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Sony patents video filter tweaks to smooth out blocky edges

Sony describes a method for improving video quality by adjusting how filters are applied to color data at the edges of video blocks. The system uses a different filter design for pixels near the outer boundary of a large video segment compared to those inside it. This helps reduce visible artifacts when video is compressed and played back.

Why it mattersThis is a technical improvement to video compression standards that may result in slightly cleaner images, though it is unlikely to be noticeable to most viewers.

In the filing’s own words

A reduced second luminance filter has a reduced filter characteristic with respect to a second luminance filter that has a higher filter strength than a first luminance filter, or a reduced first luminance filter having a reduced filter characteristic with respect to the first luminance filter is applied, as a second color-difference filter having a higher filter strength than a first color-difference filter, to a pixel of a color-difference component located around a block boundary in a decoded image. The present technology is applicable to image encoding and decoding, for example.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. An image processing device, comprising: processing circuitry configured to apply, in a case where a second color-difference filter having a higher filter strength than a first color-difference filter is applied to a pixel of a color-difference component neighboring across a block boundary within a decoded image, a third color-difference filter to a pixel of a color-difference component neighboring across a block boundary of a CTU (Coding Tree Unit), the third color-difference filter having a filter design that is different from the second color-difference filter that is applied to a pixel of a color-difference component neighboring across a block boundary inside the CTU.

Facts

Company
Sony (Sony Group Corporation)
Official title
IMAGE PROCESSING DEVICE AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD
Publication number
US20260281462A1
Application number
19671448
Filed
May 8, 2026
Published
Sep 17, 2026
Inventors
1
Claims
18

Classified under

H04N 19/86 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/117 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/186 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/82 Electricity & electronicsH04N 19/96 Electricity & electronics

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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.