Patent · US Active

Methods for encoding or decoding in a videoconference system to reduce problems associated with noisy image acquisition

US7782940B2 · kind B2 · utility

5Cited by
20References
31Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 1, 2003
Grant dateAug 24, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 19, 2028

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N19/61
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Disclosed herein in one embodiment is an adaptive coding threshold algorithm for a videoconference system which alleviates problems due to the erroneous recoding of stationary areas of images caused by image noise. The algorithm, which is preferably implementable on a videoconference encoder, assesses the coding parameters for a current macroblock and the coding parameters for that same macroblock the last time it was coded. If for both macroblocks the coding was non-intra, with a [0,0] motion vector, and with a low quantization parameter, a determination is made that the current macroblock depicts a stationary image. Accordingly, the algorithm increases the coding threshold (T1) for the blocks within that macroblock, so that it becomes more difficult for those particular blocks to be recoded. This renders the block with stationary content less susceptible to erroneous recoding, while preserving system bandwidth and improving image quality. Additionally, related noise assessment techniques can be employed at the encoder or decoder without the adjustment of the coding threshold T1.

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