Sony Corporation

Nobuhiro Igi

Motoki Kato

Koji Obata

Hiroshi Kobayashi

Yoshikazu Takashima

Minoru Morio

Toshiyuki Katsumoto

Hiromasa Watanabe

Yukio Yanagihara

Kazunori Yasuda

Kyoko Fukuda

Hideyuki Narita

An image encoding device includes a single image pickup unit generating image data by shooting a subject, an image compression unit generating digital image data by encoding the image data, a distance measuring unit measuring a distance to the subject during the shooting, and a multiplexing unit generating multiplexed data based on the digital image data and the measured distance by multiplexing distance data indicating the distance to a subject of each of given pixel blocks of the digital image data onto the digital image data.

Image encoding device and image encoding method with distance information

An image compression apparatus includes: first and second imaging sections for capturing an image of a subject to generate first and second image signals, respectively; first and second encoding sections for encoding the first and second image signals to generate first and second image data, respectively; first and second distance measuring sections for measuring a distance to the subject for each of image blocks, at the same time as the first and second imaging sections perform image capturing, to generate first and second distance information, respectively; first and second multiplexing sections for generating first and second multiplexed data on the basis of the first and second image data and the distance, respectively, by respectively multiplexing the first and second image data and first and second distance data, which are generated on the basis of the first and second distance information and indicate the distance to the subject for each of predefined pixel blocks in the first and second image data, respectively; and a compression processing section for reducing amounts of the first and second multiplexed data to generate compressed data. The compression processing section generates the compressed data by extracting long-distance blocks in the first and second image data on the basis of the first and second distance data, respectively, calculating a differential between the long-distance blocks in the first and second multiplexed data, and deleting the long-distance blocks in the first or second multiplexed data which are identical to their counterparts in the other multiplexed data.

Image compression apparatus and image compression method

An input video signal is coded by a 1-pass type coding system highly efficiently by taking the proportions of the components of the input image. The coding difficulty level computation circuitdetermines the coding difficulty level d of the input moving image signal Sand sends it to the amount of allocated bits computation circuit/controller. The amount of allocated bits computation circuit/controllerdetermines a reference value of amount of allocated coding bits on the basis of the coding difficulty level d and, when shifting the reference value to the actual amount of allocated coding bits b_x, it stores part of the sum of the amounts of allocated bits a per unit time for a certain period of time as virtual buffer in advance and the actual reference value of the amount of allocated coding bits is obtained by dividing the sum of the amounts of allocated coding bits per unit time less the part stored as virtual buffer by said period of time. As long as the virtual buffer is positive, the provision of an amount of bits exceeding said reference value is permitted.

Video signal coding method and video signal encoder

An encoder to encode video streams representing a moving picture is provided whose video encoder calculates a bit storage quantity an STD video buffer should have when input of a stream ending with a first picture to the STD video buffer ends, calculates an initial bit storage quantity of a second picture of a stream concatenated to the end of the first picture and starting with the second picture, in a VBV buffer, based on the calculated bit storage quantity of the STD buffer, and encodes the stream based on the bit storage quantity. The video encoder further calculates a bit storage quantity of the STD video buffer, for decoding a picture of the stream in the STD video buffer, calculates, based on the calculated bit storage quantity, a bit storage quantity the VBV buffer should have for ending decoding of a fourth picture of a second stream concatenated to the beginning of a third picture and ending with the fourth picture, and encodes the stream based on the calculated bit storage quantity. With such encoding, a part of video streams can be re-coded without referencing to information indicative of an initial status of a video buffer when editing the video streams.

Encoding apparatus and method, and multiplexing apparatus and method

A picture signal processing method and apparatus in which the block distortion as well as the mosquito noise produced on encoding/decoding a picture is to be suppressed. The picture signal processing apparatus includes a filter for filtering a picture, an encoder for block-encoding the picture, a decoder for decoding an encoded picture from the encoder and a noise reducing unit for reducing at least the block distortion of a picture decoded by the decoding unit to reduce the noise otherwise produced on encoding/decoding the picture.

Picture signal processing method and apparatus

An image processing system comprising a decoder and an encoder . The decoder comprises a section for decoding a bit stream to generate image data, generating coding parameters for each layer and generating an error flag indicating whether the coding parameters can be effectively used. The encoder comprises a control section , an MB-parameter calculating section , an encoding section and a variable-length encoding section . The section determines, from the error flag, whether or not the coding parameters can be effectively used or not. The section calculates coding parameters when the coding parameters generated by the section are invalid. The sections and encodes the image data by using the coding parameters generated by the section when these parameters are valid, and by using the coding parameters calculated by the section when the coding parameters generated by the section are invalid.

Decoding apparatus, decoding method, encoding apparatus, encoding method, image processing system, and image processing method

A picture signal processing system is disclosed, that comprises a decoder for generating the number of encoded bits and/or an average quantizing scale as representative value(s) of encoding parameters of an input encoded picture signal, decoding the input encoded picture signal, generating the decoded picture signal, and outputting the encoding parameters along with the generated decoded picture signal, and an encoder for encoding the decoded picture signal with the encoding parameters.

Picture signal processing system, decoder, picture signal processing method, and decoding method

An apparatus incorporates encoding-degree-of-difficulty detecting means for detecting a parameter indicating an encoding degree of difficulty from supplied image data; parameter calculating means for calculating a parameter required to determine block distortion from supplied image data; block distortion determining means for determining block distortion in accordance with a result of detection of the parameter indicating the encoding degree of difficulty and a result of the calculation for obtaining the parameter; correction-value calculating means for calculating a correction value for reducing block distortion; and means for subjecting supplied image data to a correction using a correction value corresponding to a result of the determination of block distortion so as to produce an output.

Block distortion reduction method and device and encoding method and device

An edit point of an earlier GOP is placed after an I picture I In addition, the edit point is not placed immediately after an I or P picture. Thus, the GOP is decoded. A stream placed after the edit point (a P picture and later pictures) is discarded. B pictures B and B placed after a P picture P are re-encoded with a forward moving vector Fw. The remaining pictures other than B pictures B and B are re-encoded with encoding information used in a decoding process. Since an edit point of a later GOP is not placed before the I picture I the GOP is decoded. A stream placed before the edit point (pictures B to P ) is discarded. The first P picture P is changed to an I picture. Thereafter, the re-encoding process is performed. The P picture P changed from the I picture is used as a predictive reference picture. With the P picture P a backward moving vector Bk is obtained. With only the moving vector Bk, the B pictures B and B placed before the P picture P are re-encoded.

Editing method and editing apparatus

The present invention relates to an image signal coding apparatus and method, an image signal transmission method and a recording medium in which an input image signal is divided into a plurality of blocks and a reference image signal is used for carrying out a motion compensative prediction coding to each of the blocks. The present invention is characterized in that a reference image signal is used for each of the blocks to calculate: a motion vector prediction residue of a block for which a motion compensation is carried out; a residue of a block for which no motion compensation is carried out; and an average luminance value of pixel data within a block and a flatness value of the block. For each of the blocks, a magnitude of the aforementioned block motion vector prediction residue is compared to a magnitude of said block residue so that a result of this comparison is used to decide whether to carry out a motion compensation coding. In this process, the average luminance value and the flatness value of the block are used to switch between decision making region division types. According to a result of this decision, a motion compensative prediction coding is carried out for each of the blocks. Thus, even when a prediction residue is small on a flat portion of a image, it is possible to prevent generation of a fixed noise and improve the coding efficiency without deteriorating the image quality.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Nobuhiro Igi