Patent ID: 7162091

Claim:
In a computer system, a computer-implemented method of decoding one or more video frames in a video sequence, the method comprising: for a plurality of blocks of pixels in a current video frame of the video sequence, selecting between multiple types, the multiple types including a first type and a second type; if the selected type is the first type, decoding the plurality of blocks using inter-frame prediction with motion compensation, including computing one or more predictors for the plurality of blocks relative to a reference video frame; and if the selected type is the second type, decoding the plurality of blocks using intra-frame spatial prediction of pixel values, including for each block in the plurality of blocks: obtaining one or more pixel values for spatial prediction of pixel values of the block, wherein the one or more obtained pixel values for at least one of the plurality of blocks are from spatially adjacent pixels wherein: if the block is the top left block of the current video frame, the one or more obtained pixel values consist of a gray value, otherwise, if the block is in the top row of the current video frame, the spatially adjacent pixels consist of pixels immediately left of the block, otherwise, if the block is in the left column of the current video frame, the spatially adjacent pixels consist of pixels immediately above the block, otherwise, the spatially adjacent pixels consist of the pixels immediately left of the block and the pixels immediately above the block; predicting the pixel values of the block from the one or more obtained pixel values, and reconstructing the block from the predicted pixel values and a residual.