Patent ID: 7194031

Claim:
A rate control method with region of interesting support, which codes macroblocks in a current picture with different priority Pri_i, the rate control method comprising the steps of: calculating a weighted macroblock activity WAct_i for each macroblock of the current picture according to the priority Pri_i and a macroblock activity Act_i; calculating a picture activity Act_C for the current picture according to the weighted macroblock activity WAct_i; allocating a bit budget BB_i for each macroblock according to the priority Pri_i and a bit budget BB_C of the current picture; calculating an estimated complexity EstCom_C for the current picture according to a complexity Com_X of a previously coded picture, a picture activity Act_X of the previously coded picture and the picture activity Act_C of the current picture; calculating an estimated quantizer scale EstQ_C according to the estimated complexity EstCom_C and the bit budget BB_C; calculating an initial virtual buffer occupancy D 0 according to a reaction factor R_X and the estimated quantizer scale EstQ_C; calculating a macroblock quantizer scale Q i according to a virtual buffer occupancy D i-1 , of a previously coded macroblock, the priority Pri_i and the reaction factor R_X; encoding each macroblock according to the macroblock quantizer scale Q i ; and updating a virtual buffer occupancy D i of a current coded macroblock according to a used bit UB_i of the current coded macroblock, the virtual buffer occupancy D i-1 , of the previously coded macroblock and the bit budget BB i of the current coded macroblock.