Encoding an image

摘要

An image processor comprises an image pre-processing block and an encoder processing block for processing and encoding an image. The image pre-processing block receives image data and processes it to provide an image comprising image sections which each comprise pixels. For each of the image sections, the pixels are analyzed to estimate an indication of the complexity of the image section, and metadata is determined based on the estimated complexity indications of the image sections. The metadata is passed to the encoder processing block which uses it to determine a quantization level for use in encoding the image. The encoder processing block can then encode the image using the determined quantization level. Conveniently, the image pre-processing block 106 processes the image data to provide the image, and therefore has access to the image which it can analyze to determine the metadata without requiring a separate read operation of the image.

主权项

1. An image processor, comprising:
an image pre-processor configured to:
receive image data which is to be processed to provide an image,process the received image data to provide the image, said image including at least one image section having a plurality of pixels,analyse the pixels in the image section to estimate an indication of the complexity of the image section,determine metadata based on the estimated indication of the complexity of the image section, andoutput the determined metadata; and an encoder configured to:
receive the metadata determined by the image pre-processor,use the received metadata to determine a quantization level for use in encoding the image, andencode the image using the determined quantization level.