Patent Publication Number: US-11394980-B2

Title: Preprocessing image data

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This Application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Nos. 62/957,286, filed on Jan. 5, 2020, 62/962,971, filed on Jan. 18, 2020, 62/962,970, filed on Jan. 18, 2020, 62/971,994, filed on Feb. 9, 2020, 63/012,339, filed on Apr. 20, 2020, and 63/023,883, filed on May 13, 2020, the entire contents of each of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     INTRODUCTION 
     Technical Field 
     The present disclosure concerns computer-implemented methods of preprocessing image data prior to encoding with an external encoder. The disclosure is particularly, but not exclusively, applicable where the image data is video data. 
     Background 
     When a set of images or video is sent over a dedicated IP packet switched or circuit-switched connection, a range of streaming and encoding recipes must be selected in order to ensure the best possible use of the available bandwidth. To achieve this, (i) the image or video encoder must be tuned to provide for some bitrate control mechanism; and (ii) the streaming server must provide for the means to control or switch the stream when the bandwidth of the connection does not suffice for the transmitted data. Methods for tackling bitrate control include: constant bitrate (CBR) encoding, variable bitrate (VBR) encoding, or solutions based on a video buffer verifier (VBV) model [9]-[12], such as QVBR, CABR, capped-CRF, etc. These solutions control the parameters of the adaptive quantization and intra-prediction or inter-prediction per image [9]-[12] in order to provide the best possible reconstruction accuracy for the decoded images or video at the smallest number of bits. Methods for tackling stream adaptation are the DASH and HLS protocols—namely, for the case of adaptive streaming over HTTP. Under adaptive streaming, the adaptation comprises the selection of a number of encoding resolutions, bitrates and encoding templates (discussed previously). Therefore, the encoding and streaming process is bound to change the frequency content of the input video and introduce (ideally) imperceptible or (hopefully) controllable quality loss in return for bitrate savings. This quality loss is measured with a range of quality metrics, ranging from low-level signal-to-noise ratio metrics, all the way to complex mixtures of expert metrics that capture higher-level elements of human visual attention and perception. One such metric that is now well-recognized by the video community and the Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG) is the Video Multi-method Assessment Fusion (VMAF), proposed by Netflix. There has been a lot of work in VMAF to make it a “self-interpretable” metric: values close to 100 (e.g. 93 or higher) mean that the compressed content is visually indistinguishable from the original, while low values (e.g. below 70) mean that the compressed content has significant loss of quality in comparison to the original. It has been reported [Ozer, Streaming Media Mag., “Buyers&#39; Guide to Video Quality Metrics”, Mar. 29, 2019] that a difference of around 6 points in VMAF corresponds to the so-called Just-Noticeable Difference (JND), i.e. quality difference that will be noticed by the viewer. 
     The process of encoding and decoding with a standard image or video encoder always requires the use of linear filters for the production of the decoded (and often upscaled) content that the viewer sees on their device. However, this tends to lead to uncontrolled quality fluctuation in video playback, or poor-quality video playback in general. The viewers most often experience this when they happen to be in an area with poor 4G/Wi-Fi signal strength, where the high-bitrate encoding of a 4K stream will quickly get switched to a much lower-bitrate/lower-resolution encoding, which the decoder and video player will keep on upscaling to the display device&#39;s resolution while the viewer continues watching. 
     Another factor that affects visual quality significantly is the settings of the decoding device&#39;s display or projector (if projection to an external surface or to a mountable or head-mounted display is used). Devices like mobile phones, tablets, monitors, televisions or projectors involve energy-saving modes where the display is deliberately ‘dimmed’ in order to save power [13][14]. This dimming process tends to include adjustment of contrast and brightness. Such dimming may be adjusted via environmental light via a dedicated sensor, or may be tunable by the viewer or by an external controller, e.g., to reduce eye fatigue [15]. Adaptive streaming proposals have explored energy-driven adaptation, e.g., adjusting transmission parameters or encoding resolutions and frame rates [16]-[21], in order to reduce energy consumption at the client device in a proactive or reactive manner. For example, the work of Massouh et al. [17] proposes luminance preprocessing at the server side in order to reduce power at the client side. The method of Massouh et al. proposes to preprocess the video at the server side in order to reduce its brightness/contrast, thus allowing for energy-consumption reduction at the client side regardless of the energy-saving or dimming settings of the client. However, this reduces the visual quality of the displayed video. In addition, it is attempting to do this experimentally, i.e., via some predetermined and non-learnable settings. 
     Technical solutions to the problem of how to improve visual quality (whilst ensuring efficient operation of encoders) can be grouped into three categories. 
     The first type of approaches consists of solutions attempting device-based enhancement, i.e. advancing the state-of-the-art in intelligent video post-processing at the video player. Several of these products are already in the market, including SoC solutions embedded within the latest 8K televisions. While there have been some advances in this domain [21]-[23], this category of solutions is limited by the stringent complexity constraints and power consumption limitations of consumer electronics. In addition, since the received content at the client is already distorted from the compression (quite often severely so), there are theoretical limits to the level of picture detail that can be recovered by client-side post-processing. Further, any additional post-processing taking place in the client side consumes energy, which goes against the principle of adhering to an energy-saving mode. 
     A second family of approaches consists of the development of bespoke image and video encoders, typically based on deep neural networks [16]-[20]. This deviates from encoding, stream-packaging and stream-transport standards and creates bespoke formats, so has the disadvantage of requiring bespoke transport mechanisms and bespoke decoders in the client devices. In addition, in the 50+ years video encoding has been developed most opportunities for improving gain in different situations have been taken, thereby making the current state-of-the-art in spatio-temporal prediction and encoding very difficult to outperform with neural-network solutions that are designed from scratch and learn from data. In addition, all such approaches focus on compression and signal-to-noise ratio (or mean squared error or structural similarity) metrics to quantify distortion, and do not consider the decoding device&#39;s dimming settings or how to reverse them to improve quality at the client side and save encoding bitrate. 
     The third family of methods comprises perceptual optimization of existing standards-based encoders by using perceptual metrics during encoding. Here, the challenges are that: i) the required tuning is severely constrained by the need for compliance to the utilized standard; ii) many of the proposed solutions tend to be limited to focus-of-attention models or shallow learning methods with limited capacity, e.g. assuming that the human gaze is focusing on particular areas of the frame (for instance, in a conversational video we tend to look at the speaker(s), not the background) or using some hand-crafted filters to enhance image slices or groups of image macroblocks prior to encoding; iii) such methods tend to require multiple encoding passes, thereby increasing complexity; and iv) no consideration is given to the decoding device&#39;s display (or projector) settings—i.e., known settings or estimates of those are not exploited in order to improve quality of the displayed video at the decoder side and/or save encoding bitrate for the same quality, as measured objectively by quality metrics or subjectively by human scorers. 
     Because of these issues, known designs are very tightly coupled to the specific encoder implementation and ignore the actual decoding display settings. Redesigning them for a new encoder and/or new standard, e.g., from HEVC to VP9 encoding, and/or a wide variety of display configurations, can require substantial effort. 
     The present disclosure seeks to solve or mitigate some or all of these above-mentioned problems. Alternatively and/or additionally, aspects of the present disclosure seek to provide improved image and video encoding and decoding methods, and in particular methods that can be used in combination with existing image and video codec frameworks. 
     SUMMARY 
     In accordance with a first aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a computer-implemented method of preprocessing, prior to encoding with an external encoder, image data using a preprocessing network comprising a set of inter-connected learnable weights, the method comprising: receiving, at the preprocessing network, image data from one or more images; and processing the image data using the preprocessing network to generate an output pixel representation for encoding with the external encoder, wherein the preprocessing network is configured to take as an input display configuration data representing one or more display settings of a display device operable to receive encoded pixel representations from the external encoder, and wherein the weights of the preprocessing network are dependent upon the one or more display settings of the display device. 
     By conditioning the weights of the preprocessing network on the configuration settings of the external encoder, the representation space can be partitioned within a single model, reducing the need to train multiple models for different device display settings, and reducing the need to redesign and/or reconfigure the preprocessing model for a new display device and/or a display setting. The methods described herein include a preprocessing model that exploits knowledge of display settings (including energy-saving settings) of the display device to tune the parameters and/or operation of the preprocessing model. The preprocessing network may be referred to as an “energy-saving precoder” since it precedes the actual image or video encoder in the image processing pipeline, and aims to optimize the visual quality after decoding and display of image data optionally with dimmed settings, e.g. due to energy-saving features being enabled at the client/display device. This can be done prior to streaming, or during live streaming/transmission of the encoded video, of even in very-low latency video conferencing applications. 
     By using a preprocessing network conditioned on the display settings of the display device, the quality of playback at the display device may be improved, by pseudo-reversing the effects of the display device&#39;s dimming settings. In particular, an image signal can be enhanced (or amplified) prior to encoding if it is determined that the display device is in an energy-saving mode. This can be achieved without requiring (or imposing) any control on how the display device adjusts its energy-saving or display dimming settings, or indeed how it switches between adaptive streaming modes (e.g., in HLS/DASH or CMAF streaming). Further, a visual quality of the displayed images may be improved for a given encoding bitrate (e.g. as scored by quality metrics) by taking into account client-side display and/or dimming settings. The improvement in visual quality can be achieved whilst causing a minimal increase in energy consumption at the display device, compared to the energy consumption associated with displaying the original video/image without the use of the preprocessing network. Fidelity of the subsequently encoded, decoded and displayed image data to the original image data may also be improved through use of the methods described herein. 
     The described methods include technical solutions that are adaptive and/or learnable, which make preprocessing adjustments according to dynamic estimates (or measurements) of client-side display settings, as well as the dynamically-changing characteristics of the content of each image. The methods described herein also use cost functions to optimize the trade-off between signal fidelity and perceptual quality as assessed by human viewers watching the displayed image/video using display devices which support dimming features, e.g. to save energy and/or reduce eye fatigue. 
     The methods described herein include a precoding method that exploits knowledge, or estimates, of the display settings of the display device to tune the parameters based on data and can utilize a standard image/video encoder with a predetermined encoding recipe for bitrate, quantization and temporal prediction parameters, and fidelity parameters. An overall technical question addressed can be abstracted as: how to optimally preprocess (or “precode”) the pixel stream of a video into a (typically) smaller pixel stream, in order to make standards-based encoders as efficient (and fast) as possible and maximize the client-side video quality? This question may be especially relevant where, beyond dimming the display or projector luminance/contrast and other parameters, the client device can resize the content in space and time (e.g. increase/decrease spatial resolution or frame rate) with its existing filters, and/or where perceptual quality is measured with the latest advances in perceptual quality metrics from the literature, e.g., using VMAF or similar metrics. 
     In embodiments, the one or more display settings are indicative of an energy-saving state of the display device. For example, the one or more display settings may indicate whether or not the display device is in an energy-saving mode. Different display settings may be used by the display device depending on whether or not the display device is in the energy-saving mode. 
     The term “display device” is used herein to refer to one or multiple physical devices. The display device, or “client device”, can receive encoded image data, decode the encoded image data, and generate an image for display. In some examples, the decoder functionality is provided separately from the display (or projector) functionality, e.g., on different physical devices. In other examples, a single physical device (e.g. a mobile telephone) can both decode encoded bitstreams and display the decoded data on a screen that is part of the device. In some examples, the display device is operable to generate a display output for display on another physical device, e.g. a monitor. 
     Preferably, the one or more display settings are indicative of at least one of: whether the display device is plugged into an external power supply or is running on battery power; a battery power level of the display device; voltage or current levels measured or estimated while the display device is decoding and displaying image data; processor utilization levels of the display device; and a number of concurrent applications or execution threads running on the display device. 
     In embodiments, the one or more display settings comprise at least one of: brightness, contrast, gamma correction, refresh rate, flickering settings, bit depth, color space, color format, spatial resolution, and back-lighting settings of the display device. Other display settings may be used in alternative embodiments. 
     Advantageously, the weights of the preprocessing network are trained using end-to-end back-propagation of errors, the errors calculated using a cost function indicative of an estimated image error associated with displaying output pixel representations using the display device configured according to the one or more display settings. 
     In embodiments, the cost function is indicative of an estimate of at least one of: an image noise of the decoded output pixel representation; a bitrate to encode the output pixel representation; and a perceived quality of the decoded output pixel representation. As such, the preprocessing network may be used to reduce noise in the final displayed image(s), reduce the bitrate to encode the output pixel representation, and/or improve the visual quality of the final displayed image(s). 
     Advantageously, the cost function is formulated using an adversarial learning framework, in which the preprocessing network is encouraged to generate output pixel representations that reside on the natural image manifold. As such, the preprocessing network is trained to produce images which lie on the natural image manifold, and/or to avoid producing images which do not lie on the natural image manifold. This facilitates an improvement in user perception of the subsequently displayed image(s). 
     In embodiments, the estimated image error is indicative of the similarity of the output of decoding the encoded output pixel representation to the received image data based on at least one reference-based quality metric, the at least one reference based quality metric comprising at least one of: an elementwise loss function such as mean squared error, MSE; a structural similarity index metric, SSIM; and a visual information fidelity metric, VIF. As such, the preprocessing network may be used to improve the fidelity of the final displayed image(s) relative to the original input image(s). In embodiments, the weights of the preprocessing network are trained in a manner that balances perceptual quality of the post-decoded output with fidelity to the original image. 
     In embodiments, the resolution of the received image data is different to the resolution of the output pixel representation. For example, the resolution of the output pixel representation may be lower than the resolution of the received image data. By downscaling the image prior to using the external encoder, the external encoder can operate more efficiently by processing a lower resolution image. Moreover, the parameters used when downscaling/upscaling can be chosen to provide different desired results, for example to improve accuracy (i.e. how similarly the recovered images are to the original). Further, the downscaling/upscaling process may be designed to be in accordance with downscaling/upscaling performed by the external encoder, so that the downscaled/upscaled images can be encoded by the external encoder without essential information being lost. 
     Preferably, the preprocessing network comprises an artificial neural network including multiple layers having a convolutional architecture, with each layer being configured to receive the output of one or more previous layers. 
     In embodiments, the outputs of each layer of the preprocessing network are passed through a non-linear parametric linear rectifier function, pReLU. Other non-linear functions may be used in other embodiments. 
     In embodiments, the preprocessing network comprises a dilation operator configured to expand a receptive field of a convolutional operation of a given layer of the preprocessing network. Increasing the receptive field allows for integration of larger global context. 
     In embodiments, the weights of the preprocessing network are trained using a regularization method that controls the capacity of the preprocessing network, the regularization method comprising using hard or soft constraints and/or a normalization technique on the weights that reduces a generalization error. 
     In embodiments, the output pixel representation is encoded using the external encoder. In embodiments, the encoded pixel representation is output for transmission, for example to a decoder, for subsequent decoding and display of the image data. In alternative embodiments, the encoded pixel representation is output for storage. 
     In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer-implemented method of preprocessing of one or multiple images into output pixel representations that can subsequently be encoded with any external still-image or video encoder. The method of preprocessing comprises a set of weights inter-connected in a network (termed as “preprocessing network”) that ingests: (i) the input pixels from the single or plurality of images; (ii) knowledge or estimates of the client device&#39;s display (or projector) settings, or knowledge, or estimates, of the client&#39;s power or energy-saving state. These settings can be measurements or estimates of the average settings for a time interval of a video (or any duration), or can be provided per scene, per individual frame, or even per segment of an individual frame or image. 
     In embodiments, the preprocessing network is configured to convert input pixels of each frame to output pixel representations by applying the network weights on the input pixels and accumulating the result of the output product and summation between weights and subsets of input pixels. The network weights, as well as offset or bias terms used for sets of one or more weights, are conditioned on the aforementioned client device power and/or display (or projector) dimming settings. The weights are updated via a training process that uses end-to-end back-propagation of errors computed on the outputs to each group of weights, biases and offsets based on the network connections. The output errors are computed via a cost function that estimates the image or video frame error after encoding and decoding and displaying (or projecting) the output pixel representation of the preprocessing network with the aforementioned external encoder, client decoder and display or projector using encoding and client display settings close to, or identical, to the ones used as inputs to the network. 
     In embodiments, the utilized cost function comprises multiple terms that, for the output after decoding, express: image or video frame noise estimates, or functions that estimate the rate to encode the image or video frame, or estimates, functions expressing the perceived quality of the client output from human viewers, or any combinations of these terms. The preprocessing network and cost-function components are trained or refined for any number of iterations prior to deployment (offline) based on training data or, optionally, have their training fine-tuned for any number of iterations based on data obtained during the preprocessing network and encoder-decoder-display operation during deployment (online). 
     In embodiments, the disclosed preprocessing network can increase or decrease the resolution of the pixel data in accordance to a given upscaling or downscaling ratio. It can also increase or decrease the frame rate by a given ratio. The ratio can be an integer or fractional number and also includes ratio of 1 (unity) that corresponds to no resolution change. For example, ratio of 2/3 and input image resolution equal to 1080p (1920×1080 pixels, with each pixel comprising 3 color values) would correspond to the output being an image of 720p resolution (1280×720 pixels). Similarly, ratio 2/3 in frame rate and original frame rate of 30 fps would correspond to the output being at 20 fps. 
     In terms of the structure of the preprocessing network connections, the network can optionally be structured in a cascaded structure of layers of activations. Each activation in each layer can be connected to any subset (or the entirety) of activations of the next layer, or a subsequent layer by a function determined by the layer weights. In addition, the network can optionally comprise a single or multiple layers of a convolutional architecture, with each layer taking the outputs of the previous layer and implementing a filtering process via them that realizes the mathematical operation of convolution. In addition, some or all the outputs of each layer can optionally be passed through a non-linear parametric linear rectifier function (pReLU) or other non-linear functions that include, but are not limited to, variations of the sigmoid function or any variation of functions that produce values based on threshold criteria. 
     In embodiments, some or all of the convolutional layers of the preprocessing architecture can include implementations of dilation operators that expand the receptive field of the convolutional operation per layer. In addition, the training of the preprocessing network weights can be done with the addition of regularization methods that control the network capacity, via hard or soft constraints or normalization techniques on the layer weights or activations that reduces the generalization error but not the training error. 
     In embodiments, the utilized cost functions can express the fidelity to the input images based on reference-based quality metrics that include one or more of: elementwise loss functions such as mean squared error (MSE); the sum of absolute errors or variants of it; the structural similarity index metric (SSIM); the visual information fidelity metric (VIF) from the published work of H. Sheikh and A. Bovik entitled “Image Information and Visual Quality”, the detail loss metric (DLM) from the published work of S. Li, F. Zhang, L. Ma, and K. Ngan entitled “Image Quality Assessment by Separately Evaluating Detail Losses and Additive Impairments”; variants and combinations of these metrics; cost functions that express or estimate quality scores attributed to the output images from human viewers; and/or cost functions formulated via an adversarial learning framework, in which the preprocessing network is encouraged to generate output pixel representations that reside on the natural image manifold (and potentially encouraged to reside away from another non-representative manifold); one such example of an adversarial learning framework is the generative adversarial network (GAN), in which the preprocessing network represents the generative component. 
     In terms of the provided client side display or projection parameters, these can include: brightness, contrast, gamma correction, refresh rate, flickering (or filtering) settings, bit depth, color space, color format, spatial resolution, and back-lighting settings (if existing), whether the device is plugged in an external power supply or is running on battery power, the battery power level, voltage or current levels measured or estimated while the device is decoding and displaying video, CPU or graphics processing unit(s) utilization levels, number of concurrent applications or execution threads running in the device&#39;s task manager or power manager. Moreover, the utilized encoder is a standards-based image or video encoder such as an ISO JPEG or ISO MPEG standard encoder, or a proprietary or royalty-free encoder, such as, but not limited to, an AOMedia encoder. 
     In embodiments, either before encoding or after decoding, high resolution and low resolution image or video pairs can be provided and the low resolution image is upscaled and optimized to improve and/or match quality or rate of the high resolution image using the disclosed invention as the means to achieve this. In the optional case of this being applied after decoding, this corresponds to a component on the decoder (client side) that applies such processing after the external decoder has provided the decoded image or video frames. 
     In terms of training process across time, the training of the preprocessing network weights, and any adjustment to the cost functions are performed at frequent or infrequent intervals with new measurements from quality, bitrate, perceptual quality scores from humans, or encoded image data from external image or video encoders, and the updated weights and cost functions replace the previously-utilized ones. 
     In embodiments, the external encoder comprises an image codec. In embodiments, the image data comprises video data and the one or more images comprise frames of video. In embodiments, the external encoder comprises a video codec. 
     The methods of processing image data described herein may be performed on a batch of video data, e.g. a complete video file for a movie or the like, or on a stream of video data. 
     The disclosed preprocessing network (or precoder) comprises a linear or non-linear system trained by gradient-descent methods and back-propagation. The system can comprise multiple convolutional layers with non-linearities and can include dilated convolutional layers and multiple cost functions, which are used to train the weights of the layers using back propagation. The weights of the layers, their connection and non-linearities, and the associated cost functions used for the training can be conditioned on the image or video encoder settings and the ‘dimming’ settings of the display device (or estimates of such settings). 
     In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure there is provided a computing device comprising: a processor; and a memory, wherein the computing device is arranged to perform using the processor any of the methods of preprocessing image data described above. 
     In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure there is provided a computer program product arranged, when executed on a computing device comprising a process or memory, to perform any of the methods of preprocessing image data described above. 
     It will of course be appreciated that features described in relation to one aspect of the present disclosure described above may be incorporated into other aspects of the present disclosure. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings of which: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a method of processing image data in accordance with embodiments; 
         FIGS. 2( a ) to 2( d )  are schematic diagrams showing a preprocessing network in accordance with embodiments; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram showing a preprocessing network in accordance with embodiments; 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram showing a convolutional layer of a preprocessing network in accordance with embodiments; 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram showing a training process in accordance with embodiments; 
         FIG. 6  is an example of video playback in accordance with embodiments; 
         FIG. 7  is a flowchart showing the steps of a method of preprocessing image data in accordance with embodiments; and 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic diagram of a computing device in accordance with embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments of the present disclosure are now described. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram showing a method of processing image data, according to embodiments. The method involves deep video precoding conditional to knowledge or estimates of a client device&#39;s dimming settings (and optional resizing). Image or video input data is preprocessed by a conditional ‘precoder’ (conditioned to information or estimates provided by the client dimming grabber/estimator) prior to passing to an external image or video codec. Information on the client dimming or power modes can be obtained via feedback from the client, as shown in  FIG. 1 . This can be achieved, for example, via a JavaScript component running on a client browser page, which will send real-time information on whether the device is on power-saving mode or it is plugged into a charger. Other mechanisms include, but are not limited to, a player application on the client side that has permissions to read the detailed status of the display and power modes from the device. If such feedback is not available from the client as shown in  FIG. 1 , offline estimates and statistics can be used for the power modes and display dimming settings of popular devices, e.g., mobile phones, tablets, smart TVs, etc. The user can even select to switch to a dimming-optimized precoding mode manually, by selecting the appropriate option during the video playback. Embodiments are applicable to batch processing, i.e. processing a group of images or video frames together without delay constraints (e.g. an entire video sequence), as well as to stream processing, i.e. processing only a limited subset of a stream of images or video frames, or even a select subset of a single image, due to delay or buffering constraints. 
     As discussed above, embodiments comprise a deep conditional precoding that processes input image or video frames. The deep conditional precoding (and optional post-processing) shown in  FIG. 1  can comprise any combination of learnable weights locally or globally connected in a network with a non-linear activation function. An example of such weights is shown in  FIG. 2( a )  and an associated example in  FIG. 2( b )  showcases global connectivity between weights and inputs. That is,  FIG. 2( a )  shows a combination of inputs x 0 , . . . , x 3  with weight coefficients Θ and linear or non-linear activation function g( ), and  FIG. 2( b )  is a schematic diagram showing layers of interconnected activations and weights, forming an artificial neural network with global connectivity. An example of local connectivity between weights and inputs is shown in  FIG. 2( c )  for a 2D dilated convolution [1], 3×3 kernel, and dilation rate of 2. As such,  FIG. 2( c )  is a schematic diagram of a 2D dilated convolutional layer with local connectivity.  FIG. 2( d )  is a schematic diagram of back-propagation of errors d from an intermediate layer (right hand side of  FIG. 2( d ) ) to the previous intermediate layer using gradient descent. 
     An example of the deep conditional precoding model is shown in  FIG. 3 . It consists of a series of conditional convolutional layers and elementwise parametric ReLu (pReLu) layers of weights and activations. As such,  FIG. 3  shows a cascade of conditional convolutional and parametric ReLu (pReLu) layers mapping input pixel groups to transformed output pixel groups. In embodiments, all layers receive coder, settings as input, along with the representation from the previous layer. In alternative embodiments, some layers do not receive codec settings as input. There is also an optional skip connection between the input and output layer. In embodiments, each conditional convolution takes the output of the preceding layer as input (with the first layer receiving the image as input), along with intended (or estimated) settings for the client side display or projection, encoded as a numerical representation. For image precoding for an image codec, these settings can include but are not limited to: (i) the provided or estimated decoding device&#39;s display settings include at least one of the following: brightness, contrast, gamma correction, refresh rate, flickering (or filtering) settings, bit depth, color space, color format, spatial resolution, and back-lighting settings (if existing); (ii) the provided or estimated decoding device&#39;s power or energy-saving settings include at least one of the following: whether the device is plugged in an external power supply or is running on battery power, the battery power level, voltage or current levels measured or estimated while the device is decoding and displaying video, CPU or graphics processing unit(s) utilization levels, number of concurrent applications or execution threads running in the device&#39;s task manager or power manager. 
       FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram showing a convolutional layer conditional to client device dimmer and/or energy settings. The layer receives these settings (or their estimates) as an input, which is quantized and one-hot encoded. The one hot encoded vector is then mapped to intermediate representations w and b, which respectively weight and bias the channels of the output of the dilated convolutional layer z. The one hot encoded conditional convolutional layer is shown in this example for the case of JPEG encoding. In the example for conditional convolutional layers for PEG encoding of  FIG. 4 , these settings are quantized to integer values and one-hot encoded. The one-hot encoding is then mapped via linear or non-linear functions, such as densely connected layers as shown in  FIG. 2( b ) ), to vector representations. These vector representations are then used to weight and bias the output of a dilated convolution—thus conditioning the dilated convolution on the user settings. 
     Conditioning the precoding on user settings enables a partitioning of the representation space within a single model without having to train multiple models for every possible client-side display or power setting. An example of the connectivity per dilated convolution is as shown in  FIG. 2( c ) . The dilation rate (spacing between each learnable weight in the kernel), kernel size (number of learnable weights in the kernel per dimension) and stride (step per dimension in the convolution operation) are all variable per layer, with a dilation rate of 1 equating to a standard convolution. Increasing the dilation rate increases the receptive field per layer and allows for integration of larger global context. The entirety of the series of dilated convolutional layers and activation functions can be trained end-to-end based on back-propagation of errors for the output layer backwards using gradient descent methods, as illustrated in  FIG. 2( d ) . 
     An example of the framework for training the deep conditional precoding is shown in  FIG. 5 . In particular,  FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram showing training of deep conditional precoding for intra-frame coding, where s represents the scale factor for resizing and Q represents the client device display settings (which may include energy settings), or their estimates. The discriminator and precoder are trained iteratively and the perceptual model can also be trained iteratively with the precoder, or pre-trained and frozen. The guidance image input {tilde over (x)} to the discriminator refers to a linearly downscaled, compressed and upscaled representation of x. The post-processing refers to a simple linear (non-parametric) upscaling in this example. In embodiments, the precoding is trained in a manner that balances perceptual quality of the post-decoded and displayed output with fidelity to the original image or frame. The precoding is trained iteratively via backpropagation and any variation of gradient descent, e.g. as described with reference to  FIG. 2( d ) . Parameters of the learning process, such as the learning rate, the use of dropout and other regularization options to stabilize the training and convergence process are applied. 
     The example training framework described herein assumes that post-processing only constitutes a simple linear resizing. The framework comprises a linear or non-linear weighted combination of loss functions for training the deep conditional precoding. The loss functions will now be described. 
     The distortion loss L D  is derived as a function of a perceptual model, and optimized over the precoder weights, in order to match or maximize the perceptual quality of the post-decoded output {circumflex over (x)} over the original input x. The perceptual model is a parametric model that estimates the perceptual quality of the post-decoded output {circumflex over (x)}. The perceptual model can be configured as an artificial neural network with weights and activation functions and connectivity similar to those shown in  FIGS. 2( a )-2( d ) . This perceptual model produces a reference or non-reference based score for quality; reference based scores compare the quality of {circumflex over (x)} to x, whereas non-reference based scores produce a blind image quality assessment of {circumflex over (x)}. The perceptual mod&amp; can optionally approximate non-differentiable perceptual score functions, including VIF, ADM2 and VMAF, with continuous differentiable functions. The perceptual model can also be trained to output human rater scores, including MOS or distributions over ACR values.  FIG. 5  depicts a non-reference based example framework trained to output the distribution over ACR values. The perceptual model can either be pre-trained or trained iteratively with the deep conditional preceding by minimizing perceptual loss L P  and L D  alternately or sequentially respectively. The perceptual loss L p  is a function of the difference between the reference (human-rater) quality scores and model-predicted quality scores over a range of inputs. The distortion loss L D  can thus be defined between {circumflex over (x)} and x, as a linear or non-linear function of the intermediate activations of selected layers of the perceptual model, up to the output reference or non-reference based scores. Additionally, in order to ensure faithful reconstruction of the input x, the distortion loss is combined with a pixel-wise loss directly between the input x and {circumflex over (x)}, such as mean absolute error (MAE) or mean squared error (MSE), and optionally a structural similarity loss, based on SSIM or MSSIM. 
     The adversarial loss L A  is optimized over the precoder weights, in order to ensure that the post-decoded output  2 , which is generated via the precoder, lies on the natural image manifold. The adversarial loss is formulated by modelling the precoder as a generator and adding a discriminator into the framework, which corresponds to the generative adversarial network (GAN) setup [2], as illustrated in  FIG. 5 . In the standard GAN configuration, the discriminator receives the original input frames, represented by x and the post-decoded output {circumflex over (x)} as input, which can respectively be referred to as ‘real’ and ‘fake’ (or ‘artificial’) data. The discriminator is trained to distinguish between the ‘real’ and ‘fake’ data with loss L. On the contrary, the precoder is trained with L A  to fool the discriminator into classifying the ‘fake’ data as ‘real’. The discriminator and precoder are trained alternately with L C  and L A  respectively, with additional constraints such as gradient clipping depending on the GAN variant. The loss formulations for L C  and L A  directly depend on the GAN variant utilized; this can include but is not limited to standard saturating, non-saturating [2], [3] and least-squares GANs [4] and their relativistic GAN counterparts [5], and integral probability metric (IPM) based GANs, such as Wasserstein GAN (WEAN) [6], [7] and Fisher GAN [8]. Additionally, the loss functions can be patch-based (i.e. evaluated between local patches of x and {circumflex over (x)}) or can be image-based (i.e. evaluated between whole images). The discriminator is configured with conditional convolutional layers, e.g. as shown in  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4 . An additional guidance image or frame {circumflex over (x)} is passed to the discriminator, which can represent a linear downscaled, upscaled and compressed representation of x, following the same scaling and codec settings as {circumflex over (x)}. The discriminator can thus learn to distinguish between x, {circumflex over (x)} and {circumflex over (x)}, whilst the precoder can learn to generate representations that post-decoding and scaling will be perceptually closer to x than {circumflex over (x)}. 
     The noise loss component L N  is optimized over the precoder weights and acts as a form of regularization, in order to further ensure that the precoder is trained such that the post-decoded and displayed output is a denoised representation of the input. Examples of noise include aliasing artefacts (e.g. jagging or ringing) introduced by downscaling in the precoder, as well as additional codec artefacts (e.g. blocking and brightness/contrast/gamma adjustment) introduced by the virtual codec and display during training to emulate a standard video or image codec that performs lossy compression and a display or projector that performs dimming functionalities. An example of the noise loss component L N  is total variation denoising, which is effective at removing noise while preserving edges. 
     The rate loss L R  is an optional loss component that is optimized over the precoder weights, in order to constrain the rate (number of bits or bitrate) of the precoder output, as estimated by a virtual codec module. 
     The virtual codec and virtual display modules depicted in  FIG. 5  emulate: (i) a standard image or video codec that performs lossy compression and primarily consists of a frequency transform component, a quantization and entropy encoding component and a dequantization and inverse transform component; (ii) a standard display or projector that adjusts brightness/contrast/gamma/refresh rate/flicker parameters, etc. The virtual codec module takes as input the precoder output and any associated coder settings (e.g. CRF, preset). The virtual display module takes as input the client dimmer/energy saving settings or estimates that the precoder itself is conditioned on (e.g. via the conditional convolutional layers shown in  FIG. 4 ). The frequency transform component of the virtual codec is any variant of discrete sine or cosine transform or wavelet transform, or an atom-based decomposition. The dequantization and inverse transform component can convert the transform coefficients back into approximated pixel values. The main source of loss for the virtual coder, module comes from the quantization component, which emulates any multi-stage deadzone or non-deadzone quantizer. The virtual display module applies standard contrast/brightness/gamma/flicker filters and optionally frame and resolution up/down conversion using differentiable approximations of these functionalities. Any non-differentiable parts of the standard coder or standard display functionalities are approximated with continuous differentiable alternatives; one such example is the rounding operation in quantization, which can be approximated with additive uniform noise of support width equal to 1. In this way, the entire virtual codec and virtual display modules are end-to-end continuously differentiable. To estimate the rate in L R , the entropy coding component represents a continuously differentiable approximation to a standard Huffman, arithmetic or runlength encoder, or any combination of those that is also made context adaptive, i.e., by looking at quantization symbol types and surrounding values (context conditioning) in order to utilize the appropriate probability model and compression method. The entropy coding and other virtual codec components can be made learnable, with an artificial neural network or similar, and jointly trained with the precoding or pre-trained to maximize the likelihood on the frequency transformed and quantized precoder representations. Alternatively, a given lossy JPEG, MPEG or AOMedia open encoder can be used to provide the actual rate and compressed representations as reference, which the virtual codec can be trained to replicate. In both cases, training of the artificial neural network parameters can be performed with backpropagation and gradient descent methods. 
     As shown in the example depicted in  FIG. 5 , the discriminator and deep conditional precoding can be trained alternately. This can also be true for the perceptual model and deep video precoding (or otherwise the perceptual model can be pre-trained and weights frozen throughout precoder training). After training one component, its weights are updated and it is frozen and the other component is trained. This weight update and interleaved training improves both and allows for end-to-end training and iterative improvement both during the training phase. The number of iterations that a component is trained before being frozen, n≥1. For the discriminator-preceding pair, this will depend on the GAN loss formulation and whether one seeks to train the discriminator to optimality. Furthermore, the training can continue online and at any time during the system&#39;s operation. An example of this is when new images and quality scores are added into the system, or new forms of display dimming options and settings are added, which correspond to a new or updated form of dimming options, or new types of image content, e.g., cartoon images, images from computer games, virtual or augmented reality applications, etc. 
     To test the methods described herein, a utilized video codec fully-compliant to the H.264/AVC standard was used, with the source code being the JM19.0 reference software of the HHI/Fraunhofer repository [29]. For the experiments, the same encoding parameters were used, which were: encoding frame rate of 25 frames-per-second; YUV encoding with zero U, V channels since the given images are monochrome (zero-valued UV channels consume minimal bitrate that is equal for both the described methods and the original video encoder); one I frame (only first); motion estimation search range+/−32 pixels and simplified UMHexagon search selected; 2 reference frames; and P prediction modes enabled (and B prediction modes enabled for QP-based control); NumberBFrames parameter set to 0 for rate-control version and NumberBFrames set to 3 for QP control version; CABAC is enabled and single-pass encoding is used; single-slice encoding (no rate sacrificed for error resilience); in the rate-control version, InitialQP=32 and all default rate control parameters of the encoder.cfg file of JM19.0 were enabled; SourceBitDepthLuma/Chroma set to 12 bits and no use of rescaling or Q-Matrix. 
     The source material comprised standard 1080p 8-bit RGB resolution videos, but similar results have been obtained with visual image sequences or videos in full HD or ultra-HD resolution and any dynamic range for the input pixel representations. For the display dimming functionalities, standard brightness and contrast downconversions were applied by 60% when the utilized mobile, tablet, monitor or smart TV is set on energy-saving mode. These settings were communicated to the disclosed network preprocessing system as shown in  FIG. 1 . A conditional neural network architecture based on the examples shown in  FIG. 2( a )-2( d )  and  FIG. 3  was used to implement the conditional precoding system. The training and testing followed the examples described with reference to  FIG. 4  and  FIG. 5 . An indicative visual result is shown in  FIG. 6 , which depicts an example of video playback of a sequence where the left side of the video has not been adjusted using the precoder, and the right side has been adjusted using the methods disclosed herein, to compensate for screen dimming and improve the visual quality. As shown by  FIG. 6 , for the provided video sequence and under the knowledge or approximation of the encoding and display dimming parameters, the described methods offer significant quality improvement by pseudo-reversing the effects of encoding and dimming. This occurs for both types of encodings (bitrate and QP control). Beyond the presented embodiments, the methods described herein can be realized with the full range of options and adaptivity described in the previous examples, and all such options and their adaptations are covered by this disclosure. 
     Using as an option selective downscaling during the precoding process and allowing for a linear upscaling component at the client side after decoding (as presented in  FIG. 1 ), the methods described herein can shrink the input to 10%-40% of the frame size of the input frames, which means that the encoder processes a substantially smaller number of pixels and is therefore 2-6 times faster than the encoder of the full resolution infrared image sequence. This offers additional benefits in terms of increased energy autonomy for video monitoring under battery support, vehicle/mobile/airborne visual monitoring systems, etc. 
       FIG. 7  shows a method  700  for preprocessing image data using a preprocessing network comprising a set of inter-connected learnable weights. The method  700  may be performed by a computing device, according to embodiments. The method  700  may be performed at least in part by hardware and/or software. The preprocessing is performed prior to encoding the preprocessed image data with an external encoder. The preprocessing network is configured to take as an input display configuration data representing one or more display settings of a display device operable to receive encoded pixel representations from the external encoder. The weights of the preprocessing network are dependent upon (i.e. conditioned on) the one or more display settings of the display device. At item  710 , image data from one or more images is received at the preprocessing network. The image data may be retrieved from storage (e.g. in a memory), or may be received from another entity. At item  720 , the image data is processed using the preprocessing network (e.g. by applying the weights of the preprocessing network to the image data) to generate an output pixel representation for encoding with the external encoder. In embodiments, the method  700  comprises encoding the output pixel representation, e.g. using the external encoder. The encoded output pixel representation may be transmitted, for example to the display device for decoding and subsequent display. 
     Embodiments of the disclosure include the methods described above performed on a computing device, such as the computing device  800  shown in  FIG. 8 . The computing device  800  comprises a data interface  801 , through which data can be sent or received, for example over a network. The computing device  800  further comprises a processor  802  in communication with the data interface  801 , and memory  803  in communication with the processor  802 . In this way, the computing device  800  can receive data, such as image data or video data, via the data interface  801 , and the processor  802  can store the received data in the memory  803 , and process it so as to perform the methods of described herein, including preprocessing image data prior to encoding using an external encoder, and optionally encoding the preprocessed image data. 
     Each device, module, component, machine or function as described in relation to any of the examples described herein may comprise a processor and/or processing system or may be comprised in apparatus comprising a processor and/or processing system. One or more aspects of the embodiments described herein comprise processes performed by apparatus. In some examples, the apparatus comprises one or more processing systems or processors configured to carry out these processes. In this regard, embodiments may be implemented at least in part by computer software stored in (non-transitory) memory and executable by the processor, or by hardware, or by a combination of tangibly stored software and hardware (and tangibly stored firmware). Embodiments also extend to computer programs, particularly computer programs on or in a carrier, adapted for putting the above described embodiments into practice. The program may be in the form of non-transitory source code, object code, or in any other non-transitory form suitable for use in the implementation of processes according to embodiments. The carrier may be any entity or device capable of carrying the program, such as a RAM, a ROM, or an optical memory device, etc. 
     Various measures (including methods, apparatus, computing devices and computer program products) are provided for preprocessing of a single or a plurality of images prior to encoding them with an external image or video encoder. The preprocessing method comprises a set of weights, biases and offset terms that are inter-connected (termed as “preprocessing network”) that ingests: (i) the input pixels from the single or plurality of images; (ii) knowledge, or estimates, of the decoder device&#39;s display (or projector) settings, or knowledge, or estimates, of the decoder device&#39;s power or energy-saving state. The utilised preprocessing network is configured to convert input pixels to an output pixel representation such that: weights and offset or bias terms of the network are conditioned on the aforementioned display or projection or decoder power or energy-saving settings and the weights are trained end-to-end with back-propagation of errors from outputs to inputs. The output errors are computed via a cost function that estimates the image or video frame error after encoding, decoding and displaying the output pixel representation of the preprocessing network with the aforementioned external encoder and decoder, as well as a display or projector that uses settings similar to, or identical, to the ones used as inputs to the network. The utilized cost function comprises multiple terms that, for the output after decoding, express: image or video frame noise estimates, or functions or training data that estimate the rate to encode the image or video frame, or estimates, functions or training data expressing the perceived quality of the output from human viewers, or any combinations of these terms. 
     In embodiments, the resolution or frame rate of the pixel data is increased or decreased in accordance to a given increase or decrease ratio and also includes ratio of 1 (unity) that corresponds to no resolution or frame rate change. 
     In embodiments, weights in the preprocessing network are used, in order to construct a function of the input over single or multiple layers of a convolutional architecture, with each layer receiving outputs of the previous layers. 
     In embodiments, the outputs of each layer of the preprocessing network are passed through a non-linear parametric linear rectifier function (pReLU) or other non-linear activation function. 
     In embodiments, the convolutional layers of the preprocessing architecture include dilation operators that expand the receptive field of the convolutional operation per layer. 
     In embodiments, the training of the preprocessing network weights is done with the addition of regularization methods that control the network capacity, via hard or soft constraints or normalization techniques on the layer weights or activations that reduces the generalization error. 
     In embodiments, cost functions are used that express the fidelity to the input images based on reference-based quality metrics that include one or more of: elementwise loss functions such as mean squared error (MSE); a structural similarity index metric (SSIM); a visual information fidelity metric (VIF), for example from the published work of H. Sheikh and A. Bovik entitled “Image Information and Visual Quality”; a detail loss metric (DLM), for example from the published work of S. Li, F. Zhang, L. Ma, and K. Ngan entitled “Image Quality Assessment by Separately Evaluating Detail Losses and Additive Impairments”; variants and combinations of these metrics. 
     In embodiments, cost functions are used that express or estimate quality scores attributed to the output images from human viewers. 
     In embodiments, cost functions are used that are formulated via an adversarial learning framework, in which the preprocessing network is encouraged to generate output pixel representations that reside on the natural image manifold (and optionally encouraged to reside away from another non-representative manifold). 
     In embodiments, the provided or estimated decoding device&#39;s display settings include at least one of the following: brightness, contrast, gamma correction, refresh rate, flickering (or filtering) settings, bit depth, color space, color format, spatial resolution, and back-lighting settings (if existing). In embodiments, the provided or estimated decoding device&#39;s power or energy-saving settings include at least one of the following: whether the device is plugged in an external power supply or is running on battery power, the battery power level, voltage or current levels measured or estimated while the device is decoding and displaying video, CPU or graphics processing unit(s) utilization levels, number of concurrent applications or execution threads running in the device&#39;s task manager or power manager. 
     In embodiments, the utilized encoder is a standards-based image or video encoder such as an ISO JPEG or ISO MPEG standard encoder, or a proprietary or royalty-free encoder, such as, but not limited to, an AOMedia encoder. 
     In embodiments, high resolution and low resolution image or video pairs are provided and the low resolution image is upscaled and optimized to improve and/or match quality or rate to the high resolution image. 
     In embodiments, the training of the preprocessing network weights and any adjustment to the cost functions are performed at frequent or in-frequent intervals with new measurements from decoder display settings, perceptual quality scores from humans, or encoded image data from external image or video encoders, and the updated weights and cost functions replace the previously-utilized ones. 
     While the present disclosure has been described and illustrated with reference to particular embodiments, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the disclosure lends itself to many different variations not specifically illustrated herein. 
     Where in the foregoing description, integers or elements are mentioned which have known, obvious or foreseeable equivalents, then such equivalents are herein incorporated as if individually set forth. Reference should be made to the claims for determining the true scope of the present invention, which should be construed so as to encompass any such equivalents. It will also be appreciated by the reader that integers or features of the disclosure that are described as preferable, advantageous, convenient or the like are optional and do not limit the scope of the independent claims. Moreover, it is to be understood that such optional integers or features, whilst of possible benefit in some embodiments of the disclosure, may not be desirable, and may therefore be absent, in other embodiments. 
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