• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.716-724
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a fast decision method of maximum coding depth decision and reference frame selection in HEVC. To reduce computational complexity and encoding time of HEVC, two methods are proposed. In the first method, the maximum depth of each coding unit (CU) in a largest CU (LCU) is constrained by using the maximum coding depth used by adjacent LCUs based on the assumption that the spatial correlation is very high and rate-distortion (R-D) cost. And we constrain the number of reference pictures for prediction unit (PU) performing motion estimation by using the motion information of the upper depth PU. The proposed methods reduce computational complexity of the HEVC encoder by constraining the maximum coding depth and the reference frame. We could achieve about 39% computational complexity reduction with marginal bitrate increase of 1.2% in the comparison with HM6.1 HEVC reference software.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.40-50
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• 2012

In this paper we propose the fast CU (Coding Unit) mode decision method. To reduce computational complexity and save encoding time of HEVC, we divided CU, PU (Prediction Unit) and TU (Transform Unit) decision process into two stages. In the first stage, because $2N{\times}2N$ PU mode is mostly selected among $2N{\times}2N$, $N{\times}2N$, $2N{\times}N$, $N{\times}N$ PU modes, proposed algorithm uses only $2N{\times}2N$ PU mode deciding depth of each CU in the LCU (Largest CU). And then, proposed method decides exact PU and TU modes at the depth level which is decided in the first stage. In addition, early skip decision rule is applied to the proposed method to obtain more efficient computational complexity reduction. The proposed method reduces computational complexity of the HEVC encoder by simplifying a CU depth decision method. We could obtain about 50% computational complexity reduction in comparison with HM 3.3 HEVC reference software while bitrate compressed by the proposed algorithm increases only 2%.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.11
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• pp.41-47
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• 2016

High efficiency video coding (HEVC) employs a coding tree unit (CTU) to improve the coding efficiency. A CTU consists of coding units (CU), prediction units (PU), and transform units (TU). All possible block partitions should be performed on each depth level to obtain the best combination of CUs, PUs, and TUs. To reduce the complexity of block partitioning process, this paper proposes the PU mode skip algorithm with region of interest (RoI) selection using motion vector. In addition, this paper presents the CU depth level skip algorithm using the co-located block information in the previously encoded frames. First, the RoI selection algorithm distinguishes between dynamic CTUs and static CTUs and then, asymmetric motion partitioning (AMP) blocks are skipped in the static CTUs. Second, the depth level skip algorithm predicts the most probable target depth level from average depth in one CTU. The experimental results show that the proposed fast CU decision algorithm can reduce the total encoding time up to 44.8% compared to the HEVC test model (HM) 14.0 reference software encoder. Moreover, the proposed algorithm shows only 2.5% Bjontegaard delta bit rate (BDBR) loss.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.130-136
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• 2016

HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) extension considers screen content as one of its main candidate sources for encoding. Among the tools already included in HEVC version 1, the technique of using transform skip mode allows transform to be skipped and to perform quantization process only. It is known to improve video coding efficiency for screen contents which are characterized to have much high frequency energy. But encoding complexity increases since its encoder should decide whether transform should be used or not in each $4{\times}4$ transform block. Based on statistical correlation between IBC (Intra block copy) and transform skip modes both of which are known effective in screen contents, this paper proposes a combined method of the fast transform skip mode decision and a modified transform skip signaling which signals transform_skip_flag at CU level as a representative transform skip signal. By simulation, the proposed method is shown to reduce encoding time of $4{\times}4$ transform blocks by about 32%.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.422-425
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• 2012

This paper proposes the CU-based approach for merge candidate list construction for providing reduced complexity and improved parallelism compared to the PU-based one. In the proposed method, a CU can have only one merge candidate list. So, Only one common merge candidate list is used for all PUs in a CU regardless of the PU partition type. The simulation results of proposed method showed that the encoder computational complexity was decreased by 3% to 6% and the decoder computational complexity was negligible change with the penalty of roughly 0.2% - 0.5% coding loss. The proposed method has several advantages: it provides simpler design, reduced complexity, and improved parallelism.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.497-508
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• 2015

Current communication networks consist of channels with various throughputs, protocols, and packet loss rates. Moreover, there are also diverse user multimedia consumption devices having different capabilities and screen sizes. Thus, a practical necessity of scalability on video coding have been gradually increasing. Recently, The Scalable High Efficiency Video Coding(SHVC) standard is developed by Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding(JCT-VC) organized in cooperation with MPEG of ISO/IEC and VCEG of ITU-T. This paper introduces coding tools of SHVC including adopted and unadopted tools discussed in the process of the SHVC standardization. Furthermore, the individual tool and combined tool set are evaluated in terms of coding efficiency relative to a single layer coding structure. This analysis would be useful for developing a fast SHVC encoder as well as researching on a new scalable coding tool.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.193-206
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• 2017

In this paper, we propose a rate control method based on the $R-{\lambda}$ model that supports a parallel encoding structure in GOP levels or IDR period levels for 4K UHD input video in real-time. For this, a slice-level bit allocation method is proposed for parallel encoding instead of sequential encoding. When a rate control algorithm is applied in the GOP level or IDR period level parallelism, the information of how many bits are consumed cannot be shared among the frames belonging to a same frame level except the lowest frame level of the hierarchical B structure. Therefore, it is impossible to manage the bit budget with the existing bit allocation method. In order to solve this problem, we improve the bit allocation procedure of the conventional ones that allocate target bits sequentially according to the encoding order. That is, the proposed bit allocation strategy is to assign the target bits in GOPs first, then to distribute the assigned target bits from the lowest depth level to the highest depth level of the HEVC hierarchical B structure within each GOP. In addition, we proposed a processing method that is used to improve subjective image qualities by allocating the bits according to the coding complexities of the frames. Experimental results show that the proposed bit allocation method works well for frame-level parallel HEVC software encoders and it is confirmed that the performance of our rate controller can be improved with a more elaborate bit allocation strategy by using the preprocessing results.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1085-1095
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• 2019

In this paper, we perform a subjective quality assessment on low-resolution surveillance videos, which are encoded with a very low target bit-rate to use in an ultra-low band transmission system and investigate the encoding effects on the perceived video quality. The test videos are collected based on their spatial and temporal characteristics which affect the perceived quality. H.265/HEVC encoder is used to prepare the impaired sequences for three target bit-rates 20, 45, and 65 kbps and subjective quality assessment is conducted to evaluate the quality from a viewing distance of 3H. The experimental results show that the quality of encoded videos, even at target bit-rate of 45 kbps can satisfy the users. Also we compare objective image/video quality assessment methods on the proposed dataset to measure their correlation with subjective scores. The experimental results show that the existing methods poorly performed, that indicates the need for a better quality assessment method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Broadcast Engineers Conference
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.67-70
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• 2022

최근 딥러닝 방법의 발전하면서 영상처리 및 컴퓨터 비전의 다양한 분야에서 딥러닝 기반의 알고리즘들이 그 이전의 방법들에 비하여 큰 성능 향상을 보이고 있다. 손실 영상 압축의 경우 최근 encoder-decoder 형태의 네트웍이 영상 압축에서 사용되는 transform을 대체하고 있고, transform 결과들의 엔트로피 코딩을 위한 추가적인 encoder-decoder 네트웍을 사용하여 HEVC 수준에 버금가는 성능을 내고 있다. 무손실 압축의 경우에도 매 픽셀 예측을 CNN으로 수행하는 경우, 기존의 예측방법들에 비하여 예측성능이 크게 향상되어 JPEG-2000 Lossless, FLIF, JEPG-XL 등의 딥러닝을 사용하지 않는 방법들에 비하여 우수한 성능을 내는 것으로 보고되고 있다. 그러나 모든 픽셀에 대하여 예측값을 CNN을 통하여 계산하는 방법은, 영상의 픽셀 수 만큼 CNN을 수행해야 하므로 HD 크기 영상에 대하여 지금까지 알려진 가장 빠른 방법이 한 시간 이상 소요되는 등 비현실적인 것으로 알려져 있다. 따라서 최근에는 성능은 이보다 떨어지지만 속도를 현실적으로 줄인 방법들이 제안되고 있다. 이러한 방법들은 초기에는 FLIF나 JPEG-XL에 비하여 성능이 떨어져서, GPU를 사용하면서도 기존의 방법보다 좋지 않은 성능을 보인다는 면에서 여전히 비현실적이었다. 최근에는 신호의 특성을 더 잘 활용하는 방법들이 제안되면서 매 픽셀마다 CNN을 수행하는 방법보다는 성능이 떨어지지만, 짧은 시간 내에 FLIF나 JPEG-XL보다는 좋은 성능을 내는 현실적인 방법들이 제안되었다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 최근의 몇 가지 방법들을 살펴보고 이들보다 성능을 더 좋게 할 수 있는 보조적인 방법들과 raw image에 대한 성능을 평가한다.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.756-764
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• 2012

In current HEVC, prediction pixels are finally calculated by linear-function interpolation on two reference pixels. It is hard to expect good performance on the case of occurring large difference between two reference pixels. This paper decides more accurate prediction pixel values than current HEVC using linear function. While existing prediction process only uses two reference pixels, proposed method uses DCT-IF. DCT-IF analyses frequency characteristics of more than two reference pixels in frequency domain. And proposed method calculates prediction value adaptively by using linear-function, DCT-IF and cubic-function to decide more accurate interpolation value than to only use linear function. Cubic-function has a steep slope than linear-function. So, using cubic-function is utilized on edge in prediction unit. The complexity of encoder and decoder in HM6.0 has increased 3% and 1%, respectively. BD-rate has decreased 0.4% in luma signal Y, 0.3% in chroma signal U and 0.3% in chroma signal V in average. Through this experiment, proposed adaptive intra prediction method using DCT-IF and cubic-function shows increased performance than HM6.0.