A signal-processing apparatus includes an instruction-parallel processor, a first data-parallel processor, a second data-parallel processor, and a motion detection unit, a de-blocking filtering unit and a variable-length coding/decoding unit which are dedicated hardware. With this structure, during signal processing of an image compression and decompression algorithm needing a large amount of processing, the load is distributed between software and hardware, so that the signal-processing apparatus can realize high processing capability and flexibility.

The present technology relates to an image processing device and an image processing method which allow a deblocking filtering process to apply filtering appropriately. A pixel (p0.sub.i) of which the value is 255 (solid line) before a deblocking process changes greatly to 159 (dot line) after a conventional deblocking process. Therefore, a clipping process having a clipping value of 10 is performed in strong filtering, whereby the pixel (p0.sub.i) of which the value is 255 (solid line) before the deblocking process becomes 245 (bold line). Thus, a change in the pixel value occurring in the conventional technique can be suppressed as much as possible. This disclosure can be applied to an image processing device, for example.

The present technology relates to an image processing device and an image processing method which allow a deblocking filtering process to apply filtering appropriately. A pixel (p0.sub.i) of which the value is 255 (solid line) before a deblocking process changes greatly to 159 (dot line) after a conventional deblocking process. Therefore, a clipping process having a clipping value of 10 is performed in strong filtering, whereby the pixel (p0.sub.i) of which the value is 255 (solid line) before the deblocking process becomes 245 (bold line). Thus, a change in the pixel value occurring in the conventional technique can be suppressed as much as possible. This disclosure can be applied to an image processing device, for example.

A method of de-blocking filtering a processed video is provided. The processed video includes a plurality of blocks and each block includes a plurality of sub-blocks. A current block of the plurality of blocks includes vertical edges and horizontal edges. The processed video further includes a set of control parameters and reconstructed pixels corresponding to the current block. A boundary strength index is estimated at the vertical edges and at the horizontal edges of the current block. The set of control parameters, the reconstructed pixels corresponding to the current block and partially filtered pixels corresponding to a set of adjacent sub-blocks are loaded. The vertical edges and the horizontal edges of the current block are filtered based on the boundary strength index and the set of control parameters such that a vertical edge of the current block is filtered before filtering at least one horizontal edge of the current block.

A method of de-blocking filtering a processed video is provided. The processed video includes a plurality of blocks and each block includes a plurality of sub-blocks. A current block of the plurality of blocks includes vertical edges and horizontal edges. The processed video further includes a set of control parameters and reconstructed pixels corresponding to the current block. A boundary strength index is estimated at the vertical edges and at the horizontal edges of the current block. The set of control parameters, the reconstructed pixels corresponding to the current block and partially filtered pixels corresponding to a set of adjacent sub-blocks are loaded. The vertical edges and the horizontal edges of the current block are filtered based on the boundary strength index and the set of control parameters such that a vertical edge of the current block is filtered before filtering at least one horizontal edge of the current block.

Systems and methods for transmitting source video (305) over a bandwidth-limited network (350). First, high frequency spectral content of the video is encoded into layer-1 data files (330). In parallel, frames of the video are downsampled (342) and compressed (333) using a lossy CODEC, to define layer-2 data files (335a, 335b) with high-frequency spectral content removed therefrom. The layer-1 and layer-2 data files are interleaved (345a, 345b) and transmitted over the network and are smaller than conventional lossy CODEC compressed files. After receipt, the layer-1 and layer-2 data files are deinterleaved. The layer-2 data is decompressed (353) and upsampled (362) to create a preliminary reconstructed video. The high frequency spectral content is extracted (351) from the layer-1 data files, and photometric warp superresolution processing (370) restores the high frequency spectral content into the preliminary reconstructed video to generate a final, output video (395a, 395b) at resolution at or near the source video for display to a viewer at or downstream from the receiving location.

Systems and methods for transmitting source video (305) over a bandwidth-limited network (350). First, high frequency spectral content of the video is encoded into layer-1 data files (330). In parallel, frames of the video are downsampled (342) and compressed (333) using a lossy CODEC, to define layer-2 data files (335a, 335b) with high-frequency spectral content removed therefrom. The layer-1 and layer-2 data files are interleaved (345a, 345b) and transmitted over the network and are smaller than conventional lossy CODEC compressed files. After receipt, the layer-1 and layer-2 data files are deinterleaved. The layer-2 data is decompressed (353) and upsampled (362) to create a preliminary reconstructed video. The high frequency spectral content is extracted (351) from the layer-1 data files, and photometric warp superresolution processing (370) restores the high frequency spectral content into the preliminary reconstructed video to generate a final, output video (395a, 395b) at resolution at or near the source video for display to a viewer at or downstream from the receiving location.

At least a method and an apparatus are presented for efficiently encoding or decoding video. For example, a prediction block for a current block is obtained. A reconstructed neighboring block of the prediction block is obtained. Filtering is performed on a boundary between the prediction block and the reconstructed neighboring block. At the encoder side, the prediction residual is obtained as the difference between the filtered prediction block and the current block, and then encoded. At the decoder side, the prediction residual is added to the filtered prediction block to reconstruct the current block.

A method for encoding a picture of a video sequence in a bit stream that constrains slice header processing overhead is provided. The method includes computing a maximum slice rate for the video sequence, computing a maximum number of slices for the picture based on the maximum slice rate, and encoding the picture wherein a number of slices used to encode the picture is enforced to be no more than the maximum number of slices.

A method for encoding a picture of a video sequence in a bit stream that constrains slice header processing overhead is provided. The method includes computing a maximum slice rate for the video sequence, computing a maximum number of slices for the picture based on the maximum slice rate, and encoding the picture wherein a number of slices used to encode the picture is enforced to be no more than the maximum number of slices.