Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP (대한전자공학회논문지SP)

The Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers (대한전자공학회)
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Fast Mode Decision using Block Size Activity for H.264/AVC

블록 크기 활동도를 이용한 H.264/AVC 부호화 고속 모드 결정

  • Jung, Bong-Soo (Sungkyunkwan University, School of Information and Communication Engineering) ;
  • Jeon, Byeung-Woo (Sungkyunkwan University, School of Information and Communication Engineering) ;
  • Choi, Kwang-Pyo (Samsung Electronics Co., LTD.) ;
  • Oh, Yun-Je (Samsung Electronics Co., LTD.)
  • Published : 2007.03.25
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Abstract

H.264/AVC uses variable block sizes to achieve significant coding gain. It has 7 different coding modes having different motion compensation block sizes in Inter slice, and 2 different intra prediction modes in Intra slice. This fine-tuned new coding feature has achieved far more significant coding gain compared with previous video coding standards. However, extremely high computational complexity is required when rate-distortion optimization (RDO) algorithm is used. This computational complexity is a major problem in implementing real-time H.264/AVC encoder on computationally constrained devices. Therefore, there is a clear need for complexity reduction algorithm of H.264/AVC such as fast mode decision. In this paper, we propose a fast mode decision with early $P8\times8$ mode rejection based on block size activity using large block history map (LBHM). Simulation results show that without any meaningful degradation, the proposed method reduces whole encoding time on average by 53%. Also the hybrid usage of the proposed method and the early SKIP mode decision in H.264/AVC reference model reduces whole encoding time by 63% on average.

H.264/AVC의 인터 부호화 기술은, 정교한 움직임 보상 부호화를 위해 다양한 블록 크기의 7가지 모드를, 그리고 인트라 부호화 기술은 2가지의 블록부호화 모드를 사용한다. 이러한 정교한 부호화 기술은 기존 표준에 비해 높은 부호화 효율을 제공 하지만 비트율-왜곡 최적화 기법을 사용할 경우, 많은 계산량을 요구하므로 연산량이 제한된 장치에서는 실시간 구현에 문제점이 발생한다. 따라서 H.264/AVC 부호화 표준의 실시간 구현을 위해서 계산 복잡도를 줄이는 고속 모드 결정법이 필요하다. 본 논문에서 제안한 LBHM(Large Block History Map)을 이용한 블록 크기 활동도 기반 고속 모드 결정 기법은 발생 확률이 낮은 $P8\times8$ 모드를 조기에 생략하여, 부호화 효율의 감소는 최소화 시키면서 H.264/AVC의 전체 부호화 시간을 평균 53% 감소시켰으며, H.264/AVC 참조 모델의 조기 SKIP 모드와 같이 사용할 경우, 전체 부호화 시간을 평균 63% 이상 감소시켰다.

Keywords

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