Video Coding Using Temporally Coherent Dynamic Range Mapping
Description
The present application is concerned with video coding such as for use with HDR
sequences.
So far, most image and video coding applications can cover only a luminance range of
about 2 orders of magnitude (low dynamic range (LDR)) [1]. However, the human visual
system (HVS) allows us to adapt to light conditions that can cover a range of more than ten
orders of magnitude and to perceive about five orders of magnitude simultaneously [2].
With an increasing number of applications that can profit from a representation of the full
HDR luminance (e.g., CGI, special effects productions, HDR displays), there will be an
increasing demand in HDR video coding methods. Using a standard coding method, like
H.264/AVC, will allow for a seamless transition from LDR towards HDR video coding
without much additional effort. Note that the term HDR refers to the representation of real
luminance values throughout this work and not to a tone-mapped LDR representation,
what is sometimes called HDRI.
Since the most natural representation of HDR data, floating-point numbers, does not result
in a good compression and is also costly to handle, several authors proposed a suitable
mapping from floating-point luminance values to integer luma values [3, 4, 5, 6]. These
luminance-to-luma mappings have in common that the associated loss in precision is below
the tolerance of the HVS and no distortion is therefore perceived. They further have in
common, that they apply a conversion of the HDR image data to the CIELUV color space
[1] before further processing. That is, the data is represented by a luminance component Y
and the chromacity components (u', v'). The advantage of the (u' ') color representation is
that it is perceptually uniform. That is, equal offsets in this representation represent equal
perceptual color differences and therefore they can be linearly mapped to integer values
with a bit depth of, e.g, 8 bit. Such a mapping from the perceivable (u', v') interval [0,
0.62] to integer values in the range [0, 255] introduces a maximum absolute quantization
error of 0.00172 which is well below the visible threshold.
Since the HVS obeys to the Weber-Fechner law, for a large luminance range, in most
works a logarithmic mapping of the luminance Y to luma code values is performed [3, 5,
6]. This results in a constant relative quantization error leading to a perceptually uniform
representation of the luminance. E.g., in [3] Larson proposed the following luminance-toluma
mapping (LogLuv transform):
= L256(log2 Y) + 64) 7 = 2
(1)
It maps the real-valued luminances in the interval [5.44 c 10~20, 1.84 c 10 19] to 15 bit
integer luma values in the range [0, 215 - 1] and vice versa. That is, about 38 orders of
luminance magnitude are represented with a relative step size of 0.27%. This is well below
the visible quantization threshold of about 1% [1].
However, the dynamic range covered by such a mapping is far beyond the range of what
the HVS can simultaneously perceive. Furthermore, there exists no natural image data that
spans such high dynamic ranges. Whereas for lossless image compression of data that can
undergo further image processing steps this extremely high range and fidelity might be
useful, for lossy video encoding that is intended for being watched by human observers, it
is not. Consequently, there is no need to reserve bits to represent luminance values that are
not perceivable or that do not occur in the source image or video frame. Since this would
degrade the compression efficiency, e.g., in HDR still image coding with the TIFF library
[3], a scaling factor can be used to scale the source image to an appropriate range before
the LogLuv transform. In a similar LogLuv approach [6], scaling has been applied to each
individual frame of a video sequence in order to exploit the full range of possible luma
code values for a given bit depth.
However, like many HDR video coding methods, the latter is just a straightforward
extension of HDR image coding to individual video frames. Therefore, the approach lacks
some video specific aspects what significantly degrades the compression efficiency. Most
notably, mapping the luminance values of successive frames to different code values with
an individual scaling significantly harms the temporal coherence of the sequence.
Consequently the temporal motion compensated prediction in the H.264/AVC video coder
mostly fails.
Naturally, this is also true for other temporally predicting coders and also for sample
values other than luminance values.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a coding concept allowing for a
more efficient co-use of dynamic range mapping on the one hand and temporal prediction
on the other hand.
This object is achieved by the subject matter of the independent claims.
A basic idea underlying the present invention is that a more efficient co-use of dynamic
range mapping on the one hand and temporal prediction on the other hand such as, for
example, in order to code HDR frame sequences, may be achieved by exploiting the
concept of weighted prediction in order to transition the mapping parameter from the
reference frame to the currently temporally predicted frame. By this measure, the temporal
prediction does not fail and despite the frame-wise variation in the dynamic range
mapping, encoding efficiency is, thus, maintained. As a favorable side aspect, weighted
temporal prediction is already within the capabilities of existing video coding stages such
as, for example, the H.264/AVC.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below. In
particular,
Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of a video encoder according to an embodiment;
Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of a video encoding stage of Fig. 1 according to an
embodiment;
Fig. 3 shows a block diagram of a video decoder according to an embodiment;
Fig. 4 shows a block diagram of a video decoding stage according to an
embodiment;
Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram illustrating a portion of a data stream generated
by the video encoder of Fig. 1 and decoded by the video decoder of Fig. 3 in
accordance with an embodiment;
Fig. 6 shows a graph with an exemplary adaptive logarithmic luminancemapping
with different ranges for different frames; and
Fig. 7 shows coding results for three cases, namely using the temporal coherent
mapping according to the embodiment described with respect to the figures,
using frame-wise adaptation without obeying temporal coherence, and using
constant mapping, for different video pieces (left, middle, right), and using
different measures for the quality degradations (upper and lower row).
Before the embodiments of the present invention are described in more detail below with
respect to the figures, it should be noted that equal elements occurring within different
ones of these figures, are indicated using equal reference signs, and accordingly, a
description of these elements with respect to one figure is also applicable with respect to
another figure as long as the specific details brought forward with respect to the latter do
not teach to the contrary.
Fig. 1 shows a video encoder 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The
video encoder 10 is configured to encode a first sequence 1 of frames 14 the sample value
16 of which are represented in a first format covering a first dynamic range. For example,
the frame sequence 12 may be a video such as an HDR video, and the sample values 16
may represent a spatial sampling of the luminance distribution of the individual frames 14.
The first format in which the sample values 16 are represented may be a floating point
format. Detailed examples will be outlined below. However, it should be noted that the
type of information spatially sampled by the sample values 16 is not restricted to
luminance. Rather, other types of information could be the object of the sample values 16
instead. For example, frames 14 could represent depth maps, and accordingly, the sequence
12 could represent a temporal sampling of a depth map of a certain scene or the like.
The video encoder 10 comprises a sample value converter 18, a video encoding stage 20
and a parameter setter 22. Sample value converter 18 and video encoding stage 20 are
connected between an input 24 and an output 26 of video encoder 10 wherein the input 24
is configured to receive frame sequence 12 while output 26 is for outputting the data
stream resulting from encoding sequence 12 by video encoder 10. Parameter setter 22 has
an input connected to input 24 and outputs connected to parameter inputs of sample value
converter 18 and video encoding stage 20, respectively. As indicated by a dashed line 28,
parameter setter 22 may also output side information contributing to the data stream 26 as
will be outlined in more detail further below.
The sample value converter 18 is configured to convert the sample values 16 of the frames
14 of the first sequence 12 from the first format into a second format having a second
dynamic range lower than the first dynamic range. Thus, sample value converter 18
forwards to the video encoding stage 20 a second sequence 30 of frames 32 which
completely corresponds to sequence 12 except for the sample values 16 having been
converted from the first format into the second format. Accordingly, each frame 32
corresponds to a respective frame 14 of sequence 12, with frames 32 being arranged within
sequence 30 in the same order as the corresponding frames 14 within sequence 12.
The second format may be, for example, an integer format in which, for example, the
sample values 34 of frames 32 are represented in, for example, PCM coded form using a
binary code. For example, the sample values 34 may be represented by n bits with n, for
example, being equal to 8, 9 or 10. In case of eight bits, for example, the second format
would, thus, merely cover a sample value range of about two orders of magnitude (10 28),
and in case of ten bits, for example, the second format would, thus, merely cover a sample
value range of about three orders of magnitude (10 210) . Compared thereto, the first
format by way of which the sample values 16 are represented, covers a greater, or even far
greater dynamic range. As mentioned above, and in accordance with the more detailed
embodiments outlined below, the first format may be a floating-point format. However, it
should be noted that the first format could also be an integer format with using, however,
more bits than the second format.
In order to convert the sample values of the frames 14 of the first sequence 1 from the
first format into the second format, sample value converter 18 uses a mapping function 36
which maps a portion 38 out of the first dynamic range 40 to the second dynamic range 42.
In particular, the sample value converter 18 is configured such that the portion 38 which
the mapping function 36 maps to the dynamic range 42 corresponding to the second
format, is settable by a mapping parameter 44 which is set by parameter setter 22 as will be
outlined in more detail below, on a frame-wise basis. In the specific embodiments outlined
in more detail below, the mapping function 36 represents a linear mapping function
between the first dynamic range 40 in logarithmic domain to the second dynamic range in
linear domain. However, other strictly monotonic functions may also be used instead of
this type of function. As will become clearer from the further description below, portion 38
is set by parameter setter 22 on a frame-by-frame basis so as to capture substantially all
information contained within the respective frame 14 in the first format. Briefly spoken,
parameter setter 22 seeks to position and dimension - or scale - portion 38 within the first
dynamic range 40 such that all perceptually relevant samples within the respective frame
14 have their sample value 16 within that portion 38 so that all these sample values are
correctly mapped - without being clipped - to the second dynamic range of the second
format 42. An exemplary distribution 44 of sample values 16 within a current frame is
exemplarily shown in Fig. 1. In the example of Fig. 1, this distribution is completely
contained within portion 38. As will be outlined in more detail below, the distribution 44
may merely represent the distribution of sample values 16 within a certain part of frame 14
such as a center portion thereof as such a center portion is most likely to contain the most
important portion in the scene of a video content.
As is obviously clear, the distribution of sample values 6 within the first dynamic range
40 may change from frame to frame, and accordingly, Fig. 1 shows with dotted lines 46
exemplarily a distribution of another frame 14 within sequence 12. As exemplarily shown
in Fig. 1, this distribution 46 may, for example, be displaced relative to and/or be narrower
than distribution 44 of the current frame. Accordingly, parameter setter 22 may have set
the mapping parameter 44 for the frame with sample value distribution 46 differently from
the mapping parameter 45 defining portion 48. For example, sample value distribution 46
may set the mapping parameter for these frames such that portion 48 approximates a
portion of the first dynamic range 40 occupied by distribution 46, i.e., such that portion 48
is as small as possible but still covers the range of distribution 46, with the same applying
to portion 38 with respect to distribution 44.
Thus, sequence 30 substantially corresponds to sequence 12 with the sample values,
however, being represented in another format. Viewing sequence 30, however, would
result in an unpleasant impression as the sample values 34 of one frame within sequence
30 would be defined with respect to another luminance portion than sample values 34
within another frame of the same sequence. For example, the afore-mentioned frames of
sequence 12 would have the sample values 16 mapped to sample values 34 residing within
portions 38 and 48, respectively. Thus, a sample value 34 of, for example, one in one
frame would very likely correspond to another actual luminance value than a sample value
of one within a different frame of sequence 30. Without additional measures, video
encoding stage 20 would, thus, not be able to perform a usual temporal prediction using,
for example, motion-compensated prediction as the necessary motion vector search would
most likely not be successful.
In particular, video encoding stage 20 is configured to encode the second sequence 30 of
frames 32 by weighted temporal prediction of a first frame of the second sequence 30
using a second frame of the second sequence 30 or a reconstructed version of the second
frame of the second sequence 30, weighted by a weighting parameter and offset by an
offset parameter, as a reference. In other words, video encoding stage 20 may temporally
predict a current frame 32 of sequence 30 by motion-compensated prediction and with
using another, previously encoded frame 32 of sequence 30 as a reference. The motioncompensated
prediction may be performed on a block-by-block basis. Motion prediction
data such as motion vectors and reference frame index are inserted into the data stream as
side information, along with the weighting/offset parameters mentioned below. Each
temporally predicted block may have associated therewith a motion vector which video
encoding stage 20 determines by determining a best match of the content of the current
block of the current frame 32 within the reference, i.e. the reference frame weighted and
sample-value-offset by parameters 50, with trying various displacements (motion-vectors)
relative to the position corresponding to the position of the block in the current frame. In
order to restrict the search overhead, video encoding stage 20 restricts the search to some
search range.
As will become clearer below, due to the fact that video encoding stage 20 uses weighted
temporal prediction, it is possible for parameter setter 22 to adapt the reference frame to
the current frame with respect to the difference in the associated mapping portion 48 and
38, respectively.
In particular, parameter setter 22 sets the weighting parameter and the offset parameter,
illustrated together in Fig. 1 by arrow 50, depending on the mapping parameter 45 for the
reference frame, with the mapping parameter for the reference frame being related to the
mapping parameter for the current frame via the weighting parameter and the offset
parameter 50 as will be outlined in more detail below. In other words, the parameter setter
22 is responsible for setting both, weighting parameter and offset parameter 50 for the
current frame on the one hand, and the mapping parameter 45 for the current frame on the
other hand. However, parameter setter 22 is not free to set the weighting and offset
parameters 50 independently from setting mapping parameter 45 for the current frame.
Rather, both settings are related to each other in a, for example, uniquely defined way.
Accordingly, in fact, parameter setter 22 sets the weighting and offset parameters 0 and
the mapping parameter 45 concurrently and, in particular, such that the weighting/offset
parameters 50 displace and scale the dimension of portion 48 of the reference frame such
that the interval resulting from this displacement and scaling yields a portion 38 for the
current frame which is suitable for capturing the perceptually relevant portion of
distribution 44 as discussed above. The weighting/offset parameters 50 displace and scale
the dimension of portion 48 of the reference frame by way of their application to the
reference frame: The weighting/offset parameters 50 map all possible values within portion
48 onto values together spanning a range which defines portion 38.
Before describing the functionality of the video encoder of Fig. 1 in accordance with
specific embodiments in more detail below, an embodiment for an implementation of the
video encoding stage 20 is described with respect to Fig. 2. In accordance with the
embodiment of Fig. 2, the video encoding stage 20 comprises a residual coder 60, an
entropy encoder 62, a residual reconstructor 64, a temporal predictor 66, a subtracter 68, an
adder 70, a further adder 72, and a weighter or multiplier 74. Subtracter 68, residual coder
60 and entropy encoder 62 are connected, in the order mentioned, between an input 76 of
video encoding stage 20, which, in turn, is connected to an output of sample value
converter 18, and an output 78 of video encoding stage 20 which, in turn, is connected to
output 26 of video encoder 10. Residual reconstructor 64 has an input connected to the
output of residual coder 60. A first input of adder 70 is connected to an output of residual
reconstructor 64. Multiplier 74, adder 72 and temporal predictor 66 form a loop and are
serially connected, in the order mentioned, between an output of adder 70 and a further
input thereof. Concurrently, the serial connection of multiplier 74, adder 72 and temporal
predictor 66 is connected to a further, subtractive input of subtracter 68. The values applied
to the further inputs of adder 72 and multiplier 74, respectively, are determined by
weighting an offset parameters 50 entering at a parameter input 80 of video encoding stage
20.
In operation, a current frame enters input 76 while a temporal prediction of the current
frame is applied at the subtractive input of subtracter 68. The prediction residual 82
resulting from subtracting the temporal prediction 84 from the current frame is coded by
residual coder 60. Residual coder 60 may, for example, subject residual signal 82 to a
transform, such as a spectrally decomposing transform, wherein residual coder 60 may
perform this transform on a block-by-block basis. Additionally or alternatively, residual
coder 60 may apply a quantization onto residual signal 82 to reduce the information
content contained within the prediction residual 82 to be encoded into the data stream.
Residual coder 60 may use a quantizer step-size parameter as parameter for the
quantization which may additionally be changeable from frame to frame as is illustratively
shown by the dashed arrow 86. At the output of residual coder 60, thus, a lossy coded
version 88 of the prediction residual is obtained. Same is coded into the data stream at
output 78 by entropy encoder 62 in a lossless way.
Residual reconstructor 64 recovers a reconstructed version 90 of the prediction residual at
its output connected to a first input of adder 70. At the other input of adder 70, the result of
the temporal prediction 84 for the current frame enters, and accordingly, adder 70
combines reconstructed residual 90 and temporal prediction 84 to yield a reconstructed
version of the current frame forming the basis of the temporal prediction for the next
frame. As will be outlined in more detail below, multiplier 74 multiplies or scales each
sample value of reconstructed version 70 depending on a weighting parameter ( w ,
logWD), and adder 72 adds an offset depending on the offset parameter o to each thus
scaled sample value. By this measure, the sample values of the reconstructed version 70
are displaced to a corresponding luminance position within portion 38 of the current frame
to be temporally predicted next. Accordingly, at the output of adder 72, a weighted and
offset reference frame 92 results, based on which temporal predictor 66 performs the
temporal prediction using, for example, motion prediction. For example, temporal
predictor 66 uses for a certain block of the current frame, a potentially interpolated and
displaced (according to a motion-vector) portion out of reference frame 92 as a prediction
for this block of the current frame currently entering input 76.
Thus, as video encoding stage 20 uses weighted temporal prediction, temporal predictor 66
uses the reconstructed version of a previously encoded frame in a sample-value-weighted
and sample-value-offset from 92 rather than directly, as output by adder 70. Thereby, the
difference in the positioning and dimensioning of portions 38 and 48 between these frames
is balanced. In even other words, the balancing is guaranteed by parameter setter 22 which,
in turn, sets the weighting and offset parameters 50 entering at input 80 appropriately.
Thus, returning to Fig. 1 again, parameter setter 22 may be configured to determine an
occupied portion of the first dynamic range 40 within which the sample values 16 of the
current frame of the first sequence 12 are distributed, with then setting the weighting and
offset parameters 50 such that the portion 38 set by the mapping parameter 55 for the
current frame approximates the occupied portion. In even other words, parameter setter 22
may firstly inspect distribution 44 in order to determine an interesting occupied portion of
the fist dynamic range 40. Then, parameter setter 22 may set the weighting and offset
parameters 50 of the current frame such that the application of these parameters 50 onto
the sample values of the reconstructed version 70 effectively leads to displacement and
scaling of the portion 48 of the frame of which the reconstructed version 70 represents a
reconstruction, to yield a portion 38 approximating the occupied portion defined by
distribution 44.
In this regard, it should be noted that internally, video encoding stage 20 may uses a higher
dynamic range, such as a higher number of bits, in order to represent the scaled and
sample-value-offset reference frame resulting from the application of the weighting and
offset parameters at input 80 onto the reconstruction 70 of the reference frame, i.e. for
reference frame 92, as compared to the dynamic range of sequence 30, so that the
application of these parameters does not lead to any clipping problems. The number of
representation bits may be increased by two, for example.
Thus, in even further detail, parameter setter 22 may be configured to set the offset
parameter according to a deviation between an upper bound, or a deviation between a
lower bound, of the portions 38, 48 set by the mapping parameters for the current and
reference frames, respectively, and set the weighting parameter (logWD, ) according to a
deviation between the length of the portions 38, 48, respectively. In specific embodiments
outlined further below, for example, the sample value converter 18 is configured to convert
the sample values Y of the frames 14 of the first sequence 12 from the first format into the
second format according to
b-(\ogm(Y - a)
wherein b and a are comprised by the mapping parameter 45 and are related to a lower
bound Ϋ m and upper bound max of the portion 38 out of the first dynamic range 40,
Y to Y max, according to
wherein logm is a logarithmic function to a base m, and n is an integer indicating a number
of integer representation bits of the second format. If so, the parameter setter may be
configured to determine an occupied portion of the first dynamic range within which the
sample values 16 of the first frame 14 of the first sequence 1 are distributed, and set the
weighting parameter and the offset parameter such that
under the constraints that
Ymax ./ > Ymax,/ and Ϋmin,/ < Ymin,/
wherein Ymn is a lower bound, and Ymax is an upper bound of the occupied portion.
The precision and range of the weighting and offset parameter might be limited, for
example, by the video coding stage 20, which operates, for example, in accordance with
H.264/AVC. If so, the parameter setter may be configured to determine an occupied
portion of the first dynamic range within which the sample values 16 of the first frame 14
of the first sequence 12 are distributed, and set the weighting parameter and the offset
parameter such that
" -
under the constraints that
max .1
>~
Y
max,/
and Ϋmin,/
< Y
min,/
wherein Ymjn is a lower bound, and Ymax is an upper bound of the occupied portion, n0 is an
integer related to a definition range of , index 1 indexes the current frame of the frame
sequence, index k indexes the reference frame of the frame sequence, and logWD are
comprised by the weighting parameter, and is comprised by the offset parameter. The
admissible precision for and may be integer numbers, the range of wmay be, for
example, limited to - 1 8 < £ 127.
Further, as will also be discussed with respect to the detailed embodiments outlined below,
the video encoding stage 20 and the residual coders 60 may be configured to use a
quantizer step-size parameter in encoding the second sequence 30 of frames 32 and the
parameter setter 22 may be configured to set the quantizer step-size parameter for the
frames 32 of the sequence 30 depending on the length of the respective portion 38, 48, set
for the respective frame. By this measure, it is possible to harmonize the quantization noise
in its temporal variation as it would other wise occur if using a static quantizer step-size
parameter due to the temporal variation of the length of portions 38 and 48, respectively.
The parameter setter 22 may be configured to encode the quantizer step-size parameter into
the data stream differentially to a quantized step-size parameter for a starting frame of the
second sequence such as the I frame of an IPPPPP. .. sequence.
After having described an embodiment for a video encoder, with respect to Fig. 3, a video
decoder 100 in accordance with an embodiment is described below. The video decoder is
for reconstructing a sequence 102 of frames 104 the sample values 106 of which are
represented in a first format covering a first a dynamic range, from a data stream, such as
one generated by the video encoder of Fig. 1. The format in which values 106 are
represented, may be the format underlying sample values 16. However, this is not
mandatory.
The video decoder 100 comprises a video decoding stage 108, a parameter setter 110 and a
sample value reconverter 112. Further, the video decoder 100 comprises an input 114 at
which the afore-mentioned data stream enters video decoder 100, and an output 116 for
outputting sequence 102. Between input 114 and output 116, the video decoding stage 108
and the sample value reconverter 112 are serially connected in the order mentioned.
Parameter setter 110 is connected between input 114 and a parameter input of sample value
reconverter 112.
With respect to Fig. 4 it is shown that the video decoding stage 108 may be implemented
substantially similar to components 64, 70, 74, 72, and 66 of the encoder of Fig. 2. In
particular, video decoding stage 108 may comprise a residual reconstructor 118, an adder
120, a temporal predictor 122, a sealer/multiplier 124 and a further adder 126. Residual
reconstructor 118 and adder 120 may be serially connected between an input 128 of video
decoding stage 108 which, in turn, is connected to input 114, and an output 130 of video
decoding stage which, in turn, is connected to sample value reconverter 112. In form of a
loop, multiplier 124, adder 126 and temporal predictor 122 are serially connected in the
order mentioned between an output of adder 120 and a further input thereof. The values
applied to the further inputs of multiplier 124 and adder 126 are controlled according to the
weighting and offset parameters which the video decoding stage 108 derives from the data
stream entering input 1 8.
Thus, after having described the internal structure of the video decoder 100 and the video
decoding stage 108, respectively, in accordance with an embodiment, their mode of
operation thereof is described in more detail below.
As already mentioned above, the video decoder 100 is for decoding the data stream
generated, for example, by the video encoder of Fig. 1. The data stream has been derived
from sequence 30 in the lower dynamic range format and using the weighting and offset
parameters 50 which the video encoding stage 20 inserted into the data stream as side
information. Accordingly, the video decoder has access to the weighting and offset
parameters 50 used at the encoding side and is able to emulate the reconstruction at the
encoding side using the parameters finally chosen at the encoding side by way of, for
example, some rate/distortion optimization.
In particular, the video decoding stage 108 is configured to reconstruct, from the data
stream entering input 114, the second sequence 30' of frames 32' which corresponds to
sequence 30 of Fig. 1 apart from the coding loss such as the quantization loss introduced
by video encoding stage 20. The sample values 34' of frames 32' are, accordingly, also
represented in the second format covering the second dynamic range 42 which is lower
than the dynamic range of the final reconstructed sequence 102. Just as it was the case with
the video encoding stage 20, the video decoding stage 108 performs the reconstruction by a
weighted temporal prediction of a current frame of the second sequence 30' using a
reference frame of the second sequence 30', weighted by a weighting parameter and offset
by an offset parameter, both comprised by the data stream entering input 114, as a
reference. The parameter setter 110, in turn, is configured to set the mapping parameter
132 for the current frame of the second sequence 30' depending on a mapping parameter
for the reference frame of the second sequence 30', and the weighting parameter and the
offset parameter 50 of the current frame. The sample value reconverter 112, in turn, is
configured to convert the sample values 34' of the frames 32' of the second sequence 30'
from the second format to the first format using a mapping function which is inverse to the
mapping function used by sample value converter 18, which maps the second dynamic
range 42 onto the portion out of the first dynamic range such as 40, which is set by the
mapping parameter for the respective frame of the second sequence.
Imagine, for example, residual reconstructor 118 of video decoding stage 108 currently
reconstructs a residual for a current frame 32', the reconstruction being indicated by 134 in
Fig. 4. Obviously, residual 134 will correspond to the one occurring during encoding at
reference sign 88 in Fig. 2. Adder 120 combines this residual 134 with the temporal
prediction 136 of the current frame as output by temporal predictor 122 so as to achieve the
reconstructed version 138 of the current frame, i.e. frame 32'. Imagine further, that this
reconstructed version 138 serves as a reference frame for a subsequently decoded frame of
frame sequence 30'. Then, the weighting parameter (logWD, w ) and the offset parameter
6 would be contained within the data stream for that subsequently decoded frame, and
accordingly, the sample values 34' of the reference frame 32' would be offset and scaled in
stages 124 and 126 before actually being used as the reference 140 in the temporal
prediction performed by the predictor 122. This mirrors the functionality at the encoding
side. The temporal predictor 122 uses motion vectors contained within the data stream to
obtain the temporal prediction 136 from reference 140. As the dynamic range, or the
number of bits, used for representing reference 140 is higher than the dynamic range of the
original claim sequence 30, the reconstruction of which is to be output at 130 of video
decoding stage 108, potentially clipping effects which could otherwise occur because of
the application of the weighting and offset parameters 50 in stages 124 and 126, are
effectively avoided.
Thus, the sequence 30' output by the video decoding stage 108 represents a reconstruction
of the frame sequence 30 input into the video encoding stage 20 at the encoding side. The
sample value reconverter 112 transfers this sequence 30' into a meaningful sequence 102
by mapping the sample values of frames 32' onto a common format having enough
dynamic range in order to accommodate the dynamic range originally contained in the
original material 12. This format might be the format of the sample values 16 of sequence
12, but may also deviate therefrom. In order to obtain the portion within this common
dynamic range which the sample values 34' of a respective frame 32' cover, the sample
value reconverter 112 sequentially applies the chain of weighting/offset parameters
associated with these frames 32'. In particular, for a current frame, the sample value
reconverter 112 determines this portion, i.e. the position and dimension thereof, by
applying the weighting and offset parameters for the current frame onto the position and
dimension of the portion previously determined for the reference frame of the current
frame. By this measure, the sample value reconverter 112 recovers portions 38 and 48
shown in Fig. 1 sequentially.
Thus, in yet other words, the mapping parameter mentioned above may define a length
Ym k - Y of the portion 38 out of the first dynamic range 40 and a lower bound y k ,
or an upper bound m x , of the portion 38 out of the first dynamic range for the current
frame 32', and the parameter setter 110 may be configured to set this mapping parameter
132 for the current frame of the second sequence 30' by modifying a length a -Y^ j
of the portion 48 out of the first dynamic range 40, defined by the mapping parameter for
the reference frame / of sequence 30', depending on the weighting parameter (logWD, w )
for the current frame k to derive the length Ymm - of the portion 38 defined by the
motion parameter 132 for the current frame k, and by modifying a lower or upper bound
Y mJ of the portion 48 out of the first dynamic range 40, defined by the mapping
parameter for the reference frame / depending on the offset parameter d for the current
frame k, to derive the lower or upper bound i ma ,
s defined by the mapping parameter
132 of the current frame. Accordingly, the parameter setter 110 is steered by the weighting
and offset parameters 50 contained within the data stream entering input 114 to act like
parameter setter 22 controlling video encoding stage 20 and sample value converter 18.
At his moment it should be noted that the parameter setter 110 of Fig. 3 is drawn to be
merely connected to sample value reconverter 112, whereas parameter setter is drawn to
control both the sample value converter and the video encoding stage 20, respectively. The
seeming discrepancy between encoding and decoding site stems from the afore-mentioned
fact that encoder's video encoding stage 20 is not able freely choose the weighting/offset
parameters. Rather, same are prescribed from outside, namely by parameter setter 22
which, in turn, has to take the original signal and it's distribution 44 and 46, respectively,
into account when setting these weighting/offset parameters. Parameter setter 110,
however, is steered by the result of this choice via the side information contained in the
data stream arriving via input 110, and thus, video decoding stage 108 may use the
weighting/offset parameter information contained within the data stream independently
from the parameter setter's evaluation of the same information, namely the
weighting/offset parameter information, and accordingly, no control path leading from the
parameter setter 110 to the video decoding stage 108 is necessary. However, according to
an alternative embodiment, parameter setter 110 assumes responsibility for both settings
and controls video decoding stage 108 accordingly from outside. In the latter case, a
control path would lead from the parameter setter 110 to the video decoding stage 108.
As has already been noted above, the more detailed description of an embodiment outlined
below, will use a logarithmic mapping function between both formats, i.e. a linear mapping
function between the first format a logarithmic domain and a second format a logarithmic
domain. Accordingly, the sample value reconverter 112 may be configured to convert the
sample values Ln 34' of the frames 32'of the second sequence 30' from the second format
into the first format according to
m(L„+s)b^+a
wherein b and a are comprised by the mapping parameter and are related to a lower bound
Ymin and upper bound Ymax of the portion 38 out of the first dynamic range, Ymin to Ymax,
according to
wherein logm is a logarithmic function to a base m, and n is an integer indicating a number
of integer representation bits of the second format.
If so, the parameter setter 112 may be configured to compute a and b such that
g , )
log. 2 - l
n° is an integer related to a definition range of o, index 1indexes the first frame of the
second sequence, index m indexes the second frame of the second sequence, w and logWD
are comprised by the weighting parameter, and 6 is comprised by the offset parameter.
Further, similar to the above description, the video decoding stage 108 may be configured
to use a quantizer step-size parameter in reconstructing the second sequence of frames, and
the parameter setter may be configured to set the quantizer step-size parameter for the
frames of the second sequence depending on a length of the portion out of the first
dynamic range, as set for the respective frames of the second sequence. In this regard, the
parameter setter 110 may be configured to decode the quantized step-size parameter from
the data stream differentially to a quantized step-size parameter for a starting frame of the
second sequence.
As also described above, although the sample values of the frames of the first sequence
have been assumed to be luminance floating-point values, and the sample values of the
frames of the second sequence of luma have been assumed to be integer values, other
possibilities do also exist.
Fig. 5 shows an exemplary portion of a data stream being transmitted from encoding side
to decoding side in accordance with the embodiments outlined above with respect to Figs.
1 to 4. It follows from the above discussion, that the data stream 150 has the first sequence
102 of frames, the sample values of which are represented in a first format covering a first
dynamic range, encoded therein in a reconstructable form. In particular, the first sequence
is encoded into the data stream 150 indirectly via a second sequence 30 of frames 32 the
sample values of which are represented in a second format covering a second dynamic
range 42 lower than the first dynamic range, the second sequence being encoded into the
data stream by a weighted temporal prediction of a first frame of the second sequence 30'
using a second frame of the second sequence 30', weighted by a weighting parameter and
offset by an offset parameter, as a reference, wherein the weighting parameter and the
offset parameter are comprised be the data stream such that a mapping parameter 132 for
the first frame of the second sequence 30' depends on a mapping parameter for the second
frame of the second sequence 30', the weighting parameter and the offset parameter, and
the sample values 34' of the frames 32' of the second sequence is converted from the
second format to the first format using a mapping function which maps the second
dynamic range 42 onto a portion out of the first dynamic range 40 which is set by the
mapping parameter for the respective frame of the second sequence, reconstruct the first
sequence. In other words, data stream may by structured into frame portions 152 each
associated with a respective one of the frames 30' and 104, respectively. Each frame 30'
may be coded into the data stream 150 in unit of blocks. Each frame portion 152 may
include motion prediction data 154 including, for example, a motion vector. Additionally,
each frame portion 152 data may include the weighting and offset parameters 50 for the
respective claim. The data stream may be coded such that the motion prediction data 154
of each frame portion refers back 156 to the frame portion immediately preceding in time t,
i.e. when arranging the frame portions 152 along the presentation time axis. That is, each
frame may be a P frame using the immediately preceding frame as reference frame, and the
portion out of the common dynamic range 40 may be updated using this dependency chain.
Merely, the overall first, i.e. starting, frame 158 of the frame sequence, may be an I frame,
or the starting frames of each GOP, i.e. group of (immediately preceding) pictures. This
starting frame 158 may have incorporated therein an explicit coding 160 of the mapping
parameters for this first frame 158. Alternatively, even this explicit coding 160 may be
unnecessary. Further, each frame 152, or each frame 152 but the starting frame 158, may
have encoded therein a quantizer step-size parameter 62, prescribing the quantizing step
size to be used in dequantizing in residual reconstructor 118 and being set in dependency
on the length of portion 38. In particular, the quantizer step-size parameter 162 may have
been coded into data stream in a differential manner using the (explicitly or implicitly
determined) quantizer step-size parameter of the starting frame portion 158 as a reference.
After having described, by use of rather general terms, embodiments for an encoding and
decoding apparatus, more detailed embodiments representing concrete implementations of
the above embodiments, are outlined below. In accordance with the concrete
implementation details outlined below, a frame-wise adaptive luminance-to-luma mapping
is used to perform the transition between the video de/encoding stage and the sample value
re/conversion, respectively. In accordance with the embodiments outlined below, the
weighted prediction tool of H.264/AVC is exploited to maintain the temporal coherence. In
other words, in accordance with the embodiments outlined below, the video encoding stage
and the video decoding stage of the above embodiments act like H.264 conform entities,
i.e. video encoding stage 20 generates an H.264 conform data stream and a video decoding
stage 108 is implemented in conformity with the H.264/AVC standard. The data stream of
Fig. 5 may even be completely H.264/AVC conform. The weighted prediction tool is, thus,
in accordance with the following embodiments not only exploited to maintain the temporal
coherence, but, at the same time, to transmit the adaptive mapping parameters used for the
sample value conversion. Further, an example will be given as to how to adapt the
quantization parameter (QP) for each frame dependent on the adaptive mapping.
Thus, in the following, implementation details with respect to the above-outlined
embodiments of Figs. 1-5 are presented below by use of mathematical equations in more
detail. After that, in Section 2, experimental results using these implementation details, are
presented.
1.1. Dynamic Range Adaptive Luminance Mapping
In the following we re-visit the luminance-to-luma mapping for video coding applications.
The trade-off between the respresentable luminance range [ Ymi„, Ymax], the lu a bit depth n
and the associated relative precision can be seen in the following more general
formulations of the luminance-to-luma mapping functions:
2 - 1
L (log 2 (Y) - log2 ( mi )) (2)
( + o g m .
Y = 2 2" - 1 (3)
This linear relationship between the logarithm of the luminance Y and the luma space L is
also depicted Fig. 6. Fig. 6 shows an adaptive logarithmic luminance-to-luma mapping:
different ranges for different frames 1 and result in different mapping functions.
Consequently, different luma values can represent the same luminance value.
Obviously, the mapping achieves the highest fidelity when Ymjn and Ymax equals the
minimum and maximum luminance of the current video frame, respectively. That is, if the
existing luminance values in a video frame are mapped to the full luma range by the
mapping function with the steepest possible slope. However, since the dynamic ranges can
vary from one frame to the next (even in a static scene, due to noise), such a
straightforward adaptation would break the temporal coherence of the video sequence and
prevent an efficient temporal prediction. The next section will present an adaptive mapping
that takes such effects into account.
1.2. Temporally Coherent Adaptive Luminance Mapping
Consider that two consecutive frames k and / = k + 1 of an HDR video sequence exhibit
different luminance ranges respectively. Obviously, using
the extrema of each frame in (2) will result in a different mapping for each frame. That is,
the same luminance value Ϋ = k = Y; in frame k and 1will be mapped to different luma
values k and L „ , respectively as exemplified in Fig. 1. Plugging (3) into (2) using a
different mapping for frame k and 1, respectively, yields:
>2 m a , m i , !
_|_ — (4)
log 2 ( m a , / m i , )
Apparently, the relation of two luma values _ and L n stemming from the same
luminance value Ϋ is entirely defined by a scale w and an offset o. w and o can be easily
derived from the ranges [Ymi„ Ymx and [Ymi„ i,
H.264/AVC is the first international video coding standard defining the syntax for a
weighted prediction (WP) tool [7]. The original intention of WP is to enhance the coding
efficiency for fade-in and fade-out sequences where motion compensated prediction
usually fails. It allows to explicitly signal a weight parameter w and an offset parameter d
per slice. The parameters can be used to weight and shift the reference frame for enhancing
the temporal prediction. Equation (4) shows that a change of the dynamic range of
successive frames merely results in a weighting w and shifting o of identical luminance
values in the luma space. Therefore, the WP syntax of H.264/AVC is perfectly suited to
allow for an efficient temporal prediction despite any changes in the luminance range.
Consider, e.g., the case that a nearly static scenery is recorded by an HDR capable camera
facing the bright sun. When the sun is now abruptly covered by a cloud, the dynamic range
will change by several orders of magnitude whereas the luminance values of all the
foreground objects will approximately remain constant. If we can use the WP tools to
adapt the luma values of the reference frame, it allows for a perfect temporal prediction of
the foreground pixels that stem from the same luminance values. Furthermore, the WP
parameter information is sufficient to convey any necessary side information for a framewise
adaptation of the luminance-to-luma mapping as it will be shown in the following.
In H.264/AVC the precision and dynamic range of w and d is limited. Both parameters can
take on integer values between -128 and 127. The precision of w is confined by a
quantization interval of i/21q ¾ , where logWD is signaled explicitly and can take on
integer values from 0 to 7. Consequently, a higher logWD value leads to a more fine¬
grained representation of the parameter w . It also means that more bits are required for
coding the weighting factors and a narrowing of the range of the effective scaling [7]. The
step size of the offset parameter is defined by 2 in order to take into account the bit
depth n of the luma representation in the H.264/AVC coder. Consequently, in order to
allow for a perfect temporal prediction of unchanged luminance values from one frame to
the next, it is necessary to quantize the change of the adaptive mapping function in such a
way that it can be represented by the H.264/AVC WP parameters w and o.
That is, given the dynamic luminance range covered by the mapping function of frame k,
[ ίh,ΐ , max,k], we have to find the minimum ra a i and the maximum aX i that fulfill
and
under the constraints
n x . nax . &Ώ. Ymin,l i ί , · ( )
The latter two inequalities assure that the luminance range covered by the adaptive
mapping covers at least the range of luminance range present in the current frame,
U h c \ ·
In practice, parameter setter 22 may find the solution to this problem by solving (5) and
(6), setting 7max = Ym l and Y^, = Y^, and rounding towards zero. This yields the initial
values for wand and (5) and (6) w.r.t. Y and max , respectively can be solved:
(8)
gW
\0g 2 Y .x ,k/Y in,k) + log2 ( i m )
max./
(9)
If the results violate one of the conditions in (7), parameter setter 22 may decrease w or
increase ό by 1, respectively and re-calculate (8) and (9).
After finding the best luminance range m in,i, maXi], of frame w.r.t. frame k, the
parameter setter 22 and the sample value converter 18 may use these values for the
mapping in (2). Furthermore, the weight and offset parameters wand ό are readily
available for usage in the weighted temporal prediction of the H.264/AVC video encoder
20. Finally, it can be seen from the relations in (5) and (6) that these paramaters fully
suffice to exactly recover the luminance range of the current frame 38 given the range of
the previous frame 48. No additional side information is necessary for the adaptive
mapping when the mapping of the first frame (and possibly IDR frames) covers the
maximal visible dynamic range. Otherwise, the range for the first frame must be signaled
explicitly to the decoder as illustrated by dashed line 28. In general, however, the scheme
according to Section 1 avoids that the float-valued scaling information has to be
transmitted as side information for each frame, otherwise complicating standard
conformant coding and increasing bit rate.
1.3. Temporally Coherent Quantization
In accordance with the above measures, for each frame, different luminance ranges are
mapped to luma code values. Therefore, using the identical QP during the H.264/AVC
encoding process, would lead to a varying quantization of the luminance space, depending
on the mapping. In other words, even though the encoder might use a constant
quantization, the effective quantization will largely vary across time, leading to strong
variations in quality and bit rate. Therefore, in accordance with an embodiment, the coding
stages 20 and 108 take the luminance mapping range into account and find a suitable AQP
for each frame, accordingly. Here, AQP denotes a QP offset for the current frame w.r.t. the
reference QP that is used to encode the first frame. It can be easily seen in Fig. 1 that, in
order to introduce the same effective quantization to the luminance values, the quantizer
step sizes Qstep,i and Qst , of the current frame 1and an arbitrary reference frame k have to
be related according to
,fc QstepJi g (Ymax l/ Y ,l)
(10)
Taking into account the fact that, per definition Qstep approximately doubles when the QP
value is increased by 6 units we can state:
Qrel i fe 2 P . e =► A Pl k = round(6 log (Qrel^ fc )).
(11)
In this work, we always use the first frame of a sequence as reference frame for calculating
the QP offset values for each frame. That is, an arbitrary frame 1will be quantized with
2. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
For evaluating the temporally coherent luminance-to-luma mapping of Section 1, we
performed coding experiments with three HDR test sequences: Panorama, Tunnel, and
Sun. All sequences have a resolution of 640 480 pixel and a frame rate of 30 fps. The
panorama test sequence was generated by panning a 8000 c 4000 pixel HDR panorama
image. It and shows dark interior areas as well as very bright sun reflections from outside a
window. Its overall dynamic range is of the order of 10 10 :1. Both, Tunnel and Sun were
taken from inside a driving car with an HDR video camera and are freely available from
Max-Planck Institute [8]. The former one shows a drive through a dark tunnel, the latter
one shows a drive on a highway facing the bright sun. The overall dynamic range
represented in these sequences is 105:1 and 10 :1, respectively. In our experiments we use
two metrics to evaluate the quality of the decoded HDR videos: the HDR visible difference
predictor (VDP) [9] and the perceptually uniform peak signal-to-noise ratio (PU PSNR)
[10]. The former one estimates the percentage of pixels in a pair of images that an observer
will notice to be different with a probability of more than 75%. The latter metric is a
straightforward extension of the common PSNR metric to HDR. For LDR images it is
assumed that the gamma corrected pixel code values are perceptually uniform, that is,
equal error amplitudes are equally visible in bright and dark regions of an image. However,
this assumption does not hold for HDR images and therefore, the code values must be
scaled to a perceptually uniform space before meaningful PSNR values can be calculated
[10].
For encoding the sequences, they are first transformed from RGB floating-point values to
the LogLuv space and then encoded with the H.264/AVC reference software JM 17.2. The
luma component is encoded with a bit depth of 12 bit/sample, the u' and v' components are
subsampled by a factor of two vertically and horizontally and encoded with 8 bit/sample.
We use the same configuration of the H.264/AVC high profile with 8 8 transform, IPPP
GOP structure, intra frame period of 15, and CABAC enabled for all experiments. A fixed
reference QP is selected for each encoder run and no rate-control is enabled. However, the
frame-wise QP may deviate from this reference QP as described in Sec. 1.3. After
decoding the sequences, they are mapped back to RGB floating-point values and their
quality is evaluated according to the metrics described before.
In particular, Fig. 7 shows the coding results for three cases: temporally coherent mapping
according to Section 1 ("proposed"), frame-wise adaptation for each frame without
temporal coherence ("frame-wise") [6], and constant mapping of the whole visual
luminance range [10 4 , 108] ("visual range"). Upper row: visible difference predictor
(VDP). Lower row: perceptually uniform peak signal-to-noise ration (PU PSNR).
Fig. 7 shows the coding results for all test sequences in terms of the VDP averaged over all
decoded frames (upper row) and in terms of mean PU PSNR of the luminance component
(lower row). In particular, Fig. 7 shows the coding results for three cases: temporally
coherent mapping ("proposed"), frame-wise adaptation for each frame w/o temporal
coherence ("frame-wise") [6], and constant mapping of the whole visual luminance range
[10-4, 108] ("visual range"). Upper row: visible difference predictor (VDP). Lower row.
perceptually uniform peak signal-to-noise ratio (PU PSNR).
The proposed method ("proposed") is compared with two reference methods in Fig. 7:
straightforward frame-wise adaptation of the luminance-to-luma mapping to the dynamic
range of each frame without taking into account the temporal coherence ("frame-wise")
[6], and constant mapping of the whole perceivable luminance range [10-4, 108] ("visual
range"). In the latter case, the luminance range of the mapping function might exceed the
range of occurring luminances in many HDR video sequences. However, in a real-time
coding application it is not possible to narrow the mapping range to the absolute luminance
range of a sequence, because this would require the processing of the whole sequence
before encoding. Fig. 7 clearly shows that the proposed mapping significantly outperforms
the reference methods for all test sequences. It is worth noting here that the VDP metric is
a threshold metric that only offers an estimate about if a pixel is perceived erroneous or
not. It does not state how annoying this error is for an observer. Thus, e.g., the results in
Fig. 7(a) can be interpreted as follows: if we allow about 1% of the pixels to be perceived
erroneously, with the proposed mapping, we only need a bit rate of less than 2500 kbits/s.
This is a reduction of about 50% (25%) compared to the 5000 kbits/s (3250 kbits/s) we
have to spend to achieve same VDP value in the "visual range" ("frame-wise") scenario.
Likewise, huge rate savings can be observed for the Tunnel and Sun test sequences in Figs.
7(b) and (c).
As expected, the PU PSNR results in Figs. 7(d)—(f depict similar performance
characteristics as the VDP results for all sequences. Furthermore, they allow a quantitative
conclusion of the gain in quality that can be achieved with the proposed method for a large
range of bit rates. E.g., for the Panorama sequence the PU PSNR value of the proposed
method exceeds the PU PSNR value of the "visual range" mapping by 3 dB at 3250 kbits/s
(cf. Fig. 7(d)). This means that the mean squared error in the perceptually uniform
luminance space is halved at the same bit rate and the visual quality is increased
significantly.
It is worth noting, that for the Panorama sequence the frame-wise adaptive mapping has a
very detrimental effect on the coding efficiency compared to the non-adaptive "visual
range" mapping. This sequence exhibits very large and fast variations of its dynamic range
and therefore, in the case of the frame-wise adaptive mapping, the temporal prediction fails
(cf. Figs. 7(a),(d)). On the other hand, it can be observed in Figs. 7(b) and (e) that the
proposed method performs almost identical to the "frame-wise" mapping. In this sequence,
the temporal changes of the dynamic range are very smooth. In our experiments we further
observed that for the "frame-wise" mapping there exist strong temporal variations of the
bit rate and quality whenever the dynamic range changes significantly. This negative effect
could be circumvented by the temporally coherent quantization and mapping of the
proposed method.
3. CONCLUSIONS
In Section 1, thus, an adaptive luminance-to-luma mapping has been proposed that allows
the compression of floating-point high dynamic range video data with the state-of-the-art
H.264/AVC video coding standard. Unlike other methods the mapping is adapted to the
dynamic range of each frame. Nevertheless, temporal coherence is sustained by exploiting
the weighted prediction tools of H.264/AVC and by applying a frame-wise adaptation of
the quantization parameter in accordance with the mapping function. No additional side
information is needed and significant bit rate savings of up to 50% compared to nonadaptive
methods can be observed at the same quality.
Finally, it should be noted that all the details presented in Sections 1-3, could also vary in
some sense. For example, neither the weighting/offset parameters mentioned with respect
to Figs. 1-5, nor the weighting/offset parameters mentioned in Sections 1-3, are restricted
to those of the H.264/AVC standard, i.e. logWD, and o. The weighting/offset parameters
could be transmitted in form of different syntax elements. In particular, it is not necessary
to split up the transmission of the weighting parameter into two syntax element entities
logWD, w . Similarly, it should be noted that the sequence 30 and 30', respectively, could
be coded in form of an IPPPP... sequence - or in form of IPPPP... GOPs - with using the
respective immediately preceding frame as reference frame. The first I frame could
represent a starting frame as mentioned in Section 1.3 referring to which the quantization
parameter may be readjusted. However, all the embodiments outlined above are not
restricted to such a type of sequence. Even B frames could be used within the coding
scheme in video encoding stage 20 and video decoding stage 108 when taking additional
measures in the parameter setter 22 into account in order to fulfill the constraints posed by
both weighting/offset parameters for the current frame with respect to the two reference
frames, that is, by taking into account the weighting/offset parameters of the reference
frame and the weighting/offset parameters of the other reference frame of the current frame
with both parameter pairs being transmitted within the data stream.
Further, as already noted above, instead of a luminance-to-luma mapping, another mapping
could be the subject of the embodiments outlined above. In other words, the sample values
could pertain to other information than luminance. Further, the implementation of the
video encoding stage 20 and the video decoding stage 108 of Figs. 2 and 4 are to be
understood merely as being of illustrative nature. For example, the entropy encoder 62
responsible for entropy coding the residual signal 88 could be left off, Similarly, an
entropy decoder 129 could optionally connect it between input 128 and residual
reconstructor 118 of video decoding stage 108 of Fig. 4.
Although some aspects have been described in the context of an apparatus, it is clear that
these aspects also represent a description of the corresponding method, where a block or
device corresponds to a method step or a feature of a method step. Analogously, aspects
described in the context of a method step also represent a description of a corresponding
block or item or feature of a corresponding apparatus. Some or all of the method steps may
be executed by (or using) a hardware apparatus, like for example, a microprocessor, a
programmable computer or an electronic circuit. In some embodiments, some one or more
of the most important method steps may be executed by such an apparatus.
The inventive data stream can be stored on a digital storage medium or can be transmitted
on a transmission medium such as a wireless transmission medium or a wired transmission
medium such as the Internet.
Depending on certain implementation requirements, embodiments of the invention can be
implemented in hardware or in software. The implementation can be performed using a
digital storage medium, for example a floppy disk, a DVD, a Blu-Ray, a CD, a ROM, a
PROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM or a FLASH memory, having electronically readable
control signals stored thereon, which cooperate (or are capable of cooperating) with a
programmable computer system such that the respective method is performed. Therefore,
the digital storage medium may be computer readable.
Some embodiments according to the invention comprise a data carrier having
electronically readable control signals, which are capable of cooperating with a
programmable computer system, such that one of the methods described herein is
performed.
Generally, embodiments of the present invention can be implemented as a computer
program product with a program code, the program code being operative for performing
one of the methods when the computer program product runs on a computer. The program
code may for example be stored on a machine readable carrier.
Other embodiments comprise the computer program for performing one of the methods
described herein, stored on a machine readable carrier.
In other words, an embodiment of the inventive method is, therefore, a computer program
having a program code for performing one of the methods described herein, when the
computer program runs on a computer.
A further embodiment of the inventive methods is, therefore, a data carrier (or a digital
storage medium, or a computer-readable medium) comprising, recorded thereon, the
computer program for performing one of the methods described herein. The data carrier,
the digital storage medium or the recorded medium are typically tangible and/or nontransitionary.
A further embodiment of the inventive method is, therefore, a data stream or a sequence of
signals representing the computer program for performing one of the methods described
herein. The data stream or the sequence of signals may for example be configured to be
transferred via a data communication connection, for example via the Internet.
A further embodiment comprises a processing means, for example a computer, or a
programmable logic device, configured to or adapted to perform one of the methods
described herein.
A further embodiment comprises a computer having installed thereon the computer
program for performing one of the methods described herein.
A further embodiment according to the invention comprises an apparatus or a system
configured to transfer (for example, electronically or optically) a computer program for
performing one of the methods described herein to a receiver. The receiver may, for
example, be a computer, a mobile device, a memory device or the like. The apparatus or
system may, for example, comprise a file server for transferring the computer program to
the receiver .
In some embodiments, a programmable logic device (for example a field programmable
gate array) may be used to perform some or all of the functionalities of the methods
described herein. In some embodiments, a field programmable gate array may cooperate
with a microprocessor in order to perform one of the methods described herein. Generally,
the methods are preferably performed by any hardware apparatus.
The above described embodiments are merely illustrative for the principles of the present
invention. It is understood that modifications and variations of the arrangements and the
details described herein will be apparent to others skilled in the art. It is the intent,
therefore, to be limited only by the scope of the impending patent claims and not by the
specific details presented by way of description and explanation of the embodiments
herein.
In even other words, embodiments suitable for an efficient compression of high dynamic
range video (HDR) sequences have been described. In order to obtain a coded
representation that is compatible with the H.264/AVC video coding standard, the floatvalued
HDR values are mapped to a suitable integer representation. The mapping used is
adapted to the dynamic range of each video frame. Furthermore, to compensate for the
associated dynamic contrast variation across frames, a weighted prediction method and
quantization adaptation are introduced.
From another point of view, above embodiments are an improvement of the Adaptive-
LogLuv transform also described in EP101 51074.1, the description of which is
incorporated herewith for further details. Basically, an adaptive logarithmic mapping of
float to integer values similar to that in EP1015 1074.1 has been used. The parameters of
this mapping, however, are no longer totally free. Instead they are, in accordance with the
above embodiments, restricted to fit the characteristics of the H.264/AVC video codec and
especially the weighted prediction (WP) tool of H.264/AVC. With these restrictions, the
following benefits were gained: (1) The WP tool can be used to ensure temporal
coherence. (2) The H.264/AVC syntax for WP can be used to signal the parameters of the
LogLuv mapping, thus removing the need for additional side information. IN the above
description, it has been shown how to adapt the quantization parameter of the H.264/AVC
coder dependent on the adaptive mapping.
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Claims
Video encoder for encoding a first sequence (12) of frames (14) the sample values
(16) which are represented in a first format covering a first dynamic range,
comprising:
a sample value converter (18) configured to convert the sample values (16) of the
frames (14) of the first sequence (16) from the first format into a second format
having a second dynamic range lower than the first dynamic range, using a
mapping function (36) which maps a portion (38) out of the first dynamic range
(40), which is settable by a mapping parameter (45), to the second dynamic range
(42), so as to obtain a second sequence (30) of frames (32);
a video encoding stage (26) configured to encode the second sequence (30) of
frames (32) by weighted temporal prediction of a first frame of the second sequence
(30) using a second frame of the second sequence (30) of a reconstructed version of
the second frame of the second sequence (36), weighted by a weighting parameter
and offset by an offset parameter, as a reference; and
a parameter setter (22) for setting the weighting parameter and the offset
parameter(50) depending on the mapping parameter (45) for the second frame of
the first sequence corresponding to the second frame of the second sequence, the
mapping parameter for the second frame of the first sequence being related to the
mapping parameter for a first frame of the first sequence corresponding to the first
frame of the second sequence, via the weighting parameter and the offset
parameter.
Video encoder according to claim 1, wherein the parameter setter (22) is configured
to determine an occupied portion of the first dynamic range (40) within which the
sample values (16) of the first frame of the first sequence (12) are distributed, and
set the weighting parameter (50) and the offset parameter (38) such that the portion
set by the mapping parameter for the first frame of the first sequence (12)
approximates the occupied portion.
Video encoder according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the parameter setter (22) is
configured to set the offset parameter ό according to a deviation between an upper
bound, or a deviation between a lower bound, of the portions (38/48) set by the
mapping parameters for the first and second frames of the first sequence,
respectively, and set the weighting parameter (log D,w) according to a deviation
between the length of the portions (38, 48) set by the mapping parameters
(logWD, ) for the first and second frames of the first sequence, respectively.
Video encoder according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the sample value
converter (18) is configured to convert the sample value Y of the frames (14) of the
first sequence (12) from the first format into the second format according to
b-(logm(Y -a)
wherein b and a are comprised by the mapping parameter and are related to a lower
bound Ymi and upper bound Ymax of the portion (38) out of the first dynamic range
(40) , Ymin to Ymax, according to
2" - 1
= — , = log ( . )
g )
wherein log is a logarithmic function to a base m, and n is an integer indicating a
number of integer representation bits of the second format.
Video encoder according to claim 4, wherein the parameter setter (22) is configured
to determine an occupied portion of the first dynamic range (40) within which the
sample values (16) of the first frame of the first sequence (12) are distributed (44) ,
and set the weighting parameter and the offset parameter (50) such that
w
o i na n, )
gffi n, , " - l
under the constraints that
ma ./ ^niax,/ mn, ^min,/
wherein Y n is a lower bound, and Ymax is an upper bound of the occupied portion,
n° is an integer related to a definition range of o, index 1 indexes the first frame of
the first frame sequence, index k indexes the second frame of the first frame
sequence, w . and io gwD are comprised by the weighting parameter, and d is
comprised by the offset parameter.
6. Video encoder according to any of the previous claims wherein the video encoding
stage (20) is configured to use a quantizer step-size parameter in encoding the
second sequence (30) of frames, and the parameter setter (22) is configured to set
the quantizer step-size parameter for the frames (12) of the second sequence (39)
depending on a length of the portion as set for the frames of the first sequence
corresponding to the respective frames of the second sequence.
7. Video encoder according to claim 6, wherein the parameter setter (22) is configured
to encode the quantized step-size parameter into a data stream differentially to a
quantized step-size parameter for a starting frame of the second sequence.
8. Video encoder according to any of the previous claims, wherein the sample values
of the frames of the first sequence are luminance floating-point values, and the
sample values of the frames of the second sequence of luma integer values.
9. Video decoder for reconstructing a first sequence (102) of frames, the sample
values of which are represented in a first format covering a first dynamic range,
from a data stream, comprising
a video decoding stage (108) configured to reconstruct, from the data stream, a
second sequence (30) of frames (32) the sample values of which are represented in
a second format covering a second dynamic range (42) lower than the first dynamic
range, by a weighted temporal prediction of a first frame of the second sequence
(30') using a second frame of the second sequence (30'), weighted by a weighting
parameter and offset by an offset parameter comprised by the data stream, as a
reference;
a parameter setter ( 110) configured to set a mapping parameter (132) for the first
frame of the second sequence (30') depending on a mapping parameter for the
second frame of the second sequence (30'); the weighting parameter and the offset
parameter, and
a sample value reconverter ( 112) configured to convert the sample values (34') of
the frames (32') of the second sequence from the second format to the first format
using a mapping function which maps the second dynamic range (42) onto a
portion out of the first dynamic range (40) which is set by the mapping parameter
for the respective frame of the second sequence.
10. Video decoder according to claim 9, wherein the mapping parameter defines a
length of the portion (38) out of the first dynamic range (40) and a lower and upper
bound of the portion (38) out of the first dynamic range, and wherein the parameter
setter is configured to set the mapping parameter for the first frame of the second
sequence (30') by modifying a length of the portion (48) out of the first dynamic
range (40), defined by the motion parameter for the second frame of the second
sequence (30'), depending on the weighting parameter to derive the length of the
portion (38) defined by the motion parameter for the first frame of the second
sequence, and by modifying a lower or upper bound of the portion (48) out of the
first dynamic range (40), defined by the motion parameter for the second frame of
the second sequence depending on the offset parameter, to derive the first frame of
the second sequence.
11. Video decoder according to any of claims 9 to 10, wherein the sample value
reconverter ( 112) is configured to convert the sample value Ln (34') of the frames
(32') of the second sequence (30') from the first format into the second format
according to
wherein b and a are comprised by the mapping parameter and are related to a lower
bound Ym n and upper bound Ymax of the portion (38) out of the first dynamic range,
Ymin to Ymax, according to
wherein logm is a logarithmic function to a base m, and n is an integer indicating a
number of integer representation bits of the second format.
12. Video encoder according to claim 11, wherein the parameter setter ( 110) is
configured to compute a and b such that
a n, )
n° is an integer related to a definition range of o, index 1 indexes the first frame of
the second sequence, index k indexes the second frame of the second sequence,
w and logWD comprised by the weighting parameter, and 6 is comprised by the
offset parameter.
13. Video decoder according to any of claims 9 to 12, wherein the video decoding stage
(108) is configured to use a quantizer step-size parameter in reconstructing the
second sequence of frames, and the parameter setter is configured to set the
quantizer step-size parameter for the frames of the second sequence depending on a
length of the portion out of the first dynamic range, as set for the respective frames
of the second sequence.
14. Video decoder according to claim 13, wherein the parameter setter ( 110) is
configured to decode the quantized step-size parameter from the data stream
differentially to a quantized step-size parameter for a starting frame of the second
sequence.
15. Video decoder according to any of claims 9 to 14, wherein the sample values of the
frames of the first sequence are luminance floating-point values, and the sample
values of the frames of the second sequence of luma inter values.
Method for encoding a first sequence (12) of frames (14) the sample values (16)
which are represented in a first format covering a first dynamic range, comprising:
converting the sample values (16) of the frames (14) of the first sequence (16) from
the first format into a second format having a second dynamic range lower than the
first dynamic range, using a mapping function (36) which maps a portion (38) out
of the first dynamic range (40), which is settable by a mapping parameter (45), to
the second dynamic range (42), so as to obtain a second sequence (30) of frames
(32);
encoding the second sequence (30) of frames (32) by weighted temporal prediction
of a first frame of the second sequence (30) using a second frame of the second
sequence (30) of a reconstructed version of the second frame of the second
sequence (36), weighted by a weighting parameter and offset by an offset
parameter, as a reference; and
setting the weighting parameter and the offset parameter(50) depending on the
mapping parameter (45) for the second frame of the first sequence corresponding to
the second frame of the second sequence, the mapping parameter for the second
frame of the first sequence being related to the mapping parameter for a first frame
of the first sequence corresponding to the first frame of the second sequence, via
the weighting parameter and the offset parameter.
Method for reconstructing a first sequence (102) of frames, the sample values of
which are represented in a first format covering a first dynamic range, from a data
stream, comprising
reconstructing, from the data stream, a second sequence (30) of frames (32) the
sample values of which are represented in a second format covering a second
dynamic range (42) lower than the first dynamic range, by a weighted temporal
prediction of a first frame of the second sequence (30') using a second frame of the
second sequence (30'), weighted by a weighting parameter and offset by an offset
parameter comprised by the data stream, as a reference;
setting a mapping parameter (132) for the first frame of the second sequence (30')
depending on a mapping parameter for the second frame of the second sequence
(30'); the weighting parameter and the offset parameter, and
converting the sample values (34') of the frames (32') of the second sequence from
the second format to the first format using a mapping function which maps the
second dynamic range (42) onto a portion out of the first dynamic range (40) which
is set by the mapping parameter for the respective frame of the second sequence.
Data stream from which a first sequence (102) of frames, the sample values of
which are represented in a first format covering a first dynamic range, is
reconstructable, wherein the first sequence is encoded into the data stream
indirectly via a second sequence (30) of frames (32) the sample values of which are
represented in a second format covering a second dynamic range (42) lower than
the first dynamic range, the second sequence being encoded into the data stream by
a weighted temporal prediction of a first frame of the second sequence (30') using a
second frame of the second sequence (30'), weighted by a weighting parameter and
offset by an offset parameter, as a reference, wherein the weighting parameter and
the offset parameter are comprised be the data stream such that a mapping
parameter (132) for the first frame of the second sequence (30') depends on a
mapping parameter for the second frame of the second sequence (30'), the
weighting parameter and the offset parameter, and the sample values (34') of the
frames (32') of the second sequence is converted from the second format to the first
format using a mapping function which maps the second dynamic range (42) onto a
portion out of the first dynamic range (40) which is set by the mapping parameter
for the respective frame of the second sequence, reconstruct the first sequence.
19. Computer readable digital storage medium having stored thereon a computer
program having a program code for performing, when running on a computer, a
method according to claim 17 or 18.