TWI841467B - Flatness determination module, display stream compression encoder and information processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention mainly discloses a flatness judgment module for integration in a DSC encoder, which comprises: a flatness judgment unit, a counting unit and a data comparison unit. According to the design of the present invention, the flatness judgment unit transmits a flatness description data to the counting unit after completing a flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data. Then, when a first count value corresponding to the flatness description data and a second count value corresponding to a plurality of image slices divided from a display frame are the same, the counting unit transmits a first equality flag to a data comparison unit, so that the data comparison unit performs a data comparison on the current image slice data and the next image slice data, and when the two have the same data, transmits a second equality flag to a VLC entropy coding unit, so that it directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data.

Description

Flatness determination module, display stream compression encoder and information processing device

The present invention relates to the technical field of display devices, and more particularly to a flatness determination module integrated into a display stream compression encoder.

As we all know, video coding, also known as video compression, is a technology that compresses a large amount of video data at a large scale to achieve efficient transmission and storage. For example, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and AVC/H.264 have been widely used in many applications. In recent years, newer video compression formats are VP8, VP9, and HEVC.

Furthermore, in order to meet the display requirements of high display resolution and high frame rate, the amount of data transmitted through digital interfaces has also increased. In view of this, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) and the MIPI Alliance have jointly developed a display stream compression (DSC) encoding technology to compress display data for transmission, achieving high-resolution content output at low bandwidth, and the compressed screen display is visually distortion-free and has low latency.

At present, the DSC technical solution can be applied to various video transmission interfaces, including DisplayPort, HDMI, MIPI, etc. FIG1 is a block diagram of a display device that applies the DSC technical solution. As shown in FIG1, the display device 1a mainly includes: a display panel 11a, a display drive circuit 12a, and a control unit 13a. During normal operation, the control unit 13a receives an input display data from a host computer 10a (such as an application processor or a display processor), and processes the input display data into an output display data, so that the display drive circuit 12a drives the display panel 11a according to the output display data.

As shown in Fig. 1, a DSC system 2a includes: a DSC encoder 21a disposed in the host computer 10a (ie, the video transmission end) and a DSC decoder 22a disposed in the control unit 13a (ie, the video reception end). Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the DSC encoder shown in Fig. 1. As shown in FIG. 2 , the DSC encoder 21 a includes a color space conversion unit 210 a, a data buffer 211 a, a prediction/quantization/reconstruction unit 212 a, a line buffer 213 a, an ICH unit 214 a, a rate control unit 215 a, a flatness determination unit 216 a, a VLC entropy coding unit 217 a, a substream multiplexer 218 a, and a rate buffer 219 a, wherein ICH is an abbreviation of indexed color history, and VLC is an abbreviation of variable-length coding.

In order to speed up the encoding process, a display image is divided into a plurality of image slices so that each image slice can be encoded independently. It is worth noting that the flatness determination unit 216a is used to determine the flatness of each image slice, and accordingly outputs three different flatness indications, including: very flat, somewhat flat, and flatness detection failure. Thus, according to the flatness indication, the VLC entropy coding unit 217a can encode the slice into a coding group according to a compression ratio.

The existing DSC system 2a is relatively mature in coding and decoding, and the decoded image data is almost the same as the original image data. However, since the DSC encoder 21a divides a display screen into a plurality of image slices and performs independent coding operations on each image slice, there is a problem that power consumption needs to be optimized.

From the above description, it can be seen that there is an urgent need in the art for a flatness determination module that can help reduce the power consumption of a DSC encoder.

The main purpose of the present invention is to provide a flatness judgment module for integration into a DSC encoder, which includes: a flatness judgment unit, a counting unit, and a data comparison unit. If the display data of a frame of a display screen has high flatness and good continuity, then there is a high probability that two or more image slices with the same display data will appear in the multiple image slices segmented from the display screen. On this basis, the present invention adds a data comparison unit and a counting unit in the flatness judgment module, uses the counting unit to screen out image slices with high flatness and good continuity, and uses the data comparison unit to perform data comparison between the image slices with high flatness and good continuity and their adjacent image slices. If the comparison result shows that the two have the same data, the VLC entropy coding unit in the DSC encoder is notified to directly use the data coding stream of the image slice with high flatness and good continuity as the data coding stream of its adjacent image slice data. In this way, the reduced VLC entropy coding unit's coding processing of the display data of the image slice has a significant effect on reducing the power consumption of the DSC encoder.

To achieve the above-mentioned purpose, the present invention proposes an embodiment of the flatness judgment module, which is used to be integrated into a display stream compression encoder (DSC Encoder), and includes a flatness judgment unit for performing a flatness evaluation operation on a plurality of image slice data segmented from a display screen; the flatness judgment module further includes a counting unit and a data comparison unit; wherein, after completing the flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data, the flatness judgment unit generates a flatness description data corresponding to the current image slice data; The counting unit performs a first counting operation and a second counting operation on the flatness description data and the plurality of image slice data, respectively, and transmits a first equality flag to the data comparison unit when a first counting value generated from the first counting operation and a second counting value generated from the second counting operation are the same; After receiving the first equality flag, the data comparison unit performs a data comparison operation on the current image slice data and the next image slice data, and transmits a second equality flag when the current image slice data and the next image slice data have the same data. flag) to a VLC entropy coding unit in the display stream compression codec, so that the VLC entropy coding unit directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data.

In one embodiment, the counting unit includes: a first counter for performing the first counting operation on the flatness description data to generate the first counting value; a second counter for performing the second counting operation on the plurality of image slice data to generate the second counting value; and a counting value comparison unit, coupling the first counter and the second counter, for performing a comparison operation on the first counting value and the first counting value, thereby generating the first equality flag when the first counting value and the second counting value are the same and transmitting it to the data comparison unit.

In one embodiment, the flatness determination module of the present invention further includes a data providing unit coupled to the count value comparison unit; wherein, after receiving the first equal data, the data providing unit transmits the current image slice data and the next image slice data to the data comparison unit.

Furthermore, the present invention also proposes a display stream compression encoder for integration in a video receiving end, and having a flatness determination module; the flatness determination module includes a flatness determination unit for performing a flatness evaluation operation on a plurality of image slice data segmented from a display screen, and further includes a counting unit and a data comparison unit; wherein, after completing the flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data, the flatness determination unit generates a flatness description data corresponding to the current image slice data; The counting unit performs a first counting operation and a second counting operation on the flatness description data and the plurality of image slice data, respectively, and transmits a first equality flag to the data comparison unit when a first counting value generated from the first counting operation and a second counting value generated from the second counting operation are the same; After receiving the first equality flag, the data comparison unit performs a data comparison operation on the current image slice data and the next image slice data, and transmits a second equality flag when the current image slice data and the next image slice data have the same data. flag) to a VLC entropy coding unit in the display stream compression codec, so that the VLC entropy coding unit directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data.

In one embodiment, the counting unit includes: a first counter for performing the first counting operation on the flatness description data to generate the first counting value; a second counter for performing the second counting operation on the plurality of image slice data to generate the second counting value; and a counting value comparison unit, coupling the first counter and the second counter, for performing a comparison operation on the first counting value and the first counting value, thereby generating the first equality flag when the first counting value and the second counting value are the same and transmitting it to the data comparison unit.

In one embodiment, the flatness determination module further includes a data providing unit coupled to the count value comparison unit; wherein, after receiving the first equal data, the data providing unit transmits the current image slice data and the next image slice data to the data comparison unit.

Furthermore, the present invention also proposes an information processing device, which has a display device and a video providing device, wherein the display device includes: a display panel, a display driving circuit and a control unit, the control unit receives a display data stream from the video providing device, the video providing device has a display stream compression encoder for generating the display data stream, and the display stream compression encoder has a flatness judgment module; its characteristic is that the flatness judgment module includes a flatness judgment unit for performing a flatness evaluation operation on a plurality of image slice data divided from a frame of display screen, and further includes a counting unit and a data comparison unit; Wherein, after completing the flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data, the flatness judgment unit generates a flatness description data corresponding to the current image slice data; Wherein, the counting unit performs a first counting operation and a second counting operation on the flatness description data and the plurality of image slice data respectively, and when a first counting value generated from the first counting operation and a second counting value generated from the second counting operation are the same, transmits a first equality flag to the data comparison unit; Wherein, after receiving the first equality data, the data comparison unit performs a data comparison operation on the current image slice data and the next image slice data, and when the current image slice data and the next image slice data have the same data, transmits a second equality flag flag) to a VLC entropy coding unit in the display stream compression codec, so that the VLC entropy coding unit directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data.

In one embodiment, the counting unit includes: a first counter for performing the first counting operation on the flatness description data to generate the first counting value; a second counter for performing the second counting operation on the plurality of image slice data to generate the second counting value; and a counting value comparison unit, coupling the first counter and the second counter, for performing a comparison operation on the first counting value and the first counting value, thereby generating the first equality flag when the first counting value and the second counting value are the same and transmitting it to the data comparison unit.

In one embodiment, the flatness determination module further includes a data providing unit coupled to the count value comparison unit; wherein, after receiving the first equal data, the data providing unit transmits the current image slice data and the next image slice data to the data comparison unit.

In a feasible embodiment, the information processing device is an electronic device selected from the group consisting of a smart TV, a head-mounted display device, a digital camera, a car entertainment system, a smart phone, a smart watch, a tablet computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an all-in-one computer, a multimedia service machine (KIOSK), and a video door machine.

In order to enable the Review Committee to further understand the structure, features, purpose, and advantages of the present invention, the following are attached with drawings and detailed descriptions of preferred specific embodiments.

FIG3 is a block diagram of a display device including a display stream compression encoder (DSC encoder) of the present invention. As shown in FIG3, the display device 1 mainly includes: a display panel 11, a display drive circuit 12 and a control unit 13. During normal operation, the control unit 13 receives an input display data from a host computer 10 (such as an application processor or a display processor), and processes the input display data into an output display data, so that the display drive circuit 12 drives the display panel 11 to display according to the output display data. Further, as shown in FIG3 , a DSC system 2 includes: a DSC encoder 21 disposed in the host computer 10 (i.e., the video transmission end) and a DSC decoder 22 disposed in the control unit 13 (i.e., the video reception end). Moreover, FIG4 is a block diagram of the DSC encoder shown in FIG3 . As shown in FIG4 , the DSC encoder 21 includes: a color space conversion unit 210, a data buffer 211, a prediction/quantization/reconstruction unit 212, a line buffer 213, an ICH unit 214, a rate control unit 215, a VLC entropy coding unit 217, a substream multiplexer 218, a rate buffer 219, and a flatness determination module 216 proposed by the present invention.

FIG5 is a block diagram of a flatness determination module of the present invention. As shown in FIG4 and FIG5, the flatness determination module 216 of the present invention is used to be integrated in the DSC encoder 21, and includes a flatness determination unit 2160 for performing a flatness evaluation operation on a plurality of image slice data divided from a frame of display screen. According to the design of the present invention, the flatness determination module 216 further includes a counting unit 2161 and a data comparison unit 2162, wherein the counting unit 2161 includes a first counter 2163, a second counter 2164 and a count value comparison unit 2165. To explain in more detail, after completing the flatness evaluation operation for the current image slice data, the flatness determination unit 2160 generates a flatness description data corresponding to the current image slice data. An electronic engineer familiar with the design of a DSC encoder should know that the flatness determination unit 2160 outputs three different flatness indications, including very flat, somewhat flat, and flatness detection failure, according to the flatness relationship between the current image slice data and its adjacent image slice data (i.e., the next image slice data). Thus, according to the flatness indication, the VLC entropy coding unit 217 can encode the slice into a coding group according to a compression ratio.

In the present invention, the flag data of veryflat is used as the flatness description data. Thus, the counting unit 2161 can use its first counter 2163 to perform a first counting operation on the flatness description data to generate a first count value, and use its second counter 2164 to perform a second counting operation on the plurality of image slice data to generate a second count value. Finally, the counting unit 2161 uses its count value comparison unit 2165 to perform a comparison operation on the first count value and the first count value, and when the first count value and the second count value are the same, a first equality flag is generated and transmitted to the data comparison unit 2162.

As shown in FIG5 , the present invention further provides a data providing unit 2166, which is coupled between the count value comparison unit 2165 and the data comparison unit 2162. Thus, after receiving the first equal data, the data providing unit 2166 transmits the current image slice data and the next image slice data to the data comparison unit 2162, and the data comparison unit 2162 then performs a data comparison operation on the current image slice data and the next image slice data. Finally, when the current image slice data and the next image slice data have the same data, the data comparison unit 2162 transmits a second equality flag to the VLC entropy coding unit 217, so that the VLC entropy coding unit 217 directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data.

It is to be noted that if the display data of a display screen has high flatness and good continuity, then the multiple image slices divided from the display screen are likely to have two or more image slices with the same display data. Based on this, when the flatness determination unit 2160 outputs a very flat flatness indication, it means that the display data of the current image slice is very different from the display data of the adjacent image slice, and the two may have the same display data. Therefore, the present invention adds a data comparison unit 2162 and a counting unit 2161 in the flatness judgment module 216, so as to use the counting unit 2161 to screen out the image slices with high flatness and good continuity, and use the data comparison unit 2162 to compare the data of the image slices with high flatness and good continuity with its adjacent image slices. If the comparison result shows that the two have the same data, the VLC entropy coding unit 217 in the DSC encoder 21 is notified to directly use the data coding stream of the image slice with high flatness and good continuity as the data coding stream of the data of its adjacent image slices. In this way, the reduced coding processing of the display data of the image slice by the VLC entropy coding unit 217 has a significant effect on reducing the power consumption of the DSC encoder 21.

Furthermore, according to the design of the present invention, in addition to directly using the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data, the veryflat (i.e., flatness description data) of the current image slice data is also used as the veryflat of the next image slice data, so as to facilitate the aforementioned count value comparison procedure between the next image slice data and the next-next image slice data.

Thus, the above has completely and clearly described a flatness determination module of the present invention; and, from the above, it can be known that the present invention has the following advantages:

(1) The present invention discloses a flatness determination module for integration into a DSC encoder. The flatness determination module of the present invention can screen out image slices with high flatness and good continuity, and perform data comparison between the image slices with high flatness and good continuity and their adjacent image slices. If the comparison result shows that the two have the same data, the VLC entropy coding unit in the DSC encoder is notified to directly use the data coding stream of the image slice with high flatness and good continuity as the data coding stream of the data of its adjacent image slices. In this way, the reduced coding processing of the display data of the image slice by the VLC entropy coding unit has a significant effect on reducing the power consumption of the DSC encoder.

(2) The present invention also discloses an information processing device having a display device and a video providing device, wherein the display device includes: a display panel, a display driving circuit and a control unit, the control unit receives a display data stream from the video providing device, and the video providing device has a display stream compression encoder for generating the display data stream; its characteristic is that the display stream compression encoder has the flatness judgment module proposed by the present invention. In a feasible embodiment, the information processing device is an electronic device selected from the group consisting of a smart TV, a head-mounted display device, a digital camera, a car entertainment system, a smart phone, a smart watch, a tablet computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an all-in-one computer, a multimedia service machine (KIOSK), and a video door machine.

It must be emphasized that what is disclosed in the above-mentioned case is a preferred embodiment. Any partial changes or modifications that are derived from the technical ideas of this case and are easily inferred by people familiar with the art do not deviate from the scope of the patent rights of this case.

In summary, this case shows that its purpose, means and effects are very different from the known technology, and it is the first invention that is practical and indeed meets the patent requirements for invention. We sincerely request the review committee to examine this carefully and grant a patent as soon as possible to benefit the society. This is our utmost prayer.

1a: Display device 10a: Host computer 11a: Display panel 12a: Display driver circuit 13a: Control unit 2a: DSC system 21a: DSC encoder 210a: Color space conversion unit 211a: Data buffer 212a: Prediction/quantization/reconstruction unit 213a: Line buffer 214a: ICH unit 215a: Rate control unit 216a: Flatness determination unit 217a: VLC entropy coding unit 218a: Substream multiplexer 219a: Rate buffer 22a: DSC decoder 1: Display device 10: Host computer 11: Display panel 12: Display driver circuit 13: Control unit 2: DSC system 21: DSC encoder 210: Color space conversion unit 211: Data buffer 212: Prediction/quantization/reconstruction unit 213: Line buffer 214: ICH unit 215: Rate control unit 216: Flatness determination module 2160: Flatness determination unit 2161: Counting unit 2162: Data comparison unit 2163: First counter 2164: Second counter 2165: Count value comparison unit 2166: Data providing unit 217: VLC entropy coding unit 218: Substream multiplexer 219: Rate buffer 22: DSC decoder

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a display device applying the DSC technical solution; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the DSC encoder shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a display device including a display stream compression encoder of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the DSC encoder shown in FIG. 3; and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a flatness determination module of the present invention.

211: Data Cache

216: Flatness determination module

2160: Flatness determination unit

2161: Counting unit

2162: Data matching unit

2163:First counter

2164: Second counter

2165:Count value comparison unit

2166:Data provider unit

217: VLC entropy coding unit

Claims (7)

A flatness determination module for integration into a display stream compression coder (DSC) The invention relates to an encoder and a flatness determination unit for performing a flatness evaluation operation on a plurality of image slice data divided from a display screen; the flatness determination module further comprises a counting unit and a data comparison unit; wherein, after completing the flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data, the flatness determination unit generates a flatness description data corresponding to the current image slice data; wherein, the counting unit performs a first counting operation and a second counting operation on the flatness description data and the plurality of image slice data, respectively, and transmits a first equality data (equality data) when a first counting value generated from the first counting operation and a second counting value generated from the second counting operation are the same. flag) to the data comparison unit; wherein, after receiving the first equal data, the data comparison unit performs a data comparison operation on the current image slice data and the next image slice data, and transmits a second equal data (equality flag) when the current image slice data and the next image slice data have the same data. flag) to a VLC entropy coding unit in the display stream compression coder, so that the VLC entropy coding unit directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data; wherein the counting unit includes: a first counter, used to perform the first counting operation on the flatness description data to generate the first counting value; a second counter, used to perform the second counting operation on the plurality of image slice data to generate the second counting value; and a counting value comparison unit, coupled to the first counter and the second counter, used to perform a comparison operation on the first counting value and the first counting value, so as to generate the first equality data (equality flag) and transmit it to the data comparison unit when the first counting value and the second counting value are the same. The flatness determination module as described in claim 1 further includes a data providing unit coupled to the counter value comparison unit; wherein, after receiving the first equal data, the data providing unit transmits the current image slice data and the next image slice data to the data comparison unit. A display stream compression encoder is used for integration in a video receiving end and has a flatness determination module; the flatness determination module includes a flatness determination unit for performing a flatness evaluation operation on a plurality of image slice data divided from a display screen, and further includes a counting unit and a data comparison unit; wherein, after completing the flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data, the flatness determination module performs a flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data. After the operation, the flatness judgment unit generates a flatness description data corresponding to the current image slice data; wherein the counting unit performs a first counting operation and a second counting operation on the flatness description data and the plurality of image slice data respectively, and when a first counting value generated from the first counting operation and a second counting value generated from the second counting operation are the same, transmits a first equality flag to the data comparison unit; wherein after receiving the first equality data, the data comparison unit performs a data comparison operation on the current image slice data and the next image slice data, and when the current image slice data and the next image slice data have the same data, transmits a second equality flag flag) to a VLC entropy coding unit in the display stream compression codec, so that the VLC entropy coding unit directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data; Wherein, the counting unit includes: a first counter, used to perform the first counting operation on the flatness description data to generate the first counting value; a second counter, used to perform the second counting operation on the plurality of image slice data to generate the second counting value; and a counting value comparison unit, coupled to the first counter and the second counter, used to perform a comparison operation on the first counting value and the first counting value, so as to generate the first equality data (equality flag) and transmit it to the data comparison unit when the first counting value and the second counting value are the same. The display stream compression encoder as described in claim 3 further includes a data providing unit coupled to the counter value comparison unit. After receiving the first equal data, the data providing unit transmits the current image slice data and the next image slice data to the data comparison unit. An information processing device has a display device and a video providing device, wherein the display device includes: a display panel, a display driving circuit and a control unit, the control unit receives a display data stream from the video providing device, the video providing device has a display stream compression encoder for generating the display data stream, and the display stream compression encoder has a flatness determination module; the flatness determination module includes a flatness determination unit for performing a flatness evaluation operation on a plurality of image slice data divided from a frame of display screen. The device further comprises a counting unit and a data comparison unit; wherein, after completing the flatness evaluation operation on the current image slice data, the flatness judgment unit generates a flatness description data corresponding to the current image slice data; wherein, the counting unit performs a first counting operation and a second counting operation on the flatness description data and the plurality of image slice data, respectively, and transmits a first equality data (equality data) when a first counting value generated from the first counting operation and a second counting value generated from the second counting operation are the same. flag) to the data comparison unit; wherein, after receiving the first equal data, the data comparison unit performs a data comparison operation on the current image slice data and the next image slice data, and transmits a second equal data (equality flag) when the current image slice data and the next image slice data have the same data. flag) to a VLC entropy coding unit in the display stream compression coder, so that the VLC entropy coding unit directly uses the data coding stream of the current image slice data as the data coding stream of the next image slice data; wherein the counting unit includes: a first counter, used to perform the first counting operation on the flatness description data to generate the first counting value; a second counter, used to perform the second counting operation on the plurality of image slice data to generate the second counting value; and a counting value comparison unit, coupled to the first counter and the second counter, used to perform a comparison operation on the first counting value and the first counting value, so as to generate the first equality data (equality flag) and transmit it to the data comparison unit when the first counting value and the second counting value are the same. The information processing device as described in claim 5 further includes a data providing unit coupled to the counter value matching unit. After receiving the first equal data, the data providing unit transmits the current image slice data and the next image slice data to the data matching unit. The information processing device as described in claim 6, wherein the information processing device is an electronic device selected from the group consisting of a smart TV, a head-mounted display device, a digital camera, a car entertainment system, a smart phone, a smart watch, a tablet computer, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, an all-in-one computer, a multimedia service machine (KIOSK), and a video door machine.

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