Patent ID: 6898324
Filing Date: 2005-05-24
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An encoding method for the compression of a video sequence including successive frames organized in groups of frames, each frame being decomposed by means of a three-dimensional (3D) wavelet transform leading to a given number of successive resolution levels, said encoding method being based on the hierarchical subband encoding process called “set partitioning in hierarchical trees” (SPIHT) and leading from the original set of picture elements (pixels) of each group of frames to wavelet transform coefficients encoded with a binary format and constituting a hierarchical pyramid, said coefficients being organized into a spatio-temporal orientation tree rooted in the lowest frequency (or approximation subband) resulting from the 3D wavelet transform and completed by an offspring in the higher frequency subbands, the coefficients of said tree being ordered into partitioning sets involving the pixels and corresponding to respective levels of significance, said sets being defined by means of magnitude tests leading to a classification of the significance information in three ordered lists called list of insignificant sets (LIS), list of insignificant pixels (LIP) and list of significant pixels (LSP), said tests being carried out in order to divide said original set of pixels into said partitioning sets according to a division process that continues until each significant coefficient is encoded within said binary representation, and said spatio-temporal orientation tree defining the spatio-temporal relationship inside said hierarchical pyramid, and said SPIHT algorithm comprising the following steps: initialization, sorting pass(es), refinement pass, and quantization step update, said method further comprising: (a) in the initialization step: (b) in the sorting pass(es) going from n