• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.511-524
• /
• 2005

In this paper, we propose a novel hardware architecture for an intra-prediction, integer transform, quantization, inverse integer transform, inverse quantization, and mode decision module for the macroblock engine of a new video coding standard, H.264. To reduce the cycle of intra prediction, transform/quantization, and inverse quantization/inverse transform of H.264, a reduction method for cycle overhead in the case of I16MB mode is proposed. This method can process one macroblock for 927 cycles for all cases of macroblock type by processing $4{\times}4$ Hadamard transform and quantization during $16{\times}16$ prediction. This module was designed using Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) and operates with a 54 MHz clock using the Hynix $0.35 {\mu}m$ TLM (triple layer metal) library.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.35-39
• /
• 2013

H.264/AVC is an authoritative international video coding standard which shows code and efficiency more improved than the existing video standards. Above all, the parameter block mode of H.264/AVC significantly contributes much to high compression efficiency. However, as the occasion demands, users tend to pass while overlooking the part that can produce a little higher compression efficiency. We, taking notice of this point, are designed to bring in much higher compression efficiency by gathering up the overlooked parts. This paper suggests the algorithm that produces efficient performance improvement by using the histogram of luminance in the pixel unit (Macroblock) of respective prediction block and applying specific thresholds. The experimental results proves that the technique proposed by this paper increases the compression efficiency of the existing H.264/AVC algorithm by 0.4% without any increase in the whole encoding time and PSNR complexity.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.53-63
• /
• 1997

In this paper, we present a new macroblock-based bit allocation scheme in multiple MPEG-1 video encoders system and a single multiplexer over a single channel. The proposed scheme models the relations between fate(Bits/MB) and distortion(MSE/MB), rate and quantizer parameter(QP), distortion and quantizer parameter, respectively, in the same form. By using these relations, we minimize the Larangian cost function to obtain a bit allocation scheme based on macroblock unit. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can reduce MSE compared to other conventional buffer-based rate control methods, i.e. independent buffer control method and shared common buffer control one. And we confirmed, through computer simulation, that the proposed scheme can be effectively modified to maintain the objective quality of a specific video service at a constant level.

• Proceedings of the Korean Information Science Society Conference
• /
• 2001.10b
• /
• pp.271-273
• /
• 2001

본 논문에서는 멀티미디어 데이터의 MPEG-1 비디오 데이터 정보 중 인트라 모드로 부호화된 매크로블록(macroblock) 타입 개수를 이용하여 후보 컷(cut)을 검출한다. 이렇게 검출된 후보 컷은 이전에 검출된 후보 컷과의 히스토그램 차와 화소 특징값의 분산값과 평균간을 이용하여 카메라 브레이크(camera break)와 같은 일반적인 장면전환(abrupt scene change)뿐만 아니라 커튼효과(curtaining effect)나 페이딩효과(fading effect)와 같은 점진적인 장면전환(gradual scene change)을 검출하는 방법을 제안하고 실험을 통하여 그 유용성을 보인다.

• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.401-406
• /
• 2011

This paper presents a fast block-matching algorithm based on the normalized cross-correlation, where the elimination order is determined based on the gradient magnitudes of subblocks in the current macroblock. Multilevel Cauchy-Schwartz inequality is derived to skip unnecessary block-matching calculations in the proposed algorithm. Also, additional complexity reduction is achieved re-using the normalized cross correlation values for the spatially neighboring macroblock because the search areas of adjacent macroblocks are overlapped. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the speed-up ratio up to about 3 times in comparison with the existing algorithm.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
• /
• v.31 no.5C
• /
• pp.490-496
• /
• 2006

H.264 is the most recent video coding standard, containing improved error resilience tools than previous video compression schemes. This paper shows an analysis of the dependency of error concealment (EC) performance on the expected number of correctly received neighboring macroblock(MB)s for a lost MB, applying error concealment schemes to the raster scan mode that is used in the previous video coding standard and the flexible macroblock ordering (FMO) which is one of error-resilience tools in H.264. We also present simulation results and performance evaluation with various packet loss rates. Simulation results show that the FMO mode provides better EC performances of $1{\sim}9dB$ PSNR improvements compared to the raster scan mode because of larger expected number of correctly received neighboring MBs. The PSNR improvement by FMO mode becomes higher as the intra-frame period is larger and the packet loss rate is higher.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.50-57
• /
• 2009

This paper presents a new model-based macroblock layer rate control algorithm for low bit rate video coding which generates output bits corresponding to a target bit budget. The H.264 standard uses various coding modes and optimization methods to improve the compression performance, which makes it difficult to control the generated traffic accurately in low bit rate environments. In the proposed scheme, we first estimate MAD values of macroblocks in a frame and define a target remaining bits using the estimated MAD values before encoding each macroblock. If a difference between the target value and the actual value is greater than a threshold value, the quantization parameter is adjusted to decrease the difference. It is shown by experimental results that the new algorithm can obtain more than 66% decrease of the difference between the target bits and the resulting bits for a frame with the PSNR performance better than that of the existing rate control algorithm.

• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.736-744
• /
• 2007

We propose a fast macroblock (MB) mode prediction and decision algorithm based on temporal correlation for P-slices in the H.264/AVC video standard. There are eight block types for temporal decorrelation, including SKIP mode based on rate-distortion (RD) optimization. This scheme gives rise to exhaustive computations (search) in the coding procedure. To overcome this problem, a thresholding method for fast inter mode decision using a MB tracking scheme to find the most correlated block and RD cost of the correlated block is suggested for early stop of the inter mode determination. We propose a two-step inter mode candidate selection method using statistical analysis. In the first step, a mode is selected based on the mode information of the co-located MB from the previous frame. Then, an adaptive thresholding scheme is applied using the RD cost of the most correlated MB. Secondly, additional candidate modes are considered to determine the best mode of the initial candidate modes that does not satisfy the designed thresholding rule. Comparative analysis shows that a speed-up factor of up to 70.59% is obtained when compared with the full mode search method with a negligible bit increment and a minimal loss of image quality.

• Journal of IKEEE
• /
• v.2 no.2 s.3
• /
• pp.285-293
• /
• 1998

This paper presents unequal error protection and error concealment techniques far robust H.263 video transmission over mobile channels. The proposed error protection scheme has three major features. First, it has the capability of preventing the loss of synchronization information in H.263 video stream as much as possible that the H.263 decoder can resynchronize at the next decoding point, if errors are occurred. Secondly, it employs an unequal error protection scheme to support variable coding rates using rate compatible punctured convolutional (RCPC) codes, dividing the encoded stream into two classes. Finally, a macroblock-interleaving scheme is employed in order to minimize the corruption of consecutive macroblocks due to burst errors, which can make a proper condition for error concealment. In addition, to minimize the spatial error propagations due to the variable length codes, a fast resynchronization scheme at the group of block layer is developed for recovering subsequent error-free macroblocks following the damaged macroblock. futhermore, error concealment techniques based on both side match criterion and overlapped block motion compensation (OBMC) are employed at the source decoder so that it can not only recover the lost macroblock more accurately, but also reduce blocking artifacts. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can be an effective error protection scheme since proper video quality can be maintained under various channel bit error rates.

• Journal of IKEEE
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.382-388
• /
• 2012

An H.264/AVC fast motion estimation methodology is presented in this paper. Advanced SIMD based NEON which is one of the parallel processing methods is supported under the ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core platform. NEON is applied to a full search technique with one of the various motion estimation methods and SAD operation count of each macroblock is reduced to 1/4. Pixel values of the corresponding macroblock are assigned to eight 16-bit NEON registers and Intrinsic function in NEON architecture carried out 128 bits arithmetic operations at the same time. In this way, the exact motion vector with the minimum SAD value among the calculated SAD values can be designated. Experimental results show that performance gets improved 30% above average in accordance with the size of image and macroblock.