Patent Abstract:
A method for implementing a deblocking filter comprising the steps of (A) providing an input buffer storing an unfiltered video frame, (B) providing an output buffer configured to store a filtered video frame, (C) reading pixel values for a plurality of macroblocks from the input buffer into a working buffer, (D) sequentially processing the pixel values in the working buffer through a plurality of filter stages using an array of parallel processors, where each of the plurality of filter stages operates on a different set of pixel values in the working buffer and (E) writing pixel values from a final output region of the working buffer to a respective filter output region of the output buffer.

Full Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to video compression generally and, more particularly, to a method and/or architecture for efficiently implementing a MPEG-4 AVC deblocking filter on an array of parallel processors. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a diagram is shown illustrating divisions of a video frame  10  in accordance with the MPEG-4 part 10 advanced video coding (AVC) standard. The MPEG-4 part 10 standard defines a method for video compression that operates on rectangular groups of pixels. The type of compression performed by the MPEG-4 part 10 AVC standard is generally referred to as “block-based” compression. Each frame  10  of video is divided into a number of macroblocks  12 . Each of the macroblocks  12  is further divided into transform blocks  14 . The transform blocks  14  can also be referred to as sub-blocks. 
     As part of the video compression process, a prediction for the pixels in each macroblock  12  is generated based upon either (i) pixels from adjacent macroblocks  12  in the same frame  10  or (ii) pixels from previous frames in the video sequence. Differences between the prediction and the actual pixel values for the macroblock  12  are referred to as residual values (or just residuals). The residual values for each transform block  14  are converted from spatial-domain to frequency-domain coefficients. The frequency-domain coefficients are then divided down to reduce the range of values needed to represent the frequency-domain coefficients through a process known as quantization. Quantization allows much higher compression ratios, but at the cost of discarding information about the original video sequence. Once the data has been quantized, the frames of the original sequence can no longer be reconstructed exactly. 
     The quantized coefficients and a description of how to generate the macroblock prediction pixel values constitute the compressed video stream. When video frames are reconstructed from the compressed stream, the compression sequence is reversed. The coefficients for each transform block  14  are converted back to spatial residuals. A prediction for each macroblock is generated based on the description in the stream and added to the residuals to reconstruct the pixels for the macroblock. Because of the information lost in quantization, however, the reconstructed pixels differ from the original ones. One of the goals of video compression is to minimize the perceived differences as much as possible for a given compression ratio. 
     In block-based video compression the differences in the reconstructed images tend to be most obvious at the edges of the macroblocks  12  and the transform blocks  14 . Because the blocks are compressed and reconstructed separately, errors tend to accumulate differently on each side of block boundaries and can produce a noticeable seam. To counteract the production of a noticeable seam, the MPEG-4 part 10 video compression standard includes a deblocking filter. 
     A definition of the deblocking filter can be found in Section 8.7 of the MPEG-4 part 10 video compression standard. The deblocking filter blends pixel values across macroblock and transform block edges in the reconstructed frames to reduce the discontinuities that result from quantization. Filtering takes place as part of both the compression and decompression processes. Filtering is performed after the video frames are reconstructed, but before the reconstructed frames are used to predict macroblocks in other frames. Because filtered frames are used for prediction, the filtering process must be exactly the same during compression and decompression or errors will accumulate in the decompressed video frames. 
     The definition of the deblocking filter in the MPEG-4 part 10 specification specifies that macroblocks are filtered in raster order (i.e., from left to right and top to bottom of the video frame). Because the macroblocks are filtered in raster order, the inputs to the deblocking filter include pixels that were already filtered as part of a previous macroblock. The inclusion of already filtered pixels as inputs to the deblocking filter implies sequential processing of the macroblocks in a frame in the specified raster order. The MPEG-4 part 10 deblocking filter improves both the perceived quality of the reconstructed image and the compression ratio, but requires additional processing. When performed sequentially, the deblocking filter processing can significantly increase the time required to encode and decode each frame. 
     It would be desirable to filter an arbitrary number of macroblock-size areas in a single video frame at the same time to reduce the time required to filter the frame. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention concerns a method for implementing a deblocking filter comprising the steps of (A) providing an input buffer storing an unfiltered video frame, (B) providing an output buffer configured to store a filtered video frame, (C) reading pixel values for a plurality of macroblocks from the input buffer into a working buffer, (D) sequentially processing the pixel values in the working buffer through a plurality of filter stages using an array of parallel processors, where each of the plurality of filter stages operates on a different set of pixel values in the working buffer and (E) writing pixel values from a final output region of the working buffer to a respective filter output region of the output buffer. 
     The objects, features and advantages of the present invention include providing a method and/or architecture for efficiently implementing a MPEG-4 AVC deblocking filter on an array of parallel processors that may (i) use multiple processors to filter an arbitrary number of macroblock-size areas in a single video frame at the same time, (ii) reduce the time taken to filter a frame, (iii) utilize separate storage buffers for unfiltered and filtered video frames, (iv) utilize a sequence of stages to generate output pixel values, (v) alternate between filtering across vertical edges and filtering across horizontal edges, (vi) process multiple columns of pixels at the same time when filtering across horizontal edges, and/or (vii) process multiple rows of pixels at the same time when filtering across vertical edges. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the appended claims and drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating division of a video frame into macroblocks and transform blocks; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an array of parallel processors on which a filter in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention may be implemented; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram illustrating filter input and output regions in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of 3×3 filter regions in a video frame; 
         FIG. 5  is a diagram illustrating a number of filter processing steps in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 6  is a diagram illustrating simultaneous filtering of pixel rows. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     In an example embodiment of the present invention, multiple processors may be used to filter an arbitrary number of macroblock-size areas in a single video frame at the same time. For example, deblocking filter logic as specified in ISO/IEC 14496-10 (MPEG-4 part 10—Advanced Video Coding) may be implemented using parallel processors. The use of parallel processors allows simultaneous processing of all pixel blocks in a video frame. The use of multiple processors may reduce the amount of time taken to filter the frame in proportion to the number of processors used. Examples of systems in which a filter in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention may be implemented can be found in co-pending non-provisional U.S. patent applications: U.S. Ser. No. 12/342,145, entitled “Video Encoder Using GPU,”, filed Dec. 23, 2008, U.S. Ser. No. 12/058,636, entitled “Video Encoding and Decoding Using Parallel Processors,”, filed Mar. 28, 2008 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,121,197; U.S. Ser. No. 12/189,735, entitled “A Method For Efficiently Executing Video Encoding Operations On Stream Processor Architectures,”, filed Aug. 11, 2008; each of which is herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , a diagram is shown illustrating a system in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention. In one example, separate storage buffers may be utilized for input (unfiltered) and output (filtered) video frames. For example, an architecture  100  in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention may comprise a parallel processor array (PPA)  102  and storage medium  104 . The storage medium  104  may contain an input buffer  106  and an output buffer  108 . The parallel processor array  102  may comprise, in one example, a plurality of single instruction multiple data (SIMD) processors  110 . The plurality of SIMD processors  110  may be configured to perform deblocking filter processing on a video frame using a filter kernel. A set of program instructions for the parallel processor array  102  may be referred to as a kernel. In one example, the filter kernel may implement a deblocking filter that is compliant with the MPEG-4 part 10 AVC standard using the parallel processor array  102 . In one example, the plurality of SIMD processors  110  may read unfiltered pixels from the input buffer  106  and write filtered pixels to the output buffer  108 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , a diagram is shown illustrating example filter input and output regions in accordance with an example of an embodiment of the present invention. A minimum portion of a video frame that may be filtered separately from and in parallel with the remainder of the video frame may be referred to as a filter region. The minimum filterable region is the smallest region that can be filtered independently of the rest of the video frame. In one example, the minimum filterable region may be the size of a single macroblock. However, specific implementations may be configured to filter larger regions, provided the larger regions contain integer numbers of the minimum filterable region. For example, the example illustrated in  FIG. 3  uses filter regions that are 3 times as high and wide as the minimum filter region. Input pixels for each filter region may be read from a filter input region  120  of the input buffer  106 . Corresponding output pixels for the filtered area may be written to a filter output region  122  within the output buffer  108 . Macroblock boundaries  124  (thinner solid lines) and transform block boundaries  126  (dotted lines) are shown for reference. 
     The dimensions of the filter input region  120  and the filter output region  122  are shown relative to an upper-left macroblock. In one example, the filter input region  120  may have dimensions of 21 horizontal pixels by 29 vertical pixels. An upper left corner of the filter input region  120  may be six pixels down and six pixels right of an upper-left corner of the upper-left macroblock. The filter output region  122  may be 16 by 16 pixels. An upper-left corner of the filter output region  122  may be located three pixels right of and nine pixels below the upper-left corner of the filter input region  120 . In one example, each of the filter regions in a video frame may be filtered by a separate processor  110 . Alternatively, multiple filter regions may be filtered using a single processor  110 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , a diagram is shown illustrating an example video frame  200  with filter regions arranged into 3 by 3 groups. Boundaries  202  of the 3 by 3 filter regions (indicated by thicker lines) generally do not align with the macroblock boundaries  204  or the boundaries of the video frame. Because the boundaries do not align, partial filter regions may occur at the edges of the video frame  200 . 
     If separate processors are allocated to the partial regions, the processors generally have fewer pixels to filter and may be underutilized when compared to processors allocated to whole regions. The underutilization of the processors allocated to the partial regions may be rectified by assigning partial region pairs to the same processor to increase the pixels available for filtering. For example, a simple approach may be to form partial region pairs  206  by pairing partial regions from the top and bottom of the same column, or the left and right of the same row. 
     Referring to  FIG. 5 , diagrams are shown illustrating a number of filter processing steps in accordance with an example embodiment of the present invention. The processing for each filter region in a video frame may be performed in a number of filtering steps or stages. In one example, six stages  300 ,  302 ,  304 ,  306 ,  308  and  310  may be implemented. The stages  300 , . . . ,  310  may be used in sequence to process each filter region. Processing for each filter region in a video frame may be performed using a working buffer  312  having dimensions similar to the filter input region  120  (described in connection with  FIG. 3 ). The working buffer  312  may be loaded initially with pixels from the input video frame buffer  106  at the beginning of filter processing. The order in which pixel values are computed within the working buffer  312  is generally important for the filter to generate output pixel values compliant with the MPEG-4 part 10 AVC specification. Each of the stages  300 , . . . ,  310  reads pixel values from the working buffer  312 , computes filtered pixel values based upon the pixel values read, and writes the filtered pixels back to a respective stage output region  314  of the working buffer  312 . 
     The filtration of individual pixels may be performed according to the process described in section 8.7 of the MPEG-4 part 10 AVC specification. A general description of the filtering process may be as follows. Pixel values may be computed using an adaptive multi-tap filter applied at right angles to the edge being filtered. Up to 4 pixels on each side of the edge may be used as the filter input, and filtered values may be computed for up to three pixels on each side of the edge. The specific filter technique used may be determined based upon the type of edge being filtered (e.g., macroblock or transform block), the input pixel values and the prediction method and degree of quantization used to generate the input pixels. The respective stage output regions  314  for each of the stages  300 , . . . ,  310  are illustrated with thick borders. When processing of the particular filter region is complete, the pixels from a filter output region  318  of the working buffer  312  may be written out to the output video frame buffer  108 . 
     The output pixels from a particular stage generally form the input pixels to the following stage. In some cases, pixels that lie outside the final filter output region  318  may be processed to generate intermediate results that may be used to compute the pixels within the filter output region  318 . In one example, the stages  300 ,  304  and  308  may filter data across vertical macroblock/transform block edges, and the stages  302 ,  306  and  310  may filter data across horizontal edges. Dotted lines are shown in  FIG. 5  to generally illustrate edges  316  that may influence the output pixel values for each step/stage. 
     Within each of the filtering stages, pixels are generally processed sequentially from left to right for vertical edges, and from top to bottom for horizontal edges. The filteration of individual pixels is generally compliant with section 8.7 of the MPEG-4 part 10 specification. For example, pixel values may be computed using an adaptive multi-tap filter applied at right angles to the edge being filtered. Up to 4 pixels on each side of the edge may be used as the filter input, and filtered values may be computed for up to three pixels on each side of the edge. The specific filter technique used may be determined based on the type of edge being filtered (e.g., macroblock or transform block), the input pixel values and the prediction method and degree of quantization use to generate the input pixels. 
     In one example, the location and size of the respective output regions  314  for each of the filtering stages  300 , . . . ,  310  may be summarized as in the following TABLE 1: 
                                                                       TABLE 1                       Region   X   Y   Width   Height                                        Stage 300   3   0   5   29           Stage 302 Upper   3   3   7   5           Stage 302 Lower   3   19   7   5           Stage 304 Upper   7   3   12   7           Stage 304 Lower   7   19   12   7           Stage 306 Upper   3   7   7   12           Stage 306 Lower   3   23   7   5           Stage 308 Upper   7   10   12   9           Stage 308 Lower   7   26   12   3           Stage 310   10   7   9   18                        
All dimensions in TABLE 1 are in pixels. X and Y values represent the location of the upper-left corner of the particular region as measured from the upper-left corner of the working buffer (zero-based).
 
     The method in accordance with embodiments of the present invention generally allows additional parallelism within each of the stages  300 , . . . ,  310  when multiple processors or processors with single instruction/multiple data (SIMD) capability are used. For example, in the steps that filter across vertical edges (e.g., stages  300 ,  304  and  308 ), all rows of pixels may be processed at the same time. In the steps that filter across horizontal edges (e.g., stages  302 ,  306  and  310 ), all columns of pixels may be processed at the same time. 
     Referring to  FIG. 6 , a diagram is shown illustrating the level of parallelism for the case of the third filtering step  304  in  FIG. 5 . Rows of pixels  404  that may be processed simultaneously in the step  304  are shown within the stage output region  402  for the filtering step. The filter input region  400  is shown for reference. 
     As used herein, the terms “simultaneous” and “simultaneously” are meant to describe events that share some common time period, but the term is not meant to be limited to events that begin at the same point in time, end at the same point in time, or have the same duration. 
     The functions illustrated in the diagrams of  FIGS. 5 and 6  may be implemented using one or more of a conventional general purpose processor, digital computer, microprocessor, microcontroller, RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processor, CISC (complex instruction set computer) processor, SIMD (single instruction multiple data) processor, signal processor, central processing unit (CPU), arithmetic logic unit (ALU), video digital signal processor (VDSP) and/or similar computational machines, programmed according to the teachings of the present specification, as will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art(s). Appropriate software, firmware, coding, routines, instructions, opcodes, microcode, and/or program modules may readily be prepared by skilled programmers based on the teachings of the present disclosure, as will also be apparent to those skilled in the relevant art(s). The software is generally executed from a medium or several media by one or more of the processors of the machine implementation. 
     The present invention may also be implemented by the preparation of ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), Platform ASICs, FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), PLDs (programmable logic devices), CPLDs (complex programmable logic device), sea-of-gates, RFICs (radio frequency integrated circuits), ASSPs (application specific standard products) or by interconnecting an appropriate network of conventional component circuits, as is described herein, modifications of which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art(s). 
     The present invention thus may also include a computer product which may be a storage medium or media and/or a transmission medium or media including instructions which may be used to program a machine to perform one or more processes or methods in accordance with the present invention. Execution of instructions contained in the computer product by the machine, along with operations of surrounding circuitry, may transform input data into one or more files on the storage medium and/or one or more output signals representative of a physical object or substance, such as an audio and/or visual depiction. The storage medium may include, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disk, hard drive, magnetic disk, optical disk, CD-ROM, DVD and magneto-optical disks and circuits such as ROMs (read-only memories), RAMs (random access memories), EPROMs (electronically programmable ROMs), EEPROMs (electronically erasable ROMs), UVPROM (ultra-violet erasable ROMs), Flash memory, magnetic cards, optical cards, and/or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions. 
     The elements of the invention may form part or all of one or more devices, units, components, systems, machines and/or apparatuses. The devices may include, but are not limited to, servers, workstations, storage array controllers, storage systems, personal computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, palm computers, personal digital assistants, portable electronic devices, battery powered devices, set-top boxes, encoders, decoders, transcoders, compressors, decompressors, pre-processors, post-processors, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, cipher circuits, cellular telephones, digital cameras, positioning and/or navigation systems, medical equipment, heads-up displays, wireless devices, audio recording, storage and/or playback devices, video recording, storage and/or playback devices, game platforms, peripherals and/or multi-chip modules. Those skilled in the relevant art(s) would understand that the elements of the invention may be implemented in other types of devices to meet the criteria of a particular application. 
     While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7