Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for performing two pass quality video compression through pipelining and buffer management

US6101276A · kind A · utility

76Cited by
3References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 21, 1996
Grant dateAug 8, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 21, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N19/93
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An apparatus and method a method for performing two-pass real time video compression is provided. Tactical decisions such as encoding and quantization values are determined in software, whereas functional execution steps are performed in hardware. By appropriately apportioning the tasks between software and hardware, the benefits of each type of processing are exploited, while minimizing both hardware complexity and data transfer requirements. One key concept that allows the compression unit to operate in real time is that the architecture and pipelining both allow for B frames to be executed out of order. By buffering B frames, two-pass motion estimation techniques can be performed to tailor bit usage to the requirements of the frame, and thereby provide a more appealing output image.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.