Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Benoit Timmermann

Andreas Hutter

Peter Amon

Gero Bäse

Jürgen Pandel

In a method for the video coding of image sequences images in the image sequence are coded in a scaled manner, in such a way that the video data produced contains information which permits the images to be represented in a plurality of differing stages of image resolution, the latter being defined by the number of pixels per image representation. The coding is block-based, in such a way that to describe a displacement of parts of one of the images, said displacement being contained in the image sequence, at least one block structure that describes the displacement is created. Said block structure is configured from one block, which is subdivided into sub-blocks, whereby some of the sub-blocks are further subdivided into successively smaller sub-blocks. A first block structure is temporarily created for at least one first resolution stage and a second block structure is created for a second resolution stage, the first resolution stage having a lower number of pixels than the second resolution stage. In addition, the second block structure is compared with the first block structure to determine the differences in structure, in order to create a modified second block structure on the basis of characteristics of the structural differences, said modified block structure representing part of the second block structure and forming the basis for the coding of the image sequence.

Coding and decoding method and device

In video coding image sequences, images are coded in a scaled manner to obtain video data which represents the image in multiple steps from a defined image resolution or image quality (e.g., according to the data rate), and the resolution is defined by the number of image pixels of each represented image. Coding is block-based, i.e., for a description of an approximate movement of parts of one of the images in the image sequence, at least one block structure is produced describing the movement. The block structure produced includes a block divided into partial blocks which are in turn divided into sub-blocks. A first block structure is produced temporally for at least one first resolution level and a second block structure is produced for a second resolution level. The first resolution level has a lower image pixel number and/or image quality than the second resolution level. The second block structure is compared to the first block structure such that differences in the block structure are determined, such that on the base of the properties of the structure differences, a modified second block structure is produced. The structure thereof represents one part of the second block structure. Subsequently, the modified block structure and the second block structure are compared based on at least one value which is proportional to the quality of the image and the block structure and the value thereof is directly proportional to an improved quality based on the coding of the bit sequence.

Method and device for coding and decoding

A series of decoded images is generated from a series of original images encoded by a first encoding technique following movement-compensated, predictive encoding, where a starting image of a group of successive original images that are to be encoded is defined by a second encoding technique following movement-compensated, temporally filtered partial band encoding based on a determined encoding property of a decoded image of the group of images that are to be encoded, the decoded image is used for generating an output image having a low resolution level, before the images are encoded. At least one output image is generated on each level of resolution from the successive original images of the group of from at least one decoded image during image encoding. The decoded images are provided only with a reduced quality while the reconstituted images are of great quality.

Scalable method for encoding a series of original images, and associated image encoding method, encoding device and decoding device

Disclosed is an image encoding method in which a series of decoded images are generated from a series of original images with the aid of a first encoding process. Furthermore, a series of second images are generated from an image group of the series of original images with the aid of an INTER encoding mode of the second encoding process, at least one decoded image being used as a reference image. The reference image represents an original image area is to be encoded. A image decoding method decodes second images generated by the image encoding method.

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Zorneding, Germany

Benoit Timmermann