clipping is occurring are provided.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 16, 2016
    Publication date: September 13, 2018
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventors: Guan-Ming SU, Qian CHEN
  • Metadata filtering for display mapping for high dynamic range images
    Patent number: 10056042
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for filtering metadata to be used in display management. Given an input video stream and input metadata comprising at least one of minimum, average, or maximum luminance values of the video frames in the video stream, values of a function of the input metadata are filtered using a temporal filter to generate filtered metadata, wherein the filtering is based only on metadata for input frames in the same scene. Methods for temporal filtering based on an exponential moving average filter or a look-ahead sliding window filter are presented, including methods for scene-change detection using the input metadata.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Robin Atkins, Gregory John Ward, Samir N. Hulyalkar, Guan-Ming Su, Sheng Qu
  • Video Coding and Delivery with Both Spatial and Dynamic Range Scalability
    Publication number: 20180220144
    Abstract: In a method to code and transmit scalable HDR video signals, HDR signals are processed and encoded in the IPT-PQ color space to generate a base layer at reduced spatial resolution and/or dynamic range, and an enhancement layer with a residual signal. A signal reshaping block before the base layer encoder allows for improved coding of HDR signals using a reduced bit depth. A decoder can use a BL decoder and backward reshaping to generate a decoded BL HDR signal at a reduced dynamic range and/or spatial resolution, or it can combine the decoded BL HDR signal and the EL stream to generate a decoded HDR signal at full dynamic range and full resolution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2016
    Publication date: August 2, 2018
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Guan-Ming Su, Sheng Qu, Samir N. Hulyalkar, David Brooks
  • Block-based content-adaptive reshaping for high dynamic range images
    Patent number: 10032262
    Abstract: A processor for signal reshaping receives an input image with an input bit depth. Block-based standard deviations are computed. The input codewords are divided into codeword bins and each bin is assigned a standard deviation value. For each bin, a standard deviation to bit-depth function is applied to the bin values to generate minimal bit depth values for each codeword bin. An output codeword mapping function is generated based on the input bit depth, a target bit depth, and the minimal bit depth values. The codeword mapping function is applied to the input image to generate an output image in the target bit depth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Amin Kheradmand, Guan-Ming Su, Cheng-Chi Li
  • Pre-dithering in high dynamic range video coding
    Patent number: 10027963
    Abstract: An encoder receives an input enhanced dynamic range (EDR) image and a corresponding lower dynamic range (LDR) image to be coded at a given target rate. Before coding, a pre-dithering process is applied to the input LDR image to generate a dithered LDR image at a second bit depth, lower than its original bit depth. The pre-dithering process includes: generating uniformly-distributed noise, applying a spatial filter to the noise to generate low-pass or high-pass filtered noise, applying a temporal high pass or low pass filter to the spatially-filtered noise to generate output noise, adding the output noise to the input LDR image to generate a noise-enhanced LDR image, and quantizing the noise-enhanced image to generate the dithered LDR image. Selecting the characteristics of the dithering filters is based on both the target bit rate and luminance characteristics of the pixels in the input LDR image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Guan-Ming Su, Qian Chen, Bongsun Lee, Scott Daly
  • Multiple color channel multiple regression predictor
    Patent number: 10021390
    Abstract: Inter-color image prediction is based on multi-channel multiple regression (MMR) models. Image prediction is applied to the efficient coding of images and video signals of high dynamic range. MMR models may include first order parameters, second order parameters, and cross-pixel parameters. MMR models using extension parameters incorporating neighbor pixel relations are also presented. Using minimum means-square error criteria, closed form solutions for the prediction parameters are presented for a variety of MMR models.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Guan-Ming Su, Sheng Qu, Hubert Koepfer, Yufei Yuan, Samir Hulyalkar
  • Hardware Efficient Sparse FIR Filtering in Layered Video Coding
    Publication number: 20180192062
    Abstract: In a decoder, a processor extracts a control map of false contour filtering from a part of a multi-layer video signal that includes a low dynamic range image mapped from an original high-dynamic range (HDR) image. It determines one or more filter parameters for a sparse finite-impulse-response (FIR) filter, where the one or more filter parameters relate to at least in part on the control map of false contour filtering and a predicted image predicted from the low dynamic range image. It applies the sparse FIR filter to filter pixel values in a portion of the predicted image based at least in part on the control map of false contour filtering, and it reconstructs a version of the original HDR image based at least in part on the portion of the predicted image as filtered by the FIR filter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2017
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Applicant: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Guan-Ming Su, Qian Chen, Peng Yin, Sheng Qu
  • In-loop block-based image reshaping in high dynamic range video coding
    Patent number: 10015491
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for in-loop, region-based, reshaping for the coding of high-dynamic range video. Using a high bit-depth buffer to store input data and previously decoded reference data, forward and backward, in-loop, reshaping functions allow video coding and decoding to be performed at a target bit depth lower than the input bit depth. Methods for the clustering of the reshaping functions to reduce data overhead are also presented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventor: Guan-Ming Su
  • Content mapping using extended color range
    Patent number: 10015525
    Abstract: In high-dynamic range (HDR) coding, content mapping translates an HDR signal to a signal of lower dynamic range. Coding and prediction in layered coding of HDR signals is improved if content mapping utilizes signal color ranges beyond those defined by a traditional electro-optical transfer function (EOTF) or its inverse (IEOTF or OETF). Extended EOTF and IEOTF functions are derived based on their mirror points. Examples of extended EOTFs are given for ITU BT. 1886 and SMPTE ST 2084.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2018
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Robin Atkins, Guan-Ming Su, Tao Chen
  • METADATA FILTERING FOR DISPLAY MAPPING FOR HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGES
    Publication number: 20180144692
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for filtering metadata to be used in display management. Given an input video stream and input metadata comprising at least one of minimum, average, or maximum luminance values of the video frames in the video stream, values of a function of the input metadata are filtered using a temporal filter to generate filtered metadata, wherein the filtering is based only on metadata for input frames in the same scene. Methods for temporal filtering based on an exponential moving average filter or a look-ahead sliding window filter are presented, including methods for scene-change detection using the input metadata.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2016
    Publication date: May 24, 2018
    Applicant: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATION
    Inventors: Robin ATKINS, Gregory John WARD, Samir N. HULYALKAR, Guan-Ming SU, Sheng QU