JP2006129214A - Image encoding device and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image encoding device and its method for preventing breakdown, such as underflow and overflow, in VBR buffer caused by VBV buffer when a scene change(SC) occurs in continuous images. <P>SOLUTION: If a continuous SC decision unit 40 determines that continuous SC occurs, a target bit amount increasing amount calculation unit 50 reduces a generating bit amount gradually at an image compression encoding unit 20 for carrying out encode under variable bit rate (VBR) control. In addition, an SC process on/off judgment unit 70 monitors a condition of each buffer, where a breakdown can occur by the process on the SC, and if the danger of breakdown increases, the SC process is turned off which increases the generating bit amount. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing technique, and in particular, when there is a scene change in a continuous image, the buffer does not cause a failure such as underflow or overflow, and more preferably, there is no deterioration in the quality of an encoded image. The present invention relates to a processable image processing apparatus and method.

Usually, in an image encoding device, an image signal is encoded at a fixed encoding rate (CBR: Constant Bit Rate) or a variable encoding rate (VBR: Variable Bit Rate) and output as a bit stream.
A bitstream encoded with CBR has a constant bit rate and does not deviate significantly from the target bit rate. On the other hand, since the bit stream encoded by VBR changes according to the characteristics of the image signal to be encoded, the bit rate is not constant. However, even in this case, the compression encoding process is performed on the image signal within a range not exceeding the maximum bit rate determined by the standard.

  When a digitized moving image signal is encoded, encoding bit rate control is performed. The encoding bit rate control is control to achieve a desired bit rate when a code sequence generated by encoding is viewed in a certain time width.

  Up to now, a plurality of standards for compressing and encoding moving images with high efficiency have been proposed. Among them, the MPEG2 standard is attracting attention in various application fields such as communication, broadcasting, and storage in a recording medium as a standard for encoding moving images, and is being put into practical use. One such application, DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), is a future recording medium that stores data that is compression-encoded for moving images in accordance with the MPEG2 standard, because of its large capacity, low cost, and ease of handling. Is expected to spread.

  The MPEG2 standard does not specify coding control for controlling the bit rate. For this reason, the encoded information amount only needs to be within a range defined by the standard.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an image encoding apparatus and a processing method thereof capable of realizing a moving image compression encoding process at a variable encoding rate in an application that requires real-time processing. To summarize, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a VBR rate control technique performed by controlling a quantization (Q) scale.

  The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 performs coding rate control in units of GOPs, for example, units of 15 pictures or more so that the average bit rate of the entire image becomes a constant reference. By setting a target bit amount for each GOP in advance and controlling the Q scale according to the deviation of the generated bit amount of each GOP from the target bit amount, the Q scale changes gradually in GOP units, and the entire image Is maintained within a range that does not deviate significantly from the target bit rate.

However, if the image content changes greatly in consecutive pictures, the entire picture (frame) that has changed significantly is encoded, for example, instead of extracting the change between the previous picture and the current picture.
For this reason, it is detected that the image content has changed greatly, that is, a scene change (SC), for consecutive pictures.

The processing method after detecting a scene change is illustrated.
When a scene change occurs, the correlation between the images (pictures) of the preceding and succeeding frames becomes low and compression efficiency cannot be achieved. Therefore, the rate control of the same generated bit amount with a fixed target bit amount, that is, the constant bit rate (CBR) method is used. In rate control, image quality degradation occurs in the encoded image.
Therefore, as a process for suppressing the deterioration of the image quality of the encoded image at the scene change, generally, the target value of the bit generated by encoding, that is, the target bit amount is increased based on the variable bit rate (VBR) method. Thus, the amount of generated bits is allowed to increase, and the encoding process is performed to prevent deterioration of the image quality of the encoded image.
WO00 / 65842 (PCT / JP00 / 02592)

  However, for example, when scenes with fast movement are continuous, such as battle scenes in animated movies, when scenes with a lot of flash are continuous, or when the camera of an imaging device is frequently switched, scene changes continue. If it occurs, if the generated bit amount is continuously increased every time the scene is changed by the method of converting the target bit amount, the deviation from the target generated bit amount becomes large, and the rate according to the variable bit rate (VBR) method Even for control, it is necessary to limit the amount of generated bits.

  For example, when a scene change occurs, in addition to the above-described deviation correction from the target bit amount, a VBV buffer (to be described later with reference to FIG. 1) in the image encoding device that is generated when the generated bit amount is too large. As a system failure avoidance process in an image encoding device such as underflow, it is necessary to suppress the amount of generated bits.

  As a method for suppressing the amount of generated bits, the DCT coefficient in the image compression coding unit in the image coding apparatus is forcibly cut and replaced with 0, or the syntax (context) of the image to be coded is used. It is conceivable that a certain picture among the consecutive pictures is skipped by replacing it with the minimum necessary stream.

  However, the image quality degradation of the encoded image caused by these processes is large, and there is a problem that the demerit is larger than the merit of the image quality in the scene change improved by increasing the generated bit amount according to the scene change.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image encoding apparatus and method that do not cause a failure such as underflow or overflow in a buffer when a scene change occurs in successive images.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus and method capable of performing processing without causing deterioration of the image quality of an encoded image without causing a failure such as underflow or overflow in the buffer.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, image compression encoding means for compressing and encoding continuous image signals, scene changes are detected for the continuous image signals, and it is further detected that scene changes are continuous. When the scene change detection / continuous scene change determination means and the scene change detection / continuous scene change determination means determine that the scene change is continuous, the image compression / encoding means performs a normal operation with respect to the scene change. Encoding is performed by increasing the generated bit amount more than the bit amount generated by rate control. The increased generated bit amount is gradually decreased at a predetermined increase / decrease bit rate. The amount of generated bits to be increased in the image compression encoding means when And a target bit amount increment arithmetic unit for gradually recovered at reduced bit rate, to prevent the collapse of the buffer for storing the coding state of the image compression encoding means, the image encoding apparatus is provided.
Preferably, the occupation amount of the buffer is monitored, and when the failure of the buffer caused by an excessive increase in the amount of generated bits due to the scene change in the image compression coding means is predicted, the image compression code A scene change process on / off determination unit for stopping the scene change countermeasure process in which the amount of generated bits in the conversion unit increases.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, (a) when a scene change is detected for continuous image signals, and (b) when the scene change continues, the bit amount generated by normal rate control with respect to the scene change is exceeded. The generated bit amount is gradually decreased at a predetermined increase / decrease bit rate with respect to the image compression encoding means for performing the bit rate control of the variable bit rate method to increase the generated bit amount, and (c) If there is no scene change, when the next scene change occurs, the generated bit amount to be increased in the image compression coding means is gradually recovered at the predetermined increase / decrease bit rate, and the coding state of the image compression coding means is changed. An image encoding method is provided that prevents a stored buffer from failing.
Preferably, the occupation amount of the buffer is monitored, and when the failure of the buffer caused by an excessive increase in the amount of generated bits due to the scene change in the image compression coding means is predicted, the image compression code The scene change countermeasure process in which the amount of generated bits in the conversion means increases is stopped.

  According to the present invention, when an image in which scene changes occur continuously is input, the generated bit amount is gradually decreased to avoid a buffer failure or a buffer failure due to an excessive increase in the generated bit amount. Processing can be prevented in advance.

  In addition, according to the present invention, the state of the buffer that can be broken by the process for the scene change is monitored, and the scene change processing in which the amount of generated bits is increased when the risk of failure is increased is turned off. Can be reliably avoided.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the system problem of the image encoding apparatus due to the buffer failure or the deterioration of the encoded image quality due to the processing to avoid the failure even if the buffer does not fail. can do.

Image Encoding Device FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image encoding device 1 according to an embodiment of the image encoding device of the present invention.
The image encoding device 1 includes a control processing unit 10, an image compression encoding unit 20, an SC detection unit 30, a continuous scene change (SC) determination unit 40, a target bit amount increase calculation unit 50, a virtual buffer A confirmation buffer (VBV: Virtual Buffer Verifier) 60, a scene change (SC) process on / off determination unit 70, and a variable bit rate (VBR) buffer 80 are provided.
The image input portion in the image encoding device 1 is, for example, an imaging device such as a video camera or an image reproduction device that reproduces an image signal from another recording medium, and generates an image signal by some means, and Any device having a function of converting an analog image signal into a digital signal may be used.
Hereinafter, the configuration and processing contents of each unit of the image encoding device 1 will be described.

The control processing unit 10 constitutes the control processing means of the present invention, which receives the input image signal S1, and inputs the encoding parameter P10 and the image compression encoding unit 20 according to the characteristics of the input image signal S1. A control signal S10 is output.
Note that the encoding parameter P10 includes a target encoding rate, a maximum encoding rate, a variable bit rate instruction signal, a quantization scale QSC, and the like.

Image compression encoding unit (encoder)
The image compression encoding unit (encoder) 20 corresponds to the encoding means of the present invention, and converts the digital input image signal S1 into a predetermined algorithm according to the encoding parameter P10 and the control signal S10 from the control processing unit 10. For example, compression encoding is performed based on an algorithm based on the MPEG2 standard, and the bit stream S20 is output.
The bit stream S20 is output to a recording / reproducing apparatus, for example. The bit stream S20 is recorded on a recording medium such as a DVD by a recording / reproducing apparatus.

Scene change (SC) detector SC detector 30 compares consecutive pictures with respect to input image signal S1 to detect a scene change.

Continuous Scene Change (SC) Determination Unit A continuous SC determination unit 40 determines whether or not scene changes are continuous when the SC detection unit 30 detects a scene change.

Target bit amount increase calculation unit The target bit amount increase calculation unit 50 changes the target bit amount TB at a predetermined increase / decrease bit rate br when the continuous SC determination unit 40 determines that the scene change is continuous. The image compression encoding unit 20 is instructed.

The VBV buffer VBV buffer 60 virtually obtains the state of the decoder buffer at the time of decoding (decoding) the encoded image when the input image signal S1 is encoded (encoded) in the image compression encoding unit 20. This is a buffer for controlling the generated bit amount of each frame in the image compression coding unit 20 so that the decoder buffer does not fail.

VBR buffer VBR buffer 80 stores a value obtained by integrating the difference in bit amount actually generated with respect to target bit amount TB of 1 GOP (Group Of Picture) in order to perform coding rate control based on variable bit rate (VBR). It is a buffer to do.

Scene change (SC) processing on / off determination unit SC processing on / off determination unit 70 monitors the occupancy of VBV buffer 60 and the occupancy of VBR buffer 80 so that these buffers do not fail. Then, the processing of the generated bit amount based on the scene change in the image compression encoding unit 20 is turned on or off.

Image Compression Encoding Unit FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the image compression encoding unit 20.
The image compression encoding unit 20 includes an adder 201, a discrete Coisan transform processing unit (DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) processing unit) 202, a quantization unit 203, a variable length encoding unit (VLC) 204, an inverse quantization unit 205, An inverse DCT unit 206, an adder 207, a frame memory 208, a motion detection unit 209, a motion compensation unit 210, a switching circuit 211, and an encoding control unit 212 are included.

A difference between the digital image signal S1 input to the image compression encoding unit 20 and the previous reproduced image signal input from the switching circuit 211 is obtained by the adder 201, and the difference is output to the DCT unit 202.
In the intra picture (I picture) mode, since no significant image is input from the switching circuit 211 (in FIG. 2, the output from the switching circuit 211 in this mode is 0), the image input to the adder 201 The data is output to the DCT unit 202 as it is.
In the motion compensation prediction mode, image data based on the previous reproduced image is input from the switching circuit 211, so that the difference is obtained by the adder 201 and the error is input to the DCT unit 202.

The DCT unit 202 performs discrete cosine transform on the image signal input from the adder 201 to reduce spatial redundancy of the image data. The transform coefficient obtained by DCT is input to the quantization unit 203.
The quantization unit 203 quantizes the transform coefficient obtained by the DCT unit 202 according to the quantization scale QSC from the control processing unit 10 input via the encoding control unit 212, and the variable length encoding unit 204. And output to the inverse quantization unit 205. As described above, the quantization scale of the quantization unit 203 is controlled by the encoding control unit 212 that receives the quantization scale QSC from the control processing unit 10.

  The variable length coding unit 204 performs variable length coding on the transform coefficient quantized by the quantization unit 203, generates a coded bit string, that is, a bit stream S20, and sequentially outputs it.

The encoding control unit 212 controls the quantization rate (Q scale) of the quantization unit 203, recording of image data in the frame memory 208, switching of the switching circuit 211, and the like. Note that the encoding control unit 212 performs processing related to the scene change of the present invention, details of which will be described later.
For example, the encoding control unit 212 receives the target bit rate BR _obj , the maximum bit rate BR _max , the VBR instruction signal VBD, and the quantization scale QS input from the control circuit 10.
In accordance with C, a predetermined quantization scale is set in the quantization unit 203, and the quantization rate in the quantization unit 203 is controlled.

The transform coefficient quantized by the quantization unit 203 is input to the inverse quantization unit 205. The quantized transform coefficient is inversely quantized by the inverse quantization unit 205, and further, inverse discrete cosine transform (inverse DCT) is performed by the inverse DCT unit 206.
In the mode in which motion compensation prediction is performed, the adder 207 adds the image signal subjected to inverse DCT and the image signal obtained by the motion compensation prediction to return to the original image signal and records it in the frame memory 208. .
In the intra (I) picture mode, the image signal subjected to inverse DCT by the inverse DCT unit 206 is recorded in the frame memory 208 as it is.
When performing motion compensation prediction, an image signal recorded in the frame memory 208 is used. That is, based on the image signal recorded in the frame memory 208, the motion detection unit 209 performs motion detection from the next image source signal to detect a motion vector. Further, based on the motion vector, the motion compensation unit 210 performs motion compensation prediction. The image signal obtained by the motion compensation prediction is output to the adder 201 via the switching circuit 211, and the difference between the input image source signals is obtained.

As described above, the input digital image data S1 is encoded by the image compression encoding unit 20, and the bit stream S20 is generated.
Preferably, when a quantization scale is set for each macroblock (MB), the image compression encoding unit 20 performs, for example, an encoding rate control step in TM2 (test model) 5 of MPEG2. The quantization scale aiming at the visual effect based on 3 is changed, and this is used for quantization. A bit stream generated for each MB is output.

As described above, the image compression encoding unit 20 outputs the target bit rate BR _obj , the maximum bit rate BR _max , VBR output from the control processing unit 10 as the encoding parameter P10.
In accordance with the instruction signal VBD and the quantization scale QSC, the input digital image signal S1 is compression-encoded based on, for example, the MPEG2 standard, and a bit stream S20 is output. Furthermore, the image compression encoding unit 20 generates a generated bit amount BQT indicating the bit amount generated by the compression encoding and a PCT signal indicating the image encoding type.
As described above, the image compression encoding unit 20 obtains an optimal encoding rate in accordance with the characteristics of the input image signal S1 and the change in the image, and based on the encoding rate (quantization scale QSC), the image complexity is determined. In accordance with continuous image changes, the image quality of the entire image is made uniform and the compression efficiency is improved.
As a result of the image data being compression-encoded by the image compression encoding unit 20, the data amount of the bit stream S20 is much reduced compared to the input image signal S1 before compression encoding. For this reason, the transmission capacity of the transmission path or the storage capacity of the image recording medium can be greatly reduced by transmitting and accumulating the bit stream S20 compression-encoded by the image compression encoding unit 20.

The encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20 performs this by, for example, forcibly cutting the DCT coefficient when the encoding rate control by the quantization scale is not successful and the VBV buffer 60 is likely to underflow. For example, it has a general function as a normal MPEG2 image encoding device.
Details of this will be described later.

Scene Change (SC) Detection Unit The scene change (SC) detection unit 30 detects two pictures that are temporally adjacent (frames are continuous) for the digital image signal (picture) S1 that is continuously input for each frame. If there is no correlation between the two pictures, it is detected that a scene change (SC) has occurred between the two pictures, and an SC detection result indicating the SC is output. The SC detection result is input to the image compression encoding unit 20 and the continuous scene change (SC) determination unit 40.
As a method of determining the presence or absence of the comparison in the SC detection unit 30, for example, a histogram of two pictures is obtained, a difference between the two histograms is obtained, and whether or not the difference between the histograms exceeds a threshold value is determined. , SC is determined.

Continuous Scene Change (SC) Determination Unit A continuous scene change (SC) determination unit 40 determines whether or not scene changes are continuous each time an SC detection result is input from the scene change (SC) detection unit 30. .
In the continuous SC determination unit 40, the criterion for determining a continuous scene change is the case where the scene change is continuous in units of frames (intra-picture scene change), and the second criterion. As shown in FIG. 3, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the scene change process is performed on the P picture next to the frame (picture) in which the scene change has occurred. Cases are also covered.

FIG. 3 shows a scene change detection state.
In FIG. 3, B indicates a B picture, that is, a bidirectional prediction picture, I indicates an I picture, that is, an intra picture, and P indicates a P picture, that is, a forward prediction picture. A group of a plurality of such pictures constitutes 1 GOP.

The continuous SC determination unit 40 determines a continuous scene change when scene change processing is continuously performed on a P picture with respect to the scene change determination of the second determination criterion.
The determination result of the continuous scene change in the continuous SC determination unit 40 is input to the target bit amount increase calculation unit 50 regardless of whether the determination is based on the first determination criterion or the second determination criterion.

The continuous scene change (SC) determination unit 40 has an up / down counter. When the SC detection result is input from the scene change (SC) detection unit 30, the value of the up / down counter is incremented by one. If the SC detection result is not input in the next frame, the up / down counter value is decremented by one.
In this way, the continuous SC determination unit 40 grasps the number of consecutive scene changes.

When the SC result information indicating that a scene change has been detected is input from the scene change detection unit 30 to the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20, for example, When the next P picture is encoded in the image compression encoding unit 20, the following process is performed as a scene change process. However, when an I (intra) picture is encoded before the P picture of the next frame is encoded, the scene change process is not performed.

(1) All macroblock (MB) types are set to intra (I) macroblocks.
(2) Increase the amount of generated bits.

As a method for increasing the amount of generated bits, the variable bit rate (VBR) of this embodiment limits the maximum (MAX) and minimum (MIN) bit rates to a fixed bit rate (CBR). The target bit amount TB for the frame of the CBR that limits the minimum bit rate is increased.
The amount to be set to be increased is set to the same value as the target bit amount TB set when encoding an I picture, for example, so that a bit amount equivalent to that of an I picture is generated.
However, when the scene changes are continued, the increase amount is gradually decreased as described with reference to FIG.

When the target bit amount increase calculation unit continuous scene change determination unit 40 determines whether or not the scene change is continuous, based on the determination result, the target bit amount increase calculation unit 50 uses the target bit amount TB as the target bit amount TB. A predetermined increase / decrease bit rate br from 100%, for example, a reduction of br = 3% or a recovery of 3% is performed.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the scene change occurrence state and the target bit amount.
As shown in FIG. 4, the target bit amount increase calculation unit 50 sets the target bit amount TB set when encoding an I picture in the image compression encoding unit 20 to 100%, for example, and no scene change is detected. The target bit amount TB set for the P picture is set to 0%.
The target bit amount increase calculation unit 50 sets the target bit amount TB to 100% when a scene change is detected by the scene change (SC) detection unit 30, but the continuous scene change (SC) determination unit 40. If the scene change continues as a result of the determination in (2), the target bit amount TB to be set is decreased by a predetermined rate of increase / decrease bit rate br, for example, br = 3%.
When no scene change is detected by the scene change detection unit 30, the target bit amount increase calculation unit 50 sets the target bit amount TB to be set when the next scene change is detected as the predetermined increase / decrease bit rate br. For example, the recovery (increase) is performed at br = 3%, but since no scene change is detected at this time, the actually set target bit amount TB is 0%. The upper limit of the target bit amount TB to be recovered is 100%.

  As a result of determination by the continuous scene change determination unit 40, when the scene change continues and the target bit amount TB to be set is less than 0%, the target bit amount increase calculation unit 50 sets the lower limit of the target bit amount TB to 0. %.

When an SC result signal indicating that a scene change has been detected is input from the scene change detection unit 30 to the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20, the increase / decrease output from the target bit amount increase calculation unit 50. A target bit amount TB corresponding to the value of the bit rate br (%) is set.
Conversely, if the SC result signal indicating that a scene change has been detected is not input from the scene change detection unit 30, the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20 corresponds to 0% as the target bit amount TB. Set the value.

  In this way, by taking measures against the continuous scene change, the process of forcibly increasing the target bit amount TB as the scene change processing is continued and the generated bit amount is excessively increased, so that the underflow of the VBV buffer 60, VBR Buffer failure such as overflow of the buffer 80 can be prevented in advance.

Buffer failure process, however, the VBV buffer 60 described above certainly just above process, since not always possible to avoid buffer failure of VBR buffer 80, in the image encoding device 1 of the present embodiment is actually bankrupt The scene change processing is switched on / off according to the buffer occupancy (memory amount) that may cause

One of the buffers that may cause a failure is the VBV buffer 60 shown in FIG.
As described above, the VBV buffer 60 virtually obtains the state of the decoder buffer at the time of decoding when the input image signal S1 is encoded in the image compression encoding unit 20, and the image compression code is set so that the decoder buffer does not fail. This is a buffer for controlling the generated bit amount of each frame for the conversion unit 20.

In the variable bit rate (VBR) control, the overflow of the VBV buffer 60 does not become a problem, but the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20 performs control so as not to cause an underflow.
That is, when underflow of the VBV buffer 60 is likely to occur, the encoding control unit 212 performs processing for replacing the quantization (Q) scale in the quantization unit 203 of the image compression encoding unit 20 with an extremely large value, or Control to reduce the amount of generated bits is performed by changing the macro block to a skip macro block.
When such a failure avoidance process is performed in the encoding control unit 212, the image quality of the encoded image is immediately deteriorated. Therefore, even if an underflow of the VBV buffer 60 does not occur, the VBV buffer 60 for that purpose does not occur. It is not desirable for the underflow avoidance process to work.

Scene Change Processing On / Off Determination Unit Accordingly, in the image coding apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the scene change (SC) processing on / off determination unit 70 occupies the VBV buffer 60 as shown in FIG. A threshold is provided for (storage amount), and if the occupation amount of the VBV buffer 60 is equal to or less than this threshold, management is performed so that the scene change process for forcibly increasing the generated bit amount is not performed.
FIG. 5 is a graph showing a state in which the SC process on / off determination unit 70 manages the occupation amount of the VBV buffer 60 illustrated in FIG.

  As the scene change process in the SC process on / off determination unit 70 for switching on / off, all the macroblocks that lead to the increase in the generated bit quantity are all intra (I) macroblocks, in addition to the process for directly increasing the generated bit quantity. You may add the processing to.

The threshold of the occupation amount of the VBV buffer 60 for determining the on / off of the scene change process in the SC process on / off determination unit 70 may be a fixed value, but may be changed according to the bit rate as shown in FIG. good.
FIG. 6 is a graph showing the relationship between the bit rate (horizontal axis) and the occupation amount (vertical axis) of the VBV buffer 60 determined by the scene change processing on / off determination unit 70 illustrated in the image encoding device 1. .

  That is, as the bit rate increases, the amount of bits generated in one frame increases, so that the underflow of the VBV buffer 60 is likely to occur. The SC process on / off determination unit 70 continues the buffer control process of the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20, and the encoding control unit 212 increases the threshold of the occupation amount of the VBV buffer 60 as the bit rate increases. Set to a higher value.

In addition to the VBV buffer 60, there is a VBR buffer 80 shown in FIG. 1 in the present embodiment as a buffer that may fail due to the scene change process.
FIG. 7 is a graph showing the occupied (stored) state of the VBR buffer 80 in the image encoding device 1 illustrated in FIG.

The VBR buffer 80 is obtained by integrating the difference in the bit amount actually generated with respect to the target bit amount TB of 1 GOP in the variable bit rate (VBR) control.
An increase in the amount of occupancy (storage amount) of the VBR buffer 80 means that excessive bits are generated, and it is necessary to suppress the generated bit amount in subsequent encoding in the image compression encoding unit 20.
On the contrary, the fact that the amount of occupancy (storage amount) of the VBR buffer 80 is reduced is a state in which bits are excessively generated, and the generated bit amount is increased in the subsequent encoding in the image compression encoding unit 20. There is a need.

  In order to control the generated bit amount for the VBR buffer 80, the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20 divides the occupation amount of the VBR buffer 80 by a coefficient called “reactor value”. Is used for encoding as a quantization (Q) scale code, and this operation is performed for a long period of time, for example, every 1 GOP, thereby performing variable bit rate (VBR) control in this embodiment.

When the storage amount of the VBR buffer 80 continues to increase and the value divided by the reactor value exceeds 31, the generated bit amount cannot be sufficiently suppressed because the upper limit of the Q scale code is 31 in the MPEG2 standard.
When such a state occurs, that is, when the generated bit amount error becomes excessive, for example, the bit stream S20 of the image compression encoding unit 20 is recorded on a recording medium having a predetermined recording capacity, for example, a DVD. The inconvenience occurs such that the time that can be done is much shorter than the target time.
As a countermeasure against such a problem, for example, when the occupation amount of the VBR buffer 80 is more than 31 in terms of a Q scale code, the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit (encoder) 20 is one frame. For example, the bit stream of the B picture is replaced with the minimum bit stream necessary to satisfy the MPEG2 standard (skip frame) while ignoring the image quality of the encoded image, and the VBR buffer 80 is more than that. Do not increase.

  When such processing is performed, the VBR buffer 80 also leads to deterioration of the image quality of the encoded image as in the case of the VBV buffer 60. Therefore, the occupation amount of the VBR buffer 80 increases to a value close to 31 in terms of Q scale code. Control should not be performed.

Scene change (SC) processing on / off determination unit As one of the controls, the scene change (SC) processing on / off determination unit 70 increases the amount of generated bits according to the value of the VBR buffer 80 occupancy. Toggle connected scene change processing on / off.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are graphs showing a method of controlling the VBR buffer in the image coding apparatus illustrated in FIG.
For example, as shown in FIG. 8A, when the occupation amount of the VBR buffer 80 exceeds a variable setting threshold, the SC process on / off determination unit 70 is an image compression code that is one of scene change processes. The processing for forcibly increasing the amount of generated bits in the encoding control unit 212 of the encoding unit 20 is turned off, and the processing ends.
When the occupation amount of the VBR buffer 80 exceeds a fixed threshold different from this, all macroblocks are forcibly set in the encoding control unit 212 of the image compression encoding unit 20, which is another scene change process. The process of replacing with an intra (I) macroblock is turned off.

  However, the fixed and variable combinations of the threshold values are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to this, and it is not necessary to perform on / off control for both of the two processes, and either one may be used. .

  Also, as shown in FIG. 8B, when the threshold for switching on / off increasing the amount of generated bits is set high, the SC processing on / off determination unit 70 performs the encoding of the image compression encoding unit 20. Through the control unit 212, the threshold value for intra (I) macroblocking may be matched with this, and the on / off control may be performed with a threshold value set while ignoring the fixed value threshold value.

  With these processes, when the scene change process is turned off under the control of the encoding control unit 212 in the image compression encoding unit 20, the image quality at the time of the scene change is determined for the encoded image in the image compression encoding unit 20. Although no improvement will be made, when the scene change processing is turned off, the Q scale code is in a high state, and the image quality of the encoded image has deteriorated to some extent. However, it is not a big problem.

  As a side effect of the processing for improving the image quality degradation at the time of a scene change, there is a possibility that new image quality degradation may occur. However, according to the image encoding device 1 of the present embodiment, this can be prevented beforehand. It is possible to effectively use the scene change process.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, as a rate control by the variable bit rate (VBR), when a scene change (SC) occurs in the input image, the macroblock (MB) type and the target bit amount TB are manipulated. Thus, as a process in the image encoding device, preferably the moving image encoding device, which performs a process for increasing the generated bit amount, an image in which a scene change is continuously generated is input. In such a case, it is possible to prevent the buffer failure or the buffer failure avoiding process due to the generated bit amount being excessively increased by gradually reducing the generated bit amount.

  Furthermore, the present embodiment monitors the state of a buffer that can cause a failure due to processing for a scene change, turns off the scene change processing that increases the amount of generated bits if the risk of failure increases, and performs buffer failure or buffer failure processing. Surely avoid.

  In the present embodiment, a system problem of the image encoding apparatus due to a buffer failure such as overflow or underflow of a buffer such as the VBV buffer 60 or the VBR buffer 80 due to the above processing, or Even if the buffer does not fail, it is possible to prevent the deterioration of the encoded image quality due to the processing for avoiding the failure.

In the implementation of the image encoding apparatus of the present invention, the configuration illustrated in FIG. 1 and the above-described sharing of processing in each component are examples.
For example, the scene change (SC) detection unit 30 can be integrated with the continuous scene change (SC) determination unit 40.
Also, a scene change (SC) detection unit 30, a continuous scene change (SC) determination unit 40, a target bit amount increase calculation unit 50, an encoding control unit 212 in the image compression encoding unit 20, a scene change (SC) The processing on / off determination unit 70 may be realized by a single computer or the like. Thus, the above-described function sharing or processing sharing is merely an example, and the above-described processing may be performed as the entire image encoding device 1.

  MPEG2 is exemplified as the encoding method in the image compression encoding unit 20, but the image encoding apparatus of the present invention is not limited to the MPEG2 standard, and other MPEG standards, for example, the MPEG4 standard or other encodings. A scheme can also be applied.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image encoding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the image compression encoding unit (encoder) illustrated in FIG. FIG. 3 shows a scene change detection state. FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the scene change occurrence state and the target bit amount. FIG. 5 is a graph showing a state of managing the occupation amount of the VBV buffer illustrated in FIG. FIG. 6 is a graph showing the relationship between the bit rate (horizontal axis) and the VBV buffer occupancy (vertical axis) determined by the scene change processing on / off determination unit illustrated in the image encoding device. FIG. 7 is a graph showing the occupied state of the VBR buffer in the image coding apparatus illustrated in FIG. FIGS. 8A and 8B are graphs showing a method of controlling the VBR buffer in the image coding apparatus illustrated in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image encoding apparatus 10 ... Control processing part 20 ... Image compression encoding part (encoder)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 212 ... Coding control part 30 ... Scene change (SC) detection part 40 ... Continuous scene change (SC) determination part 50 ... Target bit amount increase calculation part 60 ... VBV buffer 70 ... Scene change (SC) process ON / OFF determination Part 80 ... VBR buffer

Claims (12)

Image compression encoding means for compressing and encoding continuous image signals;
A scene change detection / continuous scene change determination means for detecting a scene change with respect to continuous image signals and further detecting that the scene change is continuous;
When the scene change detection / continuous scene change determination unit determines that the scene change is continuous, the generated bit amount exceeds the bit amount generated by normal rate control for the scene change in the image compression encoding unit. In the image compression encoding means, when the next scene change occurs, if the scene change does not occur, the generated bit amount to be increased is gradually decreased at a predetermined increase / decrease bit rate. A target bit amount increase calculating means for gradually recovering the generated bit amount at the predetermined increase / decrease bit rate,
Preventing failure of the buffer for storing the coding state of the image compression coding means;
Image encoding device. The predetermined increase / decrease bit rate in the target bit amount increase calculation means is defined in accordance with an occupation amount of a buffer that stores data indicating an encoding state of the image compression encoding means.
The image encoding device according to claim 1. When the buffer occupancy is monitored and a buffer failure caused by an excessive increase in the amount of generated bits due to a scene change in the image compression encoding means is predicted, the occurrence in the image compression encoding means A scene change process on / off determination means for stopping the scene change countermeasure process in which the bit amount increases;
The image coding apparatus according to claim 1 or 2. The buffer is a VBV buffer for virtual buffer confirmation.
The image encoding device according to claim 1. The buffer is a variable bit rate control VBR buffer.
The image encoding device according to claim 1. The image compression encoding means performs encoding processing based on the MPEG standard.
The image encoding device according to claim 1. Detect scene changes for continuous image signals,
For image compression coding means for performing bit rate control of the variable bit rate method, which increases the generated bit amount more than the bit amount generated by normal rate control for scene change when the scene change is continued, Gradually decrease the amount of generated bits to increase at a predetermined increase / decrease bit rate,
After that, when there is no scene change, when the next scene change occurs, the generated bit amount to be increased in the image compression encoding means is gradually recovered at the predetermined increase / decrease bit rate,
Preventing failure of the buffer for storing the coding state of the image compression coding means;
Image coding method. The predetermined increase / decrease bit rate is defined according to an occupation amount of a buffer that stores data indicating an encoding state of the image compression encoding means.
The image encoding method according to claim 7. When the buffer occupancy is monitored and a buffer failure caused by an excessive increase in the amount of generated bits due to a scene change in the image compression encoding means is predicted, the occurrence in the image compression encoding means Stop scene change countermeasure processing that increases the amount of bits,
The image encoding method according to claim 7. The buffer is a VBV buffer for virtual buffer confirmation.
The image encoding method according to claim 7. The buffer is a variable bit rate control VBR buffer.
The image encoding method according to claim 7. The image compression encoding means performs encoding processing based on the MPEG standard.
The image encoding method according to claim 7.

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