Abstract: Methods and apparatus of processing omnidirectional images are disclosed. According to one method, a current set of omnidirectional images converted from each spherical image in a 360-degree panoramic video sequence using a selected projection format is received, where the selected projection format belongs to a projection format group comprising a cubicface format, and the current set of omnidirectional images with the cubicface format consists of six cubic faces. If the selected projection format corresponds to the cubicface format, one or more mapping syntax elements to map the current set of omnidirectional images into a current cubemap image are signaled. The coded data are then provided in a bitstream including said one or more mapping syntax elements for the current set of omnidirectional images.

Abstract: A method of encoding a frame to generate an output bitstream has following steps: dividing the frame into partitions; dividing each of the partitions into blocks, wherein each of the blocks is composed of pixels; assigning a first segmentation identifier to each of first blocks located at partition boundaries each between two adjacent partitions within the frame, wherein the first blocks belong to a first segment, and the first segmentation identifier is signaled per first block; and encoding each of the blocks. The step of encoding each of the blocks includes: generating reconstructed blocks for the blocks, respectively; and configuring an in-loop filter by a predetermined in-loop filtering setting in response to the first segmentation identifier, wherein the in-loop filter with the predetermined in-loop filtering setting does not apply in-loop filtering to each reconstructed block corresponding to the first segment.

Abstract: An audio synchronization method includes: receiving a first audio signal from a first recording device; receiving a second audio signal from a second recording device; performing a correlation operation upon the first audio signal and the second audio signal to align a first pattern of the first audio signal and the first pattern of the second audio signal; after the first patterns of the first audio signal and the second audio signal are aligned, calculating a difference between a second pattern of the first audio signal and the second pattern of the second audio signal; and obtaining a starting-time difference between the first audio signal and the second audio signal for audio synchronization according to the difference between the second pattern of the first audio signal and the second pattern of the second audio signal.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus of reconstructing 360 audio/video (AV) file from multiple AV tracks captured by multiple capture devices are disclosed. According to the present invention, for multi-track audio/video data comprising a first and second audio tracks and a first and second video tracks, the first audio track and the first video track are aligned with the second audio track and the second video track by utilizing video synchronization information derived from the first video track and the second video track if the video synchronization information is available. When the video synchronization information is available, the first audio track and the first video track are aligned with the second audio track and the second video track by utilizing the video synchronization information.

Abstract: Method and apparatus of video coding for a spherical frame sequence or a cubic frame sequence in a video encoder or decoder are disclosed. According to one method, surrounding blocks for a current block are identified and any surrounding block outside a vertical spherical frame boundary or outside a cubic face boundary of a current cubic face is mapped to a remapped surrounding block. One or more available remapped surrounding blocks for the current block are determined. Mode information reference is generated using mode information associated with said one or more available remapped surrounding blocks. The mode information associated with the current block is then used for encoding or decoding the mode information of the current block. In another method, Intra prediction pixels are determined from the available remapped surrounding blocks. The Intra prediction pixels are used for Intra prediction encoding or decoding of the current block.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus of video encoding and decoding for a spherical image sequence and a cubic image sequence using circular Inter prediction are disclosed. For the spherical image sequence, the search window includes an area outside or crossing a vertical frame boundary of the reference frame for at least one block of the current spherical image to be encoded. Candidate reference blocks within the search window are determined, where if a given candidate reference block is outside or crossing one vertical frame boundary, the reference pixels are accessed circularly from the reference frame in a horizontal direction crossing the vertical frame boundary of the reference frame. For the cubic image sequence, circular edges of the cubic frame are determined. The search window includes an area outside or crossing a circular edge of the reference frame for at least one block of the current cubic frame to be encoded.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus of processing cube face images are disclosed. According one method, each set of six cubic faces is converted into one rectangular assembled image by assembling each set of six cubic faces to maximize a number of continuous boundaries and to minimize a number of discontinuous boundaries. Each continuous boundary corresponds to one boundary between two connected faces with continuous contents from one face to another face. Each discontinuous boundary corresponds to one boundary between two connected faces with discontinuous contents from one face to another face. The method may further comprise applying video coding to the video sequence outputting the compressed data of the video sequence. According to another method, a fully-connected cubic-face image representing an unfolded image from the six faces of the cube is generated and the blank areas are filled with padding data to form a rectangular assembled image.

Abstract: A dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) method includes obtaining at least one DVFS demand for DVFS of a processor system, and generating a control command of the DVFS of the processor system according to the at least one DVFS demand. The at least one DVFS demand includes a DVFS demand derived from an application demand, and the application demand is obtained from an application running on the processor system.

Abstract: A video data processing system and an associated method for generating a summarized video of a recorded video are provided. The method includes the steps of: receiving video data and recording-related information generated during recording video data from at least one source; analyzing the recording-related information and extracting required information from the recording-related information to generate metadata information for the received video data; cropping the received video data to generate cropped video data based on the metadata information; and generating a summarized video of the recorded video data based on the cropped video data.

Abstract: A method and apparatus of video coding are disclosed. At the encoder side, if the current input picture is designated as a master picture, the current input picture is down-sampled to a current down-sampled picture and the current down-sampled picture is encoded using an Intra mode or an Inter mode. The current down-sampled picture only uses one or more previous reconstructed down-sampled pictures as one or more first reference pictures if coding blocks of the current down-sampled picture are coded using the Inter mode. If the current input picture is designated as a slave picture, coding blocks of the current input picture are encoded with the Inter mode by up-sampling one or more previous reconstructed down-sampled pictures and only using pixel data with one or more up-sampled pictures corresponding to said one or more up-sampled pictures as one or more second reference pictures. A corresponding decoder is also disclosed.

Abstract: A method and system for encoding a group of coding blocks and packetizing the compressed data into slices/packets with hard-limited packet size are disclosed. According to the present invention, a packetization map for at least a portion of a current picture is determined. The packetization map associates coding blocks in at least a portion of the current picture with one or more packets by identifying a corresponding group of coding blocks for each packet of said one or more packets. The corresponding group of coding blocks for each packet is then encoded according to the packetization map and the size of each packet is determined. The packet size is checked. If any packet size exceeds a constrained size, a new packetization map is generated and the corresponding group of coding blocks for each packet is encoded according to the new packetization map.

Abstract: A hybrid video decoder has a hardware decoding circuit, a software decoding circuit, and a meta-data access system. The hardware decoding circuit deals with a first portion of a video decoding process for at least a portion of a frame, wherein the first portion of the video decoding process includes entropy decoding. The software decoding circuit deals with a second portion of the video decoding process. The meta-data access system manages meta data transferred between the hardware decoding circuit and the software decoding circuit.

Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for partially decoding video frames when a sub-region of the video is selected for viewing. The method identifies and decodes data units and pixel blocks of video frames needed to display the sub-region while bypassing data units and pixel blocks that are identified as unnecessary for displaying the sub-region. A video encoder receives a video frame comprising a plurality of cubic surfaces in a first configuration corresponding to a full sized 360VR image. Each cubic surface corresponds to a different surface of a cube. The encoder reformats the received video frame by rearranging the plurality of cubic surfaces according to a second configuration that is different than the first configuration. The second configuration re-arranges the six surfaces of a cubic 360VR image in order to fully utilize the line buffer and allow the line buffer to be narrower than the full sized 360VR image.

Abstract: A hybrid video decoding apparatus has a hardware entropy decoder and a storage device. The hardware entropy decoder performs hardware entropy decoding to generate an entropy decoding result of a picture. The storage device has a plurality of storage areas allocated to buffer a plurality of entropy-decoded partial data, respectively, and is further arranged to store position information indicative of storage positions of the entropy-decoded partial data in the storage device. The entropy-decoded partial data are derived from the entropy decoding result of the picture, and are associated with a plurality of portions of the picture, respectively.

Abstract: A hybrid video encoding method and system using a software engine and a hardware engine. The software engine receives coding unit data associated with a current picture, and performs a first part of the video encoding operation by executing instructions. The first part of the video encoding operation generates an inter predictor and control information corresponding to the coding unit data of the current picture. The first part of the video encoding operation stores the inter predictor into an off-chip memory. The hardware engine performs a second part of the video encoding operation according to the control information. The second part of the video encoding operation receives the inter predictor, and subtracts the inter predictor from the coding unit data to generate a residual signal.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for transcoding a compressed bitstream are disclosed. The system receives a first compressed bitstream generated by applying first entropy encoding to a set of tokens. The first compressed bitstream is decoded into the set of tokens using first entropy decoding corresponding to the first entropy encoding. The set of tokens is then re-encoded into a second compressed bitstream using second entropy encoding, where the second entropy encoding and the first entropy encoding use different statistics, different initial states, or both. The system may further comprising determining one or more modified or optimal probability models associated with the set of tokens, where the second entropy encoding is based on the modified or optimal probability models.

Abstract: A memory pool management method includes: allocating a plurality of memory pools in a memory device according to information about a plurality of computing units, wherein the computing units are independently executed on a same processor; and assigning one of the memory pools to one of the computing units, wherein at least one of the memory pools is shared among different computing units of the computing units.

Abstract: A computing system includes a plurality of processing circuits and a storage device. The processing circuits have at least a first processing circuit and a second processing circuit. The storage device is shared between at least the first processing circuit and the second processing circuit. The first processing circuit performs a whole cache flush operation to prepare exchange data in the storage device. The second processing circuit gets the exchange data from the storage device.

Abstract: A low complexity video decoder includes: a fast variable length decoding (VLD) and inverse quantization module arranged to perform fast VLD and inverse quantization on an input bit stream to generate inverse quantization results; an inverse transform unit arranged to perform inverse transform on the inverse quantization results to generate inverse transform results; a motion compensation module arranged to perform motion compensation according to the input bit stream and generate associated prediction outputs, wherein the motion compensation module includes a temporal/spatial prediction unit arranged to perform temporal/spatial prediction to generate at least a portion of the prediction outputs; an arithmetic unit arranged to sum up the inverse transform results and the prediction outputs to generate compensated outputs; a reconstructed frame output unit arranged to generate reconstructed frames according to the compensated outputs; and a frame storage arranged to store some reconstructed frames.

Abstract: A low complexity video decoder includes: a fast variable length decoding (VLD) and inverse quantization module arranged to perform fast VLD and inverse quantization on an input bit stream to generate inverse quantization results; an inverse transform unit arranged to perform inverse transform on the inverse quantization results to generate inverse transform results; a motion compensation module arranged to perform motion compensation according to the input bit stream and generate associated prediction outputs, wherein the motion compensation module includes a temporal/spatial prediction unit arranged to perform temporal/spatial prediction to generate at least a portion of the prediction outputs; an arithmetic unit arranged to sum up the inverse transform results and the prediction outputs to generate compensated outputs; a reconstructed frame output unit arranged to generate reconstructed frames according to the compensated outputs; and a frame storage arranged to store some reconstructed frames.