Abstract:
A processing system, such as typically a CPU, is used for converting a digital signal organized in pixels, such as a video signal, between a first format and a second multiple-description format. The system comprises at least one input register and at least one output register, and is configured via instructions, that can be constituted at least in part by instructions of a SIMD type, so as to: order the pixels of the signal to be converted in a set of input registers; and take selectively the pixels from the aforesaid set of input registers and place them in an orderly way in at least one output register.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to techniques for the treatment of signals organized in pixels (picture elements), and has been developed with particular attention paid to its possible application to processing of video signals implemented by resorting to multiple-description (MD) techniques. 
     Reference to this particular field of application should not, however, be interpreted as in anyway limiting the scope of the invention. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     The techniques based upon multiple description form the subject of an extensive scientific literature, as witnessed, for example, by the following studies:
     P. C. Cosman, R. M. Gray, M. Vetterli, “Vector Quantization of Image Subbands: a Survey”, September 1995;   Robert Swann, “MPEG-2 Video Coding over Noisy Channels”, Signal Processing and Communication Lab, University of Cambridge, March 1998;   Robert M. Gray “Quantization”, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, vol. 44, No. 6, October 1998, pp. 2325-2383;   Vivek K. Goyal, “Beyond Traditional Transform Coding”, University of California, Berkeley, Fall 1998;   Jelena Kova{hacek over (c)}ević, Vivek K. Goyal, “Multiple Descriptions—Source-Channel Coding Methods for Communications”, Bell Labs, Innovation for Lucent Technologies, 1998;   Jelena Kova{hacek over (c)}ević, Vivek K. Goyal, Ramon Arean, Martin Vetterli, “Multiple Description Transform Coding of Images”, Proceedings of IEEE Conf. on Image Proc., Chicago, October 1998;   Sergio Daniel Servetto, “Compression and Reliable Transmission of Digital Image and Video Signals”, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999;   Benjamin W. Wah, Xiao Su, Dong Lin, “A survey of error-concealment schemes for real-time audio and video transmission over internet”, Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia Software Engineering, December 2000;   John Apostolopoulos, Susie Wee, “Unbalanced Multiple Description Video Communication using Path Diversity”, IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Thessaloniki, Greece, October 2001;   John Apostolopoulos, Wai-Tian Tan, Susie Wee, Gregory W. Wornell, “Modeling Path Diversity for Multiple Description Video Communication”, ICASSP, May 2002;   John Apostolopoulos, Tina Wong, Wai-Tian Tan, Susie Wee, “On Multiple Description Streaming with Content Delivery Networks”, HP Labs, Palo Alto, February 2002, pp. 1 to 10;   John Apostolopoulos, Wai-Tian Tan, Susie J. Wee, “Video Streaming: Concepts, Algorithms and Systems”, HP Labs, Palo Alto, September 2002;   Rohit Puri, Kang-Won Lee, Kannan Ramchandran, and Vaduvur Bharghavan, “Forward Error Correction (FEC) Codes Based Multiple Description Coding for Internet Video Streaming and Multicast” Signal Processing: Image Communication, Vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 745-762, May 2001;   Rohit Puri and Kannan Ramchandran, “Multiple Description Source Coding Through Forward Error Correction Codes”, in the Proceedings of the 33rd Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Pacific Grove, Calif., October 1999; and   Rohit Puri, Kang-Won Lee, Kannan Ramchandran and Vaduvur Bharghavan, “Application of FEC based Multiple Description Coding to Internet Video Streaming and Multicast”, Proceedings of the Packet Video 2000 Workshop, Forte Village Resort, Sardinia, Italy, May 2000.   

     With specific reference to the patent literature, it is possible to cite, as general references on the subject, the documents Nos. WO-A-2004/057876, WO-A-2004/046879, WO-A-2004/047425, WO-A-2004/014083, WO-A-2003/005676, WO-A-2003/005677, WO-A-2003/0005761, WO-A-2004/032517, and WO-A-2004/056121. 
     Notwithstanding the extensive activities documented, for example, by the literature cited above, there still exists the need for developing solutions that are truly efficient for the treatment of multiple-description signals, in particular for the treatment of video signals at a CPU level. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     One embodiment of the present invention provides a solution which will be able to meet the aforesaid need. 
     One embodiment of the present invention is directed to a method having the characteristics recalled in the ensuing claims. Another embodiment of the present invention relates also to a corresponding system, typically configurable as CPU, as well as a computer-program product, which can be loaded into the memory of at least one computer and comprises portions of software code for implementing the aforesaid method. As used herein, reference to such a computer-program product is understood as being equivalent to reference to a computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system in order to co-ordinate execution of the method according to the invention. Reference to “at least one computer” is intended to highlight the possibility for the present invention to be implemented in a distributed and/or modular way, for example on various CPUs. 
     The claims form an integral part of the disclosure of the invention provided in the present application. 
     In its currently preferred embodiment, the invention enables generation of instructions that can be entered within the ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) instruction set of any computer circuit, such as, for example, RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) computers, CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) computers, VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) computers, or superscalar microprocessors. 
     An embodiment of the invention that is at the moment particularly preferred envisages conversion (in one direction or in the other) of a digital signal organized in pixels, between a first format and a second format, the second format comprising multiple descriptions of the digital signal. The method comprises the operations of ordering the pixels of the signal to be converted into at least one input register and then taking the pixels selectively from the input registers and placing them in an orderly way in at least one output register. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The invention will be now described, by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the figures of the annexed plate of drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows an example of transmission of a video signal via multiple descriptions; 
         FIG. 2  shows the process of reconstruction of a video signal transmitted via multiple descriptions; and 
         FIGS. 3 to 7  represent the implementation of steps of the method described herein. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The detailed description provided in what follows relates, purely by way of example, to the coding of a digital video signal implemented with subsampled polyphase multiple descriptions. In practice, the solution described herein by way of example operates by splitting the original sequence of the video signal into N sub-sequences, where N is an integer, for example four or two. 
       FIG. 1  represents a multiple-description transmission system applied, for example, to the transmission of digital video signals; said system envisages the use of four multiple descriptions. 
     In detail, an input video signal I is subjected to pre-processing in a block  10  so as to generate, for example, four descriptions D 1  to D 4 . These are then passed on to an encoder  20  (of any known type), then to be “transmitted” on a channel C. This can be constituted by a transmission channel proper (for example, a channel comprised in a fixed and/or mobile network with a video-streaming function) or by a recording medium (for example a tape, a disk, a digital memory, and so on), on which the encoded digital signals are written so as to be then read, even at a distance in time and space. 
     The signals received after “transmission” on the channel C are sent on to a decoder  30  for recovery of multiple descriptions D 1 ′ to D 4 ′, which are then merged in a post-processing stage  40  to obtain an output video signal O. 
     The simplest case of polyphase subsampling is obtained when the original pixels of the signal I are simply demultiplexed, as shown schematically in  FIG. 2 . 
     In  FIG. 2  the same references already adopted in  FIG. 1  are used to designate the original video signal I, the multiple descriptions D 1  to D 4  derived from the input video signal I, the channel C, the multiple descriptions D 1 ′ to D 4 ′ received from the channel, and the output video signal O. Also here, the reference numbers  10 ,  20 ,  30 , and  40  designate, respectively, the pre-processing process which precedes encoding, the encoding process, the decoding process, and post-processing process subsequent to decoding. 
     The above technique, to which reference is made herein by way of example, constitutes a low-cost solution for the coding with subsampled polyphase multiple descriptions. It is, moreover, a solution that is particularly suited to a software implementation. 
     The idea underlying the solution described herein envisages implementing subsampling by resorting to instructions referred to as “SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) instructions”. By “SIMD instruction” is meant, in general, a single instruction that is applied in parallel to a number of data. It enables compact writing of the programs (which are lists of instructions). Using a SIMD it is possible, for example, to avoid repeating the same instruction for all the data to which it is to be applied. 
       FIG. 3  regards, again by way of example, treatment of images, which, for reasons of simplicity, are assumed as being constituted by 8×2 pixels. This example has been chosen because it enables reference to be made to the four registers of a 32-bit processor. 
     It is evident that this example can be extended in a simple way to situations in which operations are carried out with 4×2-pixel images on 16-bit processors and with 16×2-pixel images on 64-bit processors. 
     In  FIG. 3 , the arrow  34  indicates the direction of the pre-processing (module  10  of  FIG. 1 ), in which the information data regarding the image, designated by  33 , are stored in the four registers  36   a ,  36   b ,  36   c  and  36   d.    
     The arrow  38  indicates, instead, the direction of the post-processing (module  40  of  FIG. 1 ). 
     Specifically,  FIG. 3  exemplifies the case of appropriate SIMDs for creating/merging  4  descriptions obtained from simple polyphase subsampling of 2×2 blocks of pixels. 
     The sequence examined from top to bottom illustrates the creation of the four descriptions. At the top it may be seen how the bytes corresponding to each pixel are loaded into the registers of the machine. The blocks to be subsampled are designated by the numbers 0, 1, 2 and 3. Indicated in each block are the 4 pixels that are to be demultiplexed in the 4 descriptions: A, B, C and D. At the bottom, the result of pre-processing appears. It may be noted that now each register contains the pixels of just one description (A, B, C or D). 
     The sequence examined from bottom to top illustrates, instead, merging of the four descriptions. At the bottom, it may be seen how the bytes corresponding to the pixels of the descriptions are loaded into the registers of the machine. The pixels of each description are designated by the letters A, B, C and D. Indicated for each pixel is the number of the block in which it will be multiplexed: 0, 1, 2 and 3. At the top, the result of post-processing appears. Is may be noted that now the pixels are arranged in such a way that pixels of the same block are adjacent, since they occupy their original position. 
     The two instructions necessary for the steps of method can be called MD_pre and MD_post. The instruction MD_pre, designated by  50  in  FIG. 4 , receives at input the contents of two registers  52  and  54 , said contents being designated, respectively, by S 3 , S 2 , S 1 , S 0  and T 3 , T 2 , T 1 , T 0  in order to identify in a general way the contents of the information data  33  of  FIG. 3 , taken each time in pairs. 
     In particular, the instruction MD_pre performs the function of demultiplexing of the pixels. For the example represented, this corresponds to taking just the odd pixels from the input registers (the first, the third, etc.). In a more general case, this corresponds to taking one pixel every N pixels (if 1 pixel is taken every 2, we re-encounter the previous case). In a still more general case, it corresponds to taking the first M pixels of each group of N pixels. Finally, the maximum generalization is obtained by taking any M pixels, even non-adjacent ones, from each group of N pixels. 
     The instruction MD_post performs the function of multiplexing of the pixels. For the example represented, this corresponds to putting in the odd-position pixels the pixels of an input register (and consequently, putting in the even pixels the pixels of the other register), reversing the demultiplexing operation performed by MD_pre. The generalizations are similar to the ones described in the previous paragraph. 
     As represented in the upper part of  FIG. 4  and in  FIG. 5 , the instruction  50  restores at output some of the bits of the input registers, more in particular the odd-position bits, starting counting from the left. These bits are entered into an output register  56  in an orderly way, i.e., first the two bits taken from the register  52  and then the two bits taken from the register  54 . 
     If this instruction is called four times on different data, it is capable of extracting correctly the four descriptions, as shown in  FIG. 6 . 
     Is will be appreciated that the case illustrated in  FIG. 4  regards 32-bit registers; consequently, each square represents a group of 8 bits and not just one bit. Hence, reference is not made to odd-position bits, but to odd-position bytes. Separating the odd bytes corresponds to taking the first 8 bits of a group of 16, which corresponds to one of the generalizations described previously. 
     To consider the question in terms of bits is however useful because it is much more generic. The video and the images are described by the pixels, and each pixel corresponds, usually, to a byte for convenience of processing with the existing architectures. However, already now in high-quality professional machines use of 9, 10 or else 11 bits per pixel is envisaged. 
     In the case of just two descriptions, it may be assumed that the descriptions  3  and  4  form part of the descriptions  1  and  2 , so that the process will not change and only the final storage position will differ in the two cases. 
     In greater detail, in the case of two descriptions generated by horizontal polyphase subsampling, the processing consists in separating the odd pixels from the even ones. The case of 4 descriptions generated by horizontal and vertical polyphase subsampling of 2×2-pixel blocks can be brought back to the previous case by processing first just the odd rows and then just the even rows, and separating odd pixels and even pixels of each row. This corresponds to creating 2 descriptions from the odd rows, storing them in an appropriate position, and creating another 2 descriptions (for a total of 4) from the even rows, storing them in another appropriate position. 
     The instruction MD_post  60  operates in a dual way with respect to the instruction MD_pre  50 , as shown in the lower part of  FIG. 4  and in  FIG. 7 . The instruction MD_post  60  receives at input two registers  62  and  64 . The instruction returns at output the first two bits of the two registers  62  and  64 , starting from the left and places them in an output register  56 , in the first and in the third positions or else in the second and in the fourth positions, respectively, always counting from the left. 
     Basically, the conversion from the starting format (signal I) to the multiple-description format envisages performing a plurality of times the operations of ordering and taking selectively the pixels of the signal to be converted, generating each time one of the multiple descriptions D 1 , D 2 , D 3 , D 4  of the signal in the second format. In particular, in the example just described, the operation of treatment of the pixels of the signal to be converted is performed by operating each time on different sets of pixels. Specifically, the example illustrated in the upper part of  FIG. 4  envisages that the pixels of the signal to be converted into the multiple-description format will be taken from alternating positions of the input registers  52 ,  54  and then placed in adjacent positions in the output register  56 . 
     In the conversion in the opposite direction, i.e., in the conversion from the multiple-description format to the non-encoded format (i.e., in the example illustrated in the lower part of  FIG. 4 ), there is envisaged taking the pixels of the signal to be converted from adjacent positions in the input registers  62 ,  64  and then placing them in alternating positions in the output register  66 . 
     In either direction of conversion (i.e., in the conversion both to the multiple-description format and starting from said format) the output register  56 ,  66  has a number of pixel positions equal to one half of the total pixel positions of the input registers  52 ,  54  or else  62 ,  64 . 
     The mode of operation described and the corresponding instructions enable a result to be obtained that otherwise would require ten normal RISC instructions on a computer circuit with a reduced instruction set in order to implement the same process obtained by executing one instruction MD_pre  50  and one instruction MD_post  60 , as shown hereinafter. 
     and(R1, R10, 0xFF000000); 
     and(R1, R11, 0x0000FF00); 
     Shl(R11, 8, R11); 
     or (R10, R11, R10); 
     and(R2, R11, 0xFF000000); 
     Shr(R11, 16, R11); 
     or(R10, R11, R10); 
     and(R2, R11, 0xFF000000); 
     Shl(R11, 8, R12); 
     or (R10, R11, R10); 
     It may be seen that the process of transformation of an original 8×2 sequence (on a 32-bit processor), or of an original 16×2 sequence (on a 64-bit processor), or of an original 4×2 sequence (on a 16-bit processor) into four multiple descriptions, and its reverse process, can be achieved with 16 RISC instructions each, as shown hereinafter. 
     Pre-Processing: 
     Load(R1); 
     Load(R2); 
     Load(R3); 
     Load(R4); 
     Shl(R1, 8, R5); 
     Shl(R2, 8, R6); 
     Shl(R3, 8, R7); 
     Shl(R4, 8, R8) 
     MD_pre(R1, R2, R11); 
     MD_pre(R7, R8, R12); 
     MD_pre(R3, R4, R13); 
     MD_pre(R7, R8, R14); 
     Store(R11); 
     Store(R12); 
     Store(R13); 
     Store(R14) 
     Post-Processing: 
     Load(R1); 
     Load(R2); 
     Load(R3); 
     Load(R4); 
     Shl(R1, 16, R5); 
     Shl(R2, 16, R6); 
     Shl(R3, 16, R7); 
     Shl(R4, 16, R8) 
     MD_post(R1, R2, R11); 
     MD_post(R7, R8, R12); 
     MD_post(R3, R4, R13); 
     MD_post(R7, R8, R14); 
     Store(R11); 
     Store(R12); 
     Store(R13); 
     Store(R14) 
     This is equal, on average, to one instruction per pixel on the 32-bit processor, and to a half instruction per pixel on a 64-bit processor. By comparison, said operation without the instructions MD_pre  50  and MD_post  60  would each require 52 instructions. 
     Simple comparisons conducted by the applicant show what is described hereinafter. 
     In the case of a 32-bit processor used for the pre-processing function or for the post-processing function in a context such as the one illustrated in  FIG. 1 , in order to process 1 Mpixel/s, a computing capacity of 1 Mops/s, 12 registers, and an input/output (I/O) capacity of 1 Mbit/s are required. 
     These data can be compared with the amount of work commonly required for processing standard video formats, such as QCIF (Quarter Common Intermediate Format), CIF (Common Intermediate Format), standard D1, and high definition (HDTV) formats, as tabulated below. 
     
       
         
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 QCIF 
                 4:2:0 
                  0.6 Mpixel/s 
                  0.6 Mops 
               
               
                   
                 CIF 
                 4:2:0 
                 4.66 Mpixel/s 
                 4.66 Mops 
               
               
                   
                 D1 
                 4:2:0 
                 15.5 Mpixel/s 
                 15.5 Mops 
               
               
                   
                 HDTV 
                 4:2:0 
                 77.7 Mpixel/s 
                 77.7 Mops 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     In the case of a 64-bit processor used for the pre-processing function or for the post-processing function in a context such as the one illustrated in FIG.  1 , in order to process 1 Mpixel/s, a computing capacity of 0.5 Mops/s, once again with 12 registers, and an input/output (I/O) capacity of 2 Mbit/s are required. 
     These data can be compared with the amount of work corresponding to the QCIF, CIF, standard D1, and high definition (HDTV) formats, as tabulated below. 
     
       
         
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
                 QCIF 
                 4:2:0 
                  0.6 Mpixel/s 
                  0.3 Mops 
               
               
                   
                 CIF 
                 4:2:0 
                 4.66 Mpixel/s 
                 2.33 Mops 
               
               
                   
                 D1 
                 4:2:0 
                 15.5 Mpixel/s 
                 7.75 Mops 
               
               
                   
                 HDTV 
                 4:2:0 
                 77.7 Mpixel/s 
                 38.85 Mops  
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     These above figures refer to millions of operations per second. In the case of RISC processors, this is equivalent to requiring frequencies in the order of megahertz. In the case of modern VLIW processors and superscalar processors, which are capable of executing multiple operations in just one cycle, this value must be divided by the typical value of level of parallelism of the instructions. For example, a parallelism of two should be easily obtained on said processors. For instance, on a 64-bit VLIW superscalar processor, only 4 MHz are necessary for the pre-processing and 4 MHz for the post-processing of a standard-definition sequence, and less than 20 MHz for high-definition sequences. 
     It will also be appreciated that the phenomena of stalling of the D-cache are in actual fact negligible, given that the process is carried out on altogether predictable data patterns. 
     Consequently, without prejudice to the principle of the invention, the details of construction and the embodiments may vary, even significantly, with respect to what is described and illustrated herein, purely by way of non-limiting example, without thereby departing from the scope of the invention, as defined in the ensuing claims. 
     All of the above U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet, are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety.