采用联合特征的H.266/VVC屏幕内容快速模式选择算法

新一代视频编码标准H.266/VCC针对屏幕内容编码引入帧内块复制、调色板等预测模式,在提高编码效率的同时也带来了巨大的计算复杂度。本文采用角点、水平/垂直活动度和平均颜色亮度差联合特征对屏幕内容视频帧和当前编码单元（Coding Unit, CU）进行分类,将视频帧分为低对比度屏幕视频帧和高对比度屏幕视频帧,将CU细分为自然内容背景CU、屏幕内容背景CU和屏幕内容前景CU,进而对CU模式进行选择性跳过,减少模式选择代价。实验结果显示,在全帧内的条件下,该算法与开启IBC和PLT的H.266/VVC VTM-7.3标准相比,在码率仅增加1.21%的情况下节省了26.41%的编码时间,降低了编码复杂度。      

Fast CU size and prediction mode decision method for HEVC encoder based on spatial features

In the high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard, intra prediction has higher computational complexity compared with H.264/AVC (advanced video coding) because of increasing the number of intra prediction modes and also higher number of coding unit (CU) sizes. The HEVC encoder evaluates 35 prediction modes on five possible prediction unit (PU) sizes to find the one with the minimum rate–distortion cost. Although this approach improves coding efficiency, it is very time-consuming. In this paper, we propose a fast intra prediction method to reduce the complexity of I-frame coding. The proposed method consists of three stages which is based on smoothness spatial feature. In the first stage, a measure is introduced to estimate CU smoothness by using sum of absolute differences (SAD) among CU pixels in four directions. By considering that a smooth region can be predicted with larger CUs, when the measured smoothness parameter is lower than a predefined threshold, only the prediction modes in the current CU are evaluated. In the second stage, the number of intra prediction modes is reduced based on the calculated SADs in the previous stage. In the last stage, if the first three candidate modes resulted from rough mode decision stage in the previous PU and the current PU are similar, then the best mode prediction of the previous PU is selected as the best candidate mode. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can reduce the coding time on average to 43 % and maintain coding video quality, whereas bitrate increases negligibly (0.5 %).     

基于结构张量的H.266帧内预测快速算法

新一代视频编码标准H.266将帧内预测模式从35种扩展到67种,提高预测准确率的同时大大增加了编码的计算复杂度。本文根据视频内容纹理方向和帧内预测模式选择相关性强的特点提出了一种基于结构张量的H.266帧内预测模式快速选择算法,以编码单元CU为单位,计算其结构张量矩阵,再依据结构张量奇异值分解后得到的特征向量来确定当前CU的纹理方向,缩小候选模式的选择范围,减少进行代价计算的模式数量。实验结果表明,在全I帧条件下,该算法相较于H.266 VTM-7.3标准平台在节省17.28%编码时间的同时只增加1.12%的码率,有效地降低了编码复杂度。      

基于多参考帧的平行立体视频视间编码的实现

Side-by-Side(SbS)是立体视频常用的格式。传统的视频编码方法利用帧内预测或帧间预测对视频进行压缩编码。基于H.264视频压缩编码标准,针对SbS格式的立体视频提出了一种基于多参考帧方式的视间预测编码方法,并在JM测试代码基础上将其实现。实验结果表明,加入视间预测编码后,以很小的PSNR损失为代价,使得SbS视频的压缩效率提高了大约10%～20%。     

Mode decision acceleration for scalable video coding through coded block pattern

This paper presents a fast mode decision to accelerate the encoding process of scalable video coding (SVC) through coded block pattern (CBP) analysis. CBP contains residual information of each macroblock (MB) and provide cues for mode prediction in encoding process. The proposed algorithm makes use of the existing mode information in base layer (BL), enhancement layer (EL) and CBP to remove invalid modes for the mode prediction of the current MB in EL coding. Also, the EL’s modes in the highest temporal level of a group of picture are determined by high correlation exists in adjacent frames. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm saves an average of 68% of EL motion estimation time with minor degradation in PSNR and with few bitrate increase of SVC quality and spatial scalabilities when compared to JSVM 9.19.14. Our algorithm outperforms the best-known method by 17% EL motion estimation time saving in average.     

一种基于多参考帧的平行立体视频视间编码实现方法

Side-by-Side（SbS）是立体视频常用的格式。传统的视频编码方法利用帧内预测或帧间预测对视频进行压缩编码。本文基于H.264视频压缩编码标准,针对SbS格式的立体视频提出了一种基于多参考帧方式的视间预测编码方法,并在JM测试代码基础上将其实现。实验结果表明,加入视间预测编码后,以很小的PSNR损失为代价,使得SbS视频的压缩效率提高了大约10%至20%。     

基于机器学习的HEVC帧内模式快速决策算法

针对高效视频编码(HEVC)计算复杂度过高的情况, 提出了一种基于机器学习的帧内快速决策算法。根据图像内容的平滑 程度将PU划分成3类,对具有一定平滑度的预测单元(PU)不需要遍历完所有的帧内预测模式 ,从而有效降低算法的计算复杂度。首 先,计算各个PU的左边参考像素方差、上边参考像素方差和总参考像素的方差,以及各个P U采用的最优的帧内预测模式, 这些方差反映了参考像素的平滑程度;然后,利用机器学习软件Weka对得到的数据进行分类 处理,得到分类决策树; 最后,根据决策树来判定各个PU需要测试的帧内模式,再对各个PU 遍历这些帧内模式,确 定最优的模式,减少不必要 预测,从而降低编码复杂度。实验结果表明,本文算法相对于标准的HEVC 15.0编码算法,在高码率的情况下,编码时间平 均节省约16.18%,BD-rate平均升高约0.25%,BD-PSNR平均降低约0.02 dB;在低码率的情况下,编码时 间平均节省约20.75%,BD-rate平均升高 约0.04%,BD-PSNR平均降低约0.00dB。     

Privacy region protection for H.264/AVC with enhanced scrambling effect and a low bitrate overhead

While video surveillance systems have become ubiquitous in our daily lives, they have introduced concerns over privacy invasion. Recent research to address these privacy issues includes a focus on privacy region protection, whereby existing video scrambling techniques are applied to specific regions of interest (ROI) in a video while the background is left unchanged. Most previous work in this area has only focussed on encrypting the sign bits of nonzero coefficients in the privacy region, which produces a relatively weak scrambling effect. In this paper, to enhance the scrambling effect for privacy protection, it is proposed to encrypt the intra prediction modes (IPM) in addition to the sign bits of nonzero coefficients (SNC) within the privacy region. A major issue with utilising encryption of IPM is that drift error is introduced outside the region of interest. Therefore, a re-encoding method, which is integrated with the encryption of IPM, is also proposed to remove drift error. Compared with a previous technique that uses encryption of IPM, the proposed re-encoding method offers savings in the bitrate overhead while completely removing the drift error. Experimental results and analysis based on H.264/AVC were carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods. In addition, a spiral binary mask mechanism is proposed that can reduce the bitrate overhead incurred by flagging the position of the privacy region. A definition of the syntax structure for the spiral binary mask is given. As a result of the proposed techniques, the privacy regions in a video sequence can be effectively protected by the enhanced scrambling effect with no drift error and a lower bitrate overhead.     

自适应阈值的快速运动估计算法

分析了视频序列运动场的基本特征,利用运动和匹配误差两种相关性,提出自适应阈值的快速运动估计算法(AT-FME),随编码对象的内容和运动情况自适应地调整阈值和搜索模式.实验结果表明,在匹配质量和码率相同情况下,AT-FME可比UMHexagonS节省62%的运算量,是提高视频压缩编码效率的有效方法.     

Fast Interframe mode decision algorithm based on mode mapping and MB activity for MPEG-2 to H.264/AVC transcoding

Recently the latest video coding standard H.264/AVC is widely used for the mobile and low bitrate video codec in the various multimedia terminals. On the other hand, the MPEG-2 MP@HL codec has become the center of digital video contents since it is the standard codec for the Digital TV (DTV). To provide the bridge between the contents in MPEG-2 and mobile terminals, the transcoding of MPEG-2 contents into H.264/AVC format is an inevitable technology in the digital video market. The main bottleneck in the process lies in the computational complexity. In H.264/AVC, the variable block size (VBS) mode decision (MD) is used in the Interframe for the improved performance in the motion compensated prediction. For the macroblock (MB) which cannot be accurately predicted with one motion vector (MV), it is partitioned into smaller blocks and predicted with different MVs. In addition, SKIP and Intra modes are also permitted in the Interframe MD of H.264/AVC to further ameliorate the encoding performance. With the VBS MD technology, the Inter prediction accuracy can be improved significantly. However, the incidental side-effect is the high computational complexity. In this paper, we propose a fast Interframe MD algorithm for MPEG-2 to H.264/AVC transcoding. The relationships between SKIP and Intra modes are detected at first to map these two kinds of modes directly from MPEG-2 to H.264/AVC. And then the MB activity will be scaled by the residual DCT energy obtained from the MPEG-2 decoding process to estimate the block sizes of the MB mode for H.264/AVC Interframe MD. In our proposed method, the original redundant candidate modes can be eliminated effectively, resulting in the reduction of the computational complexity. It can reduce about 85% Rate-to-Distortion Cost (RDCost) computing and 45% entire processing time compared with the well-known cascaded transcoder while maintaining the video quality.     

An efficient motion vector coding scheme based on minimum bitrateprediction

Motion vector coding efficiency is becoming an important issue in low bitrate video coding because of its increasing relative bit portion. This work presents a new motion vector coding technique based on minimum bitrate prediction. In the proposed scheme, a predicted motion vector is chosen from the three causal neighboring motion vectors so that it can produce a minimum bitrate in motion vector difference coding. Then the prediction error, or motion vector difference (MVD), and the mode information (MODE) for determining the predicted motion vector at a decoder are coded and transmitted in order. Sending bits for the MVD ahead of bits for the MODE, the scheme can minimize the bit amount for the MODE by taking advantage of the fact that the minimum bitrate predictor is used for motion vector prediction. Adaptively combining this minimum bitrate prediction scheme with the conventional model-based prediction scheme, more efficient motion vector coding can be achieved. The proposed scheme improves the coding efficiency noticeably for various video sequences.     

H.264/AVC中基于全零块检测的运动估计快速算法

全零块检测是面向低比特率的视频编码器常用优化方法之一.特别是与运动估计相结合,可以有效的减少编码器的计算复杂性.本文根据H.264/AVC中整数变换的特点,给出了相应的全零块检测门限,提出了一种基于全零块检测的运动搜索提前中止准则.针对H.264/AVC多编码模式的特点,进一步将全零块检测用于H.264/AVC中多种编码模式的选择,有效的提高了运动估计的效率.利用这种方法,在有效减少编码器的计算复杂性,提高H.264/AVC软件编码器编码效率的同时,可以保持比特率和图像质量基本不变.     

Depth-based direct mode for multiview video coding

Multiview video plus depth sequence is considered as an efficient 3D video format for supporting advanced stereoscopic and auto-stereoscopic multiview displays. In order to encode this video format, several modes are commonly employed with rate distortion optimization technique. Specifically, direct mode is an efficient mode to encode homogeneous or stationary regions without encoding any additional motion information. However, in the format, the conventional direct mode causes inaccuracy of motion parameters, i.e., a motion vector and a reference index. Thus, we propose a new method for deriving motion parameters of direct mode, which settles the inaccuracy problem, based on depth information and priority of neighboring blocks determined by their relative position. The proposed direct mode achieves an improvement in coding performance when compared with two state-of-the-art direct modes for multiview video coding. The experimental results show that the proposed method yields average bitrate savings of 4.6%, up to 13.7% in terms of the Bjontegaard Delta metric.     

Intra‐Mixture Prediction Mode and Enhanced Most Probable Mode Estimation for Intra Coding

We present intra‐mixture prediction (IMP) mode for intra prediction and an enhanced estimation method for most probable mode (MPM). IMP mode supports more flexibility in intra prediction by mixing 4…4 blocks and 8…8 blocks in one macroblock, while the enhanced MPM estimation extends the number of referenced neighboring blocks and efficiently uses their prediction modes depending on their positions. Simulation results show that the combination of both proposed methods provides a bit reduction in the Bjøntegaard delta bitrate by an average of 2.56% compared to H.264/AVC.     

基于块参考像素特征的快速帧内预测模式选择新算法

帧内预测是H.264采用的一种编码新技术。与以前的编码标准相比,H.264编码性能有了很大的提高,但同时编码复杂度和计算量也明显增加。该文研究了提高H.264编码速度的途径,着重分析了帧内预测模式快速选择的问题。经过分析发现,4×4亮度块的参考像素亮度值通常具有相似性,对应地,4×4亮度块的9种预测模式所得的预测结果也是相近的。根据4×4亮度块参考像素的这一特征,该文提出了一种基于4×4亮度块参考像素特征的快速帧内预测模式选择算法。实验结果说明了该文算法的有效性,与H.264编码器JM92相比,该算法的计算量减少了46%,而编码质量、PSNR和输出码率保持基本不变。     

基于模式分组的帧内预测模式快速选择算法

针对高效率视频编码(HEVC)帧内预测中增加的预测模式引起的的粗选择模式(RMD)与率失真优化(RDO)算法计算复杂度高的问题。本文充分利用候选模式集中排列第一的预测模式与最优预测模式之间的强相关性,提出了一种基于模式分组的帧内预测模式快速选择算法,有效的降低了HEVC帧内预测算法的计算复杂度。实验表明本文所提出的算法与HEVC的测试模型HM10.0相比,在保证视频质量和码率基本不变的前提下(码率仅增加了0.78%,Y-PSNR只降低了0.12dB),减少了41.8％的编码时间,提高了编码效率。     

3D-HEVC合并模式快速判决方法研究

基于高效视频编码的3D视频编码（3D-HEVC）是目前正在研究的新一代3D视频编码标准。为降低3D-HEVC中模式选择的计算复杂度,根据非独立视点纹理图中合并模式采用率高的特点,该文提出了一种3D-HEVC合并模式快速判决方法。在B帧中,分析了当前编码单元（CU）与视点方向参考帧中参考块间编码模式的相关性;在P帧中,分析了位于相邻划分深度的CU间编码模式的相关性。根据分析的视点间和划分深度间的相关性设计快速判决条件,预判采用合并/合并-跳过模式编码的CU,判别出的CU在模式选择过程中只检查相关的候选预测模式,从而降低计算复杂度。实验结果表明,与3D-HEVC原始算法相比,该文算法能够在率失真性能损失很小的前提下,平均节省11.2%的总编码时间和25.4%的非独立视点纹理图的编码时间。      

采用率失真与模式特征的多视点视频编码快速模式选择

现有的多视点视频编码使用了分层B帧（Hierarchical B Picture, HBP）的预测结构,其帧内预测、帧间预测以及视点间预测的模式选择给多视点视频编码带来了庞大的计算复杂度。针对这一问题,我们在分析了JMVC模式分布比例的基础上,提出了一个快速帧间模式选择的算法。这种算法利用率失真代价和预测模式特征之间的关系来及时判定最优模式:如果上一尺寸预测模式的率失真代价小于当前尺寸预测模式的率失真代价则认为上一预测模式为最优模式,跳过检查其他更小尺寸的预测模式;反之,如果上一尺寸的预测模式的率失真代价大于当前尺寸的预测模式的率失真代价,则继续检查其他更小的尺寸。这样,通过提前终止一些不必要的模式选择过程,多视点视频编码的计算量得到大幅的降低。实验结果表明:所提算法能在保持JMVC中全搜索算法的编码效率同时,使计算复杂度减少了81.66%。      

一种低复杂度的HEVC帧内快速编码算法

为了降低高效视频编码(HEVC)帧内编码复杂度,提出一种HEVC帧内快速编码算法。根据视频图像的纹理复杂性,提前跳过或者中止部分尺寸的编码单元(CU)的划分,减少CU深度遍历区间;同时,根据粗选过程后预测模式和代价值的统计特性采用阈值法或者梯度模式直方图法进一步筛选掉粗选后可能性较小的预测模式,从而减少最后进行率失真(RD)代价计算的帧内预测模式数量,进一步降低编码复杂度。实验结果表明,本文算法与HEVC原始平台相比,在全I帧编码模式下编码时间平均减少42.20%,码率(BR)上升约1.75%,峰值信噪比(PSNR)降低了0.108dB,有利于实时应用。     

Fast Depth Video Coding Method Using Adaptive Edge Classification

In this paper, we propose a fast-mode decision algorithm for both intra and inter prediction in depth videos. The proposed algorithm can reduce the computational complexity of the depth video coding. According to the depth variation, depth video can be classified into depth-continuity and depth-discontinuity regions. From experiments, we determine a threshold value for classifying these regions. Since the depth-continuity region has an imbalance in the mode distribution, we limit the mode candidates to reduce the complexity of the mode decision process. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm reduces the encoding time by up to 78 % and 97 % for the intra and inter frames, respectively, compared to JMVC 8.3, with negligible PSNR loss and bitrate increase.