Patent ID: 7817723

Claim:
A method for encoding a video signal comprising a sequence of pictures, the method being implemented on a computer and comprising the following steps: determining a motion estimation among the sequence of pictures, the motion estimation enabling a motion-compensated prediction of a predetermined set of pictures of the sequence of pictures to obtain predicted pictures and residual data representing a deviation between the predetermined set of pictures and the predicted pictures; setting parameters of an optimization problem based on the motion estimation and the predetermined set of pictures; and solving parameters of an optimization problem with the parameters being set, by means of convex optimization in order to yield optimized picture data that represents an encoded version of the residual data, wherein the optimization problem is a quadratic program problem of finding an optimal c so as to minimize a linear combination of a distortion and a bit rate formulated as minimize {(v−s) T (v−s)+λR(c)} subject to s=Ms+Tc+p where 1 is a vector with every entry being equal to 1, 0 is a vector with every entry being equal to zero, v is a vector the entries of which represent sample values of a predetermined set of pictures, c is a vector the entries of which represent transform coefficient levels representing a reconstruction of the residual data when transformed by means of a predetermined inverse transformation, M is a matrix reflecting motion estimation, T is a matrix depending on and reflecting the predetermined inverse transformation, s is a vector the entries of which represent decoded sample values, p is a vector, R denotes the bit rate and depends on a linear combination of the entries of c, wherein the parameter setter is designed to set v based on the predetermined set of pictures, M based on the motion estimation, and p based on the motion estimation and data representing pictures of the sequence of pictures outside the predetermined set of pictures, and wherein the solver is designed to solve a quadratic program equivalent to the quadratic program problem to yield, as the optimized picture data, optimized transform coefficient levels from c, and wherein the above video encoding steps are performed by the computer.