Ge Video Compression, LLC

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E.V.

Dolby Video Compression, LLC

Sebastian Bosse

Thomas Wiegand

Heiko Schwarz

Tobias Hinz

Heribert Brust

Detlev Marpe

Christian Helmrich

Mischa Siekmann

Thomas Schierl

Cornelius Hellge

Robert Philipp Skupin

Yago Sánchez De La Fuente

Philipp Helle

Benjamin Bross

Valeri George

Martin Winken

Christian Bartnik

Jonathan Pfaff

Adam Wieckowski

Jackie Ma

Paul Keydel

Bjoern Stallenberger

Johannes Erfurt

Soeren Becker

A concept for transmitting information from a client to a server is described, the client being for streaming visual content from the server and for integrating the visual content into a 3D scene of a user application, and the client being for obtaining a rendered view of the 3D scene.

Client-server communication for streaming of visual content

A proposed intermediate way of handling the renderable portion of the first view results in more efficient coding. Instead of omitting the coding of the renderable portion completely, even more efficient coding of multi-view signals entails merely suppressing the coding of the residual signal within the renderable portion, whereas the prediction parameter coding still takes place from the non-renderable portion of the multi-view signal across the renderable portion so that prediction parameters for the renderable portion may be exploited for predicting parameters for the non-renderable portion. The additional coding rate for transmitting the prediction parameters for the renderable portion may be kept low as this merely aims at forming a continuation of the parameter history across the renderable portion to serve as a basis for prediction parameters of other portions of the multi-view signal.

Multi-view coding with effective handling of renderable portions

Rendered portions of a renderable portion of a first view of a multi-view signal are introduced into a prediction loop of a multi-view encoder to form a reference signal for the block-based prediction of the encoder's view predictor may improve the prediction and thereby increasing the coding efficiency. The introduction may be performed by completely inserting the renderable portion into the prediction loop to form new reference pictures with their own reference picture indices in addition to reference pictures obtained by the reconstructed version of the multi-view signal of the block-based prediction. Alternatively, the rendered portion may be introduced into the prediction loop completely, but with replacing the normal prediction reference signal, i.e., the normally reconstructed signal as obtained by block-based prediction. Alternatively, it may be signaled within the data stream which portions of the renderable portion are used to replace respective portions in the normally reconstructed signal.

Multi-view coding with exploitation of renderable portions

An apparatus for determining visual activity information for a predetermined picture block of a video sequence including a plurality of video frames, the plurality of video frames including a current video frame and one or more timely-preceding video frames, wherein the one or more timely-preceding video frames precede the current video frame in time, is provided. The apparatus is configured to receive the predetermined picture block of each of the one or more timely-preceding video frames and the predetermined picture block of the current video frame. Moreover, the apparatus is configured to determine the visual activity information depending on the predetermined picture block of the current video frame and depending on the predetermined picture block of each of the one or more timely-preceding video frames and depending on a temporal high-pass filter.

Apparatus and method for improved video quality assessment

In transform coefficient coding, predetermined sets of transforms may be used. Embodiments of the present invention provide an encoder and a decoder for encoding a picture into/from a data stream using block-based prediction and block-based residual coding, the encoder and decoder supporting a set of transforms for the block-based residual coding. The encoder and decoder are configured to determine a transform candidate list of transforms for a current residual block out of the set of transforms based on a height and a width of the current residual block, and to encode/decode a prediction residual within the residual block using one selected transform out of the selectable list of transforms and selectively signal/derive the selected transform in/from the data stream.

Determination of set of candidate transforms for video encoding

Coding quantization parameter variation or adaptation is made more effective by basing the determination of a coding quantization parameter for a predetermined block of the picture on a dispersion of a statistical sample value distribution of a high-pass filtered version of the predetermined block. The usage of the high-pass filtered version of the predetermined block as a basis for the determination of the dispersion instead of using, for instance, the un-filtered or original version of the predetermined block assists in a better adaptation of the resulting coding quantization parameter variation across the picture to the human visual system. Alternatively or additionally, coding quantization parameter variation or adaptation across a picture is made more efficient by a control of coding quantization parameter variation/adaptation across a picture in a manner dependent on a prediction of the actual dispersion. In order to improve the coding efficiency in encoding a picture into a data stream, a comparison between a first coding quantization parameter assigned to a predetermined block of the picture and a threshold which depends on a mean difference of sample values of the predetermined block to sample values' mean value may be performed.

Concept for varying a coding quantization parameter across a picture, coding quantization parameter adjustment, and coding quantization parameter adaptation of a multi-channel picture

Examples are provided for apparatus and methods for video encoding and decoding. An encoder apparatus for encoding a picture into a data stream is configured to: subject a transform of a block of the picture to quantization to obtain a quantized transform; determine a zero-quantized portion of the quantized transform; determine at least one noise parameter providing noise information on the transform within the zero-quantized portion; signal the quantized transform and the at least one parameter.

Spectrally adaptive noise filling tool (SANFT) for perceptual transform coding of still and moving images

A proposed intermediate way of handling the renderable portion of the first view results in more efficient coding. Instead of omitting the coding of the renderable portion completely, even more efficient coding of multi-view signals entails merely suppressing the coding of the residual signal within the renderable portion, whereas the prediction parameter coding still takes place from the non-renderable portion of the multi-view signal across the renderable portion so that prediction parameters for the renderable portion may be exploited for predicting parameters for the non-renderable portion. The additional coding rate for transmitting the prediction parameters for the renderable portion may be kept low as this merely aims at forming a continuation of the parameter history across the renderable portion to serve as a basis for prediction parameters of other portions of the multi-view signal. Expressed differently, the prediction parameters for the renderable portion need not perfectly predict the texture within the renderable portion of the first view to keep the residual signal within the renderable portion low.

Actually rendered portions of a renderable portion of a first view of a multi-view signal are introduced into a prediction loop of a multi-view encoder to form a reference signal for the block-based prediction of the encoder's view predictor may improve the prediction and thereby increasing the coding efficiency. The introduction may be performed by completely inserting the renderable portion into the prediction loop to form new reference pictures with their own reference picture indices in addition to reference pictures obtained by the reconstructed version of the multi-view signal of the block-based prediction. Alternatively, the actually rendered portion may be introduced into the prediction loop completely, but with replacing the normal prediction reference signal, i.e. the normally reconstructed signal as obtained by block-based prediction. Alternatively, it may be signaled within the data stream which portions of the renderable portion are used to replace respective portions in the normally reconstructed signal.

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Berlin, Germany

Sebastian Bosse