Apple patents video compression method that uses fewer memory buffers
Apple has been granted a patent for a method to reduce the number of memory buffers needed when processing video. The system selects specific buffers based on how the video frame is predicted, rather than keeping a separate buffer for every possible prediction mode. This allows the device to retrieve historical data and update the video frame using less memory space.
In the filing’s own words
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for reducing a quantity of buffers for a video codec. One of the methods includes determining, from a plurality of prediction modes, a prediction mode for data that represents frame data in a frame; in response to determining the prediction mode, selecting, using the prediction mode, one or more buffers from a plurality of buffers, each buffer of which is for a prediction mode from the plurality of prediction modes, a first quantity of buffers in the plurality of buffers being less than a second quantity of prediction modes in the plurality of prediction modes; retrieving, from each of the one or more buffers, historical data for the frame data; and in response to retrieving the historical data, generating, using the historical data, updated data for the frame data in the frame of the video sequence.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A computer-implemented method comprising: maintaining a plurality of buffers each of which is for a corresponding prediction mode from the plurality of prediction modes, wherein: a first quantity of buffers in the plurality of buffers maintained to be less than a second quantity of prediction modes in the plurality of prediction modes, a first set of prediction modes among the plurality of prediction modes (i) corresponds to the plurality of buffers and (ii) comprises the prediction mode, and a second set of prediction modes among the plurality of prediction modes does not correspond to the plurality of buffers; determining, from a plurality of prediction modes that can be used to determine historical data for a frame data from a frame in a video sequence, a prediction mode for data that represents the frame data in the frame; in response to determining the prediction mode, selecting, using the prediction mode, one or more buffers from a plurality of buffers; retrieving, from each of the one or more buffers, historical data for the frame data; and in response to retrieving the historical data, generating, using the historical data, updated data for the frame data in the frame of the video sequence.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- Video codec buffer quantity reduction
- Patent number
- US12756839B2
- Application number
- 18784149
- Filed
- Jul 25, 2024
- Granted
- Oct 6, 2026
- Inventors
- 10
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H04N 19/159 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/105 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/172 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/43 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/58 Electricity & electronicsMore from Apple in Chips & hardware
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.