Image processing apparatus and image conversion apparatus

摘要

A technique for eliminating the unnaturalness in a generated moving image while achieving high speed processing in an image processing apparatus which includes a deblocking filter is provided. A transcoder includes an MPEG2 decoder, a strength evaluation circuit, and an H.264 encoder. The strength evaluation circuit calculates a filter strength parameter on the basis of an image feature value parameter acquired by the MPEG2 decoder. The H.264 encoder applies a deblocking filter to an input image on the basis of the filter strength parameter in a coding process. The H.264 encoder codes a picture while the strength evaluation circuit performs a filter strength calculation process on a subsequent picture concurrently.

主权项

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:
a strength evaluation circuit configured to:
(1) calculate a filter strength from an image feature value of an input image when a picture type of the input image is I picture, wherein the image feature value is to be obtained in units of pictures, and the image feature value is based on a picture activity value obtained by adding the absolute values of the activity values of all the macroblocks included in the I picture, and(2) calculate a filter strength from the image feature value of the input image when the picture type of the input image is P picture or B picture, wherein the image feature value is to be obtained in units of pictures, and the image feature value is based on a picture motion evaluation value obtained by adding the absolute values of prediction error values of all the macroblocks included in the P picture or the B picture; and a coding circuit configured to code said input image and output a coded stream, wherein said coding circuit includes a filter part configured to perform a deblocking filtering process on an image generated in a coding process on the basis of said filter strength, and a process of calculating said filter strength performed by said strength evaluation circuit and said coding process performed by said coding circuit are performed concurrently in units of pictures.