Patent ID: 11910029
Assignee: GE VIDEO COMPRESSION, LLC
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A decoder comprising:
a sub-divider configured to spatially sub-divide an array of information samples, representing a spatially sampled information signal, into blocks of different sizes by:
dividing the array of information samples into a regular arrangement of tree root blocks of zero-order hierarchy level size, and
sub-dividing, by recursive quadtree partitioning, the tree root blocks by
checking, for each tree root block, quadtree-partitioning information contained in a data stream into which the array of information samples is coded,

as to whether the respective tree root block is to be partitioned, and
if the respective tree root block is to be partitioned, partitioning the respective tree root block into four blocks of a first hierarchy level, and

recursively repeating the checking and partitioning for the blocks of the first hierarchy level in order to obtain blocks of higher-order hierarchy levels, with stopping the recursive repetition when no partitioning is to be performed according to the quadtree-partitioning information, or a maximum hierarchy level is reached;
a reconstructor configured to reconstruct the array of information samples from the data stream using the blocks of different sizes into which the array of information samples is spatially subdivided, by traversing the blocks of different sizes in a scan order according to which the tree root blocks are scanned in a zigzag scan order with, for each tree root block being partitioned, treating the blocks of different sizes therein in depth-first traversal order before stepping further to a next tree root block in the zigzag scan order; and
an extractor configured to extract syntax elements associated with the blocks of different sizes, in the scan order from the data stream,
wherein the quadtree-partitioning information is formed by a sequence of flags associated with nodes of the recursive quadtree partitioning in the depth-first traversal order, and the extractor is configured to extract the sequence of flags of the quadtree-partitioning information from the data stream using the depth-first traversal order and to choose a context to decode a respective flag of the sequence of flags using flags:
preceding the respective flag in accordance with the depth-first traversal order and
being associated with areas lying on top and/or left of an area to which the respective flag belongs.