Patent Application
20250159217
The present disclosure describes aspects generally related to mesh coding.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Various technologies are developed to capture and represent the world, such as objects in the world, environments in the world, and the like in 3-dimensional (3D) space. 3D representations of the world can enable more immersive forms of interaction and communication. For example, technology developments in 3D media processing, such as advances in three dimensional (3D) capture, 3D modeling, and 3D rendering, and the like have promoted the ubiquitous presence of 3D media contents across several platforms and devices. In an example, a baby's first step can be captured in one continent, media technology can allow grandparents to view (and maybe interact) and enjoy an immersive experience with the baby in another continent. According to an aspect of the disclosure, in order to improve immersive experience, 3D models are becoming ever more sophisticated, and the creation and consumption of 3D models occupy a significant amount of data resources, such as data storage, data transmission resources. In some examples, 3D meshes can be used as 3D representations of the world.
Aspects of the disclosure include bitstreams, methods and apparatuses for mesh encoding/decoding. In some examples, an apparatus for mesh encoding/decoding includes processing circuitry.
Some aspects of the disclosure provide a method of mesh processing. The method includes receiving a bitstream of coded information of a mesh, the mesh includes a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space, and at least a non-position attribute. The coded information includes a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space. The method also includes determining whether the coded information of the mesh indicates that a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least an extreme case, and determining the non-position attribute connectivity according to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices when the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to the extreme case.
Some aspects of the disclosure also provide a method of mesh processing. The method includes determining, for a mesh that includes a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space and at least a non-position attribute, whether a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least an extreme case; and encoding a signal into a bitstream of coded information of the mesh, the signal is indicative of whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to the extreme case.
Some aspects of the disclosure provide a method of processing mesh data, the method includes processing a bitstream of mesh data according to a format rule. The bitstream includes coded information of a mesh. The mesh includes a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space, and at least a non-position attribute, the coded information includes a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space. The format rule specifies that: whether the coded information of the mesh indicates that a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least an extreme case is determined; and the non-position attribute connectivity is determined according to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices when the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to the extreme case.
Aspects of the disclosure also provide an apparatus for mesh processing. The apparatus for mesh processing including processing circuitry configured to implement any of the described methods for mesh processing.
Aspects of the disclosure also provide a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform any of the described methods for mesh processing.
Further features, the nature, and various advantages of the disclosed subject matter will be more apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings in which:
Aspects of the disclosure provide techniques in the field of mesh processing.
A mesh (also referred to as mesh model) includes several polygons (also referred to as faces) that describe the surface of a volumetric object. Each polygon can be defined by vertices in three dimensional (3D) space and the information of how the vertices are connected, referred to as connectivity information. In some examples, the mesh also includes vertex attributes, such as colors, normals, displacements, and the like, that are associated with the mesh vertices. Further, in some examples, the mesh can include attributes associated with the surface of the mesh by exploiting mapping information that parameterizes the mesh with two dimensional (2D) attribute maps. Such mapping is usually described by a set of parametric coordinates, referred to as UV coordinates or texture coordinates, associated with the mesh vertices. 2D attribute maps are used to store high resolution attribute information, such as texture, normals, displacements, and the like. The 2D attribute maps can be used for various purposes such as texture mapping, shading and mesh reconstruction and the like.
The streaming system (100) includes a capture subsystem (113), that can include a 3D source (101), for example light detection and ranging (LIDAR) systems, 3D cameras, 3D scanners, a graphics generation component and the like for creating a stream of 3D data (102) that are uncompressed. In an example, the stream of 3D data (102) includes samples that are taken by the 3D camera system. The stream of 3D data (102), depicted as a bold line to emphasize a high data volume when compared to encoded 3D data (104) (or encoded bitstreams), can be processed by an electronic device (120) that includes a 3D encoder (103) coupled to the 3D source (101). The 3D encoder (103) can include hardware, software, or a combination thereof to enable or implement aspects of the disclosed subject matter as described in more detail below. The encoded 3D data (104) (or encoded bitstream), depicted as a thin line to emphasize the lower data volume when compared to the stream of 3D data (102), can be stored on a streaming server (105) for future use. One or more streaming client subsystems, such as client subsystems (106) and (108) in
It is noted that the electronic devices (120) and (130) can include other components (not shown). For example, the electronic device (120) can include a 3D decoder (not shown) and the electronic device (130) can include a 3D encoder (not shown) as well.
It is also noted that, in some examples, the 3D encoders and/or the 3D decoders can use 2D encoding/decoder techniques. For example, the 3D encoder and/or the 3D decoders can include video decoders or video encoders.
The receiver (231) may receive one or more coded video sequences, included in a bitstream for example, to be decoded by the video decoder (210). In an aspect, one coded video sequence is received at a time, where the decoding of each coded video sequence is independent from the decoding of other coded video sequences. The coded video sequence may be received from a channel (201), which may be a hardware/software link to a storage device which stores the encoded video data. The receiver (231) may receive the encoded video data with other data, for example, coded audio data and/or ancillary data streams, that may be forwarded to their respective using entities (not depicted). The receiver (231) may separate the coded video sequence from the other data. To combat network jitter, a buffer memory (215) may be coupled in between the receiver (231) and an entropy decoder/parser (220) (“parser (220)” henceforth). In certain applications, the buffer memory (215) is part of the video decoder (210). In others, it can be outside of the video decoder (210) (not depicted). In still others, there can be a buffer memory (not depicted) outside of the video decoder (210), for example to combat network jitter, and in addition another buffer memory (215) inside the video decoder (210), for example to handle playout timing. When the receiver (231) is receiving data from a store/forward device of sufficient bandwidth and controllability, or from an isosynchronous network, the buffer memory (215) may not be needed, or can be small. For use on best effort packet networks such as the Internet, the buffer memory (215) may be required, can be comparatively large and can be advantageously of adaptive size, and may at least partially be implemented in an operating system or similar elements (not depicted) outside of the video decoder (210).
The video decoder (210) may include the parser (220) to reconstruct symbols (221) from the coded video sequence. Categories of those symbols include information used to manage operation of the video decoder (210), and potentially information to control a rendering device such as a render device (212) (e.g., a display screen) that is not an integral part of the electronic device (230) but can be coupled to the electronic device (230), as shown in
The parser (220) may perform an entropy decoding/parsing operation on the video sequence received from the buffer memory (215), so as to create symbols (221).
Reconstruction of the symbols (221) can involve multiple different units depending on the type of the coded video picture or parts thereof (such as: inter and intra picture, inter and intra block), and other factors. Which units are involved, and how, can be controlled by subgroup control information parsed from the coded video sequence by the parser (220). The flow of such subgroup control information between the parser (220) and the multiple units below is not depicted for clarity.
Beyond the functional blocks already mentioned, the video decoder (210) can be conceptually subdivided into a number of functional units as described below. In a practical implementation operating under commercial constraints, many of these units interact closely with each other and can, at least partly, be integrated into each other. However, for the purpose of describing the disclosed subject matter, the conceptual subdivision into the functional units below is appropriate.
A first unit is the scaler/inverse transform unit (251). The scaler/inverse transform unit (251) receives a quantized transform coefficient as well as control information, including which transform to use, block size, quantization factor, quantization scaling matrices, etc. as symbol(s) (221) from the parser (220). The scaler/inverse transform unit (251) can output blocks comprising sample values, that can be input into aggregator (255).
In some cases, the output samples of the scaler/inverse transform unit (251) can pertain to an intra coded block. The intra coded block is a block that is not using predictive information from previously reconstructed pictures, but can use predictive information from previously reconstructed parts of the current picture. Such predictive information can be provided by an intra picture prediction unit (252). In some cases, the intra picture prediction unit (252) generates a block of the same size and shape of the block under reconstruction, using surrounding already reconstructed information fetched from the current picture buffer (258). The current picture buffer (258) buffers, for example, partly reconstructed current picture and/or fully reconstructed current picture. The aggregator (255), in some cases, adds, on a per sample basis, the prediction information the intra prediction unit (252) has generated to the output sample information as provided by the scaler/inverse transform unit (251).
In other cases, the output samples of the scaler/inverse transform unit (251) can pertain to an inter coded, and potentially motion compensated, block. In such a case, a motion compensation prediction unit (253) can access reference picture memory (257) to fetch samples used for prediction. After motion compensating the fetched samples in accordance with the symbols (221) pertaining to the block, these samples can be added by the aggregator (255) to the output of the scaler/inverse transform unit (251) (in this case called the residual samples or residual signal) so as to generate output sample information. The addresses within the reference picture memory (257) from where the motion compensation prediction unit (253) fetches prediction samples can be controlled by motion vectors, available to the motion compensation prediction unit (253) in the form of symbols (221) that can have, for example X, Y, and reference picture components. Motion compensation also can include interpolation of sample values as fetched from the reference picture memory (257) when sub-sample exact motion vectors are in use, motion vector prediction mechanisms, and so forth.
The output samples of the aggregator (255) can be subject to various loop filtering techniques in the loop filter unit (256). Video compression technologies can include in-loop filter technologies that are controlled by parameters included in the coded video sequence (also referred to as coded video bitstream) and made available to the loop filter unit (256) as symbols (221) from the parser (220). Video compression can also be responsive to meta-information obtained during the decoding of previous (in decoding order) parts of the coded picture or coded video sequence, as well as responsive to previously reconstructed and loop-filtered sample values.
The output of the loop filter unit (256) can be a sample stream that can be output to the render device (212) as well as stored in the reference picture memory (257) for use in future inter-picture prediction.
Certain coded pictures, once fully reconstructed, can be used as reference pictures for future prediction. For example, once a coded picture corresponding to a current picture is fully reconstructed and the coded picture has been identified as a reference picture (by, for example, the parser (220)), the current picture buffer (258) can become a part of the reference picture memory (257), and a fresh current picture buffer can be reallocated before commencing the reconstruction of the following coded picture.
The video decoder (210) may perform decoding operations according to a predetermined video compression technology or a standard, such as ITU-T Rec. H.265. The coded video sequence may conform to a syntax specified by the video compression technology or standard being used, in the sense that the coded video sequence adheres to both the syntax of the video compression technology or standard and the profiles as documented in the video compression technology or standard. Specifically, a profile can select certain tools as the only tools available for use under that profile from all the tools available in the video compression technology or standard. Also necessary for compliance can be that the complexity of the coded video sequence is within bounds as defined by the level of the video compression technology or standard. In some cases, levels restrict the maximum picture size, maximum frame rate, maximum reconstruction sample rate (measured in, for example megasamples per second), maximum reference picture size, and so on. Limits set by levels can, in some cases, be further restricted through Hypothetical Reference Decoder (HRD) specifications and metadata for HRD buffer management signaled in the coded video sequence.
In an aspect, the receiver (231) may receive additional (redundant) data with the encoded video. The additional data may be included as part of the coded video sequence(s). The additional data may be used by the video decoder (210) to properly decode the data and/or to more accurately reconstruct the original video data. Additional data can be in the form of, for example, temporal, spatial, or signal noise ratio (SNR) enhancement layers, redundant slices, redundant pictures, forward error correction codes, and so on.
The video encoder (303) may receive video samples from a video source (301) (that is not part of the electronic device (320) in the
The video source (301) may provide the source video sequence to be coded by the video encoder (303) in the form of a digital video sample stream that can be of any suitable bit depth (for example: 8 bit, 10 bit, 12 bit, . . . ), any colorspace (for example, BT.601 Y CrCB, RGB, . . . ), and any suitable sampling structure (for example Y CrCb 4:2:0, Y CrCb 4:4:4). In a media serving system, the video source (301) may be a storage device storing previously prepared video. In a videoconferencing system, the video source (301) may be a camera that captures local image information as a video sequence. Video data may be provided as a plurality of individual pictures that impart motion when viewed in sequence. The pictures themselves may be organized as a spatial array of pixels, wherein each pixel can comprise one or more samples depending on the sampling structure, color space, etc. in use. The description below focuses on samples.
According to an aspect, the video encoder (303) may code and compress the pictures of the source video sequence into a coded video sequence (343) in real time or under any other time constraints as required. Enforcing appropriate coding speed is one function of a controller (350). In some aspects, the controller (350) controls other functional units as described below and is functionally coupled to the other functional units. The coupling is not depicted for clarity. Parameters set by the controller (350) can include rate control related parameters (picture skip, quantizer, lambda value of rate-distortion optimization techniques, . . . ), picture size, group of pictures (GOP) layout, maximum motion vector search range, and so forth. The controller (350) can be configured to have other suitable functions that pertain to the video encoder (303) optimized for a certain system design.
In some aspects, the video encoder (303) is configured to operate in a coding loop. As an oversimplified description, in an example, the coding loop can include a source coder (330) (e.g., responsible for creating symbols, such as a symbol stream, based on an input picture to be coded, and a reference picture(s)), and a (local) decoder (333) embedded in the video encoder (303). The decoder (333) reconstructs the symbols to create the sample data in a similar manner as a (remote) decoder also would create. The reconstructed sample stream (sample data) is input to the reference picture memory (334). As the decoding of a symbol stream leads to bit-exact results independent of decoder location (local or remote), the content in the reference picture memory (334) is also bit exact between the local encoder and remote encoder. In other words, the prediction part of an encoder “sees” as reference picture samples exactly the same sample values as a decoder would “see” when using prediction during decoding. This fundamental principle of reference picture synchronicity (and resulting drift, if synchronicity cannot be maintained, for example because of channel errors) is used in some related arts as well.
The operation of the “local” decoder (333) can be the same as a “remote” decoder, such as the video decoder (210), which has already been described in detail above in conjunction with
In an aspect, a decoder technology except the parsing/entropy decoding that is present in a decoder is present, in an identical or a substantially identical functional form, in a corresponding encoder. Accordingly, the disclosed subject matter focuses on decoder operation. The description of encoder technologies can be abbreviated as they are the inverse of the comprehensively described decoder technologies. In certain areas a more detail description is provided below.
During operation, in some examples, the source coder (330) may perform motion compensated predictive coding, which codes an input picture predictively with reference to one or more previously coded picture from the video sequence that were designated as “reference pictures.” In this manner, the coding engine (332) codes differences between pixel blocks of an input picture and pixel blocks of reference picture(s) that may be selected as prediction reference(s) to the input picture.
The local video decoder (333) may decode coded video data of pictures that may be designated as reference pictures, based on symbols created by the source coder (330). Operations of the coding engine (332) may advantageously be lossy processes. When the coded video data may be decoded at a video decoder (not shown in
The predictor (335) may perform prediction searches for the coding engine (332). That is, for a new picture to be coded, the predictor (335) may search the reference picture memory (334) for sample data (as candidate reference pixel blocks) or certain metadata such as reference picture motion vectors, block shapes, and so on, that may serve as an appropriate prediction reference for the new pictures. The predictor (335) may operate on a sample block-by-pixel block basis to find appropriate prediction references. In some cases, as determined by search results obtained by the predictor (335), an input picture may have prediction references drawn from multiple reference pictures stored in the reference picture memory (334).
The controller (350) may manage coding operations of the source coder (330), including, for example, setting of parameters and subgroup parameters used for encoding the video data.
Output of all aforementioned functional units may be subjected to entropy coding in the entropy coder (345). The entropy coder (345) translates the symbols as generated by the various functional units into a coded video sequence, by applying lossless compression to the symbols according to technologies such as Huffman coding, variable length coding, arithmetic coding, and so forth.
The transmitter (340) may buffer the coded video sequence(s) as created by the entropy coder (345) to prepare for transmission via a communication channel (360), which may be a hardware/software link to a storage device which would store the encoded video data. The transmitter (340) may merge coded video data from the video encoder (303) with other data to be transmitted, for example, coded audio data and/or ancillary data streams (sources not shown).
The controller (350) may manage operation of the video encoder (303). During coding, the controller (350) may assign to each coded picture a certain coded picture type, which may affect the coding techniques that may be applied to the respective picture. For example, pictures often may be assigned as one of the following picture types:
An Intra Picture (I picture) may be coded and decoded without using any other picture in the sequence as a source of prediction. Some video codecs allow for different types of intra pictures, including, for example Independent Decoder Refresh (“IDR”) Pictures.
A predictive picture (P picture) may be coded and decoded using intra prediction or inter prediction using a motion vector and reference index to predict the sample values of each block.
A bi-directionally predictive picture (B Picture) may be coded and decoded using intra prediction or inter prediction using two motion vectors and reference indices to predict the sample values of each block. Similarly, multiple-predictive pictures can use more than two reference pictures and associated metadata for the reconstruction of a single block.
Source pictures commonly may be subdivided spatially into a plurality of sample blocks (for example, blocks of 4×4, 8×8, 4×8, or 16×16 samples each) and coded on a block-by-block basis. Blocks may be coded predictively with reference to other (already coded) blocks as determined by the coding assignment applied to the blocks' respective pictures. For example, blocks of I pictures may be coded non-predictively or they may be coded predictively with reference to already coded blocks of the same picture (spatial prediction or intra prediction). Pixel blocks of P pictures may be coded predictively, via spatial prediction or via temporal prediction with reference to one previously coded reference picture. Blocks of B pictures may be coded predictively, via spatial prediction or via temporal prediction with reference to one or two previously coded reference pictures.
The video encoder (303) may perform coding operations according to a predetermined video coding technology or standard, such as ITU-T Rec. H.265. In its operation, the video encoder (303) may perform various compression operations, including predictive coding operations that exploit temporal and spatial redundancies in the input video sequence. The coded video data, therefore, may conform to a syntax specified by the video coding technology or standard being used.
In an aspect, the transmitter (340) may transmit additional data with the encoded video. The source coder (330) may include such data as part of the coded video sequence. Additional data may comprise temporal/spatial/SNR enhancement layers, other forms of redundant data such as redundant pictures and slices, SEI messages, VUI parameter set fragments, and so on.
A video may be captured as a plurality of source pictures (video pictures) in a temporal sequence. Intra-picture prediction (often abbreviated to intra prediction) makes use of spatial correlation in a given picture, and inter-picture prediction makes uses of the (temporal or other) correlation between the pictures. In an example, a specific picture under encoding/decoding, which is referred to as a current picture, is partitioned into blocks. When a block in the current picture is similar to a reference block in a previously coded and still buffered reference picture in the video, the block in the current picture can be coded by a vector that is referred to as a motion vector. The motion vector points to the reference block in the reference picture, and can have a third dimension identifying the reference picture, in case multiple reference pictures are in use.
In some aspects, a bi-prediction technique can be used in the inter-picture prediction. According to the bi-prediction technique, two reference pictures, such as a first reference picture and a second reference picture that are both prior in decoding order to the current picture in the video (but may be in the past and future, respectively, in display order) are used. A block in the current picture can be coded by a first motion vector that points to a first reference block in the first reference picture, and a second motion vector that points to a second reference block in the second reference picture. The block can be predicted by a combination of the first reference block and the second reference block.
Further, a merge mode technique can be used in the inter-picture prediction to improve coding efficiency.
According to some aspects of the disclosure, predictions, such as inter-picture predictions and intra-picture predictions, are performed in the unit of blocks. For example, according to the HEVC standard, a picture in a sequence of video pictures is partitioned into coding tree units (CTU) for compression, the CTUs in a picture have the same size, such as 64×64 pixels, 32×32 pixels, or 16×16 pixels. In general, a CTU includes three coding tree blocks (CTBs), which are one luma CTB and two chroma CTBs. Each CTU can be recursively quadtree split into one or multiple coding units (CUs). For example, a CTU of 64×64 pixels can be split into one CU of 64×64 pixels, or 4 CUs of 32×32 pixels, or 16 CUs of 16×16 pixels. In an example, each CU is analyzed to determine a prediction type for the CU, such as an inter prediction type or an intra prediction type. The CU is split into one or more prediction units (PUs) depending on the temporal and/or spatial predictability. Generally, each PU includes a luma prediction block (PB), and two chroma PBs. In an aspect, a prediction operation in coding (encoding/decoding) is performed in the unit of a prediction block. Using a luma prediction block as an example of a prediction block, the prediction block includes a matrix of values (e.g., luma values) for pixels, such as 8×8 pixels, 16×16 pixels, 8×16 pixels, 16×8 pixels, and the like.
It is noted that the encoders (103) and (303), and the decoders (110) and (210) can be implemented using any suitable technique. In an aspect, the encoders (103) and (303) and the decoders (110) and (210) can be implemented using one or more integrated circuits. In another aspect, the encoders (103) and (303), and the decoders (110) and (210) can be implemented using one or more processors that execute software instructions.
In some examples, the 3D data includes mesh models, and the 3D encoder (103) can include a mesh encoder, and the 3D decoder (110) can include a mesh decoder.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, a dynamic mesh is a mesh where at least one of the components (geometry information, connectivity information, mapping information, vertex attributes and attribute maps) varies with time. A dynamic mesh can be described by a sequence of meshes (also referred to as mesh frames). In some examples, mesh frames in a dynamic mesh can be representations of a surface of an object at different time, and each mesh frame is a representation of the surface of the object at a specific time (also referred to as a time instance). The dynamic mesh may require a large amount of data since the dynamic mesh may include a significant amount of information changing over time. Compression technologies of meshes can allow efficient storage and transmission of media contents in the mesh representation.
A dynamic mesh sequence may require a large amount of data since the dynamic mesh may include a significant amount of information changing over time. Therefore, efficient compression technologies may be used to store and transmit such contents.
Still referring to
An advantage of the subdivided mesh may include that the subdivided mesh has a subdivision structure that allows efficient compression, while offering a faithful approximation of the input mesh. An increase in compression efficiency may be obtained due to the following properties. The decimated mesh dm(i) may have a low number of vertices and may be encoded and transmitted using a lower number of bits than the input mesh M(i) or the subdivided mesh. Referring to
In the
In an aspect, referring to
In an aspect, the base mesh sub-stream may be fed to a mesh decoder to generate a reconstructed quantized base mesh m′(i). The decoded base mesh (or reconstructed base mesh) m″(i) may be obtained by applying an inverse quantization to m′(i). The displacement field sub-stream including packed and quantized wavelet coefficients that are encoded may be decoded by a video and/or image decoder. Image unpacking and inverse quantization may be applied to the packed quantized wavelet coefficients that are reconstructed to obtain the unpacked and unquantized transformed coefficients (e.g., wavelet coefficients). An inverse wavelet transform may be applied to the unpacked and unquantized wavelet coefficients to generate the decoded displacement field (or reconstructed displacement) d″(i).
The decoded components (e.g., including metadata(i), m″(i), d″(i), A″(i), and/or the like) may be fed to a post-processing step (520). A mesh (also referred to as a decoded/reconstructed mesh) M″(i) may be generated by the post-processing step (520) based on m″(i) and d″(i). In an example, the mesh M″(i) (also referred to as a reconstructed deformed mesh DM(i)) may be obtained by subdividing m″(i) using a subdivision scheme and applying the reconstructed displacements d′(i) to vertices of a subdivided mesh. In an example, the DM(i) may include the displaced curve. In an example, when the encoding process (400), the decoding process (500), and the transmission are lossless, the mesh M″(i) may be identical to the input mesh M(i). When one of the encoding process (400), the decoding process (500), and the transmission is lossy, M″(i) is different from M(i). In various examples, the difference, if any, between M″(i) and M(i) may be relatively small. In an example, an attribute map A″(i) is also generated by the post-processing step (520).
In some examples, the mesh can also include attributes, such as color, normal, and the like, associated with the vertices. The attributes can be associated with the surface of the mesh by exploiting mapping information that parameterizes the mesh with 2D attribute maps. The mapping information is usually described by a set of parametric coordinates, referred to as UV coordinates or texture coordinates, associated with the mesh vertices. 2D attribute maps (referred to as texture maps in some examples) are used to store high resolution attribute information such as texture, normals, displacements etc. Such information could be used for various purposes such as texture mapping and shading.
In some embodiments, a mesh can include other information that are referred to as geometry information, connectivity information, mapping information, vertex attributes, and attribute maps. In some examples, the geometry information is described by a set of 3D positions associated with the vertices of the mesh. In an example, (x,y,z) coordinates can be used to describe the 3D positions of the vertices, and are also referred to as 3D coordinates. In some examples, the connectivity information includes a set of vertex indices that describes how to connect the vertices to create a 3D surface. In some examples, the mapping information describes how to map the mesh surface to 2D regions of the plane. In an example, the mapping information is described by a set of UV parametric/texture coordinates (u,v) associated with the mesh vertices together with the connectivity information. In some examples, the vertex attributes include scalar or vector attribute values associated with the mesh vertices. In some examples, attribute maps include attributes that are associated with the mesh surface and are stored as 2D images/videos. In an example, the mapping between the videos (e.g., 2D images/videos) and the mesh surface is defined by the mapping information.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, some techniques that are referred to as UV mapping or mesh parameterization are used to map surfaces of a mesh in the 3D domain to 2D domain. In some examples, a mesh is cut into patches (also referred to as patch components) in the 3D domain. A patch is a contiguous subset of the mesh with a boundary formed of boundary edges. A boundary edge of a patch is an edge that belongs to only one polygon of the patch, and is not shared by two adjacent polygons in the patch. Vertices of boundary edges in a patch are referred to as boundary vertices of the patch, and non-boundary vertices in a patch can be referred to as interior vertices of the patch in some examples.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, the patches are parameterized respectively into 2D shapes (also referred to as UV patches, 2D patches, or UV charts) in some examples. The 2D shapes can be packed (e.g., oriented and placed) into a map that is also referred to as UV atlas in some examples. In some examples, the map can be further processed using 2D image or video processing techniques.
In an example, a UV mapping technique generates a UV atlas (also referred to as UV map) and one or more texture atlas (also referred to as texture map) in 2D corresponding to patches of a 3D mesh. The UV atlas includes assignments of 3D vertices of the 3D mesh to 2D points in a 2D domain (e.g., a rectangular). The UV atlas is a mapping between coordinates of the 3D surface to coordinates of 2D domain. In an example, a point in the UV atlas at a 2D coordinates (u,v) has a value that is formed by coordinates (x, y, z) of a vertex in the 3D domain. In an example, a texture atlas includes color information of the 3D mesh. For example, a point in the texture atlas at the 2D coordinates (u,v) (which has a 3D value of (x,y,z) in the UV atlas) has a color that specifies the color attribute of a point at (x, y, z) in the 3D domain. In some examples, the coordinates (x, y, z) in the 3D domain are referred to as 3D coordinates, or xyz coordinates, and the 2D coordinates (u,v) are referred to as uv coordinates or UV coordinates.
According to some aspects of the disclosure, mesh compression can be performed by representing a mesh using one or more 2D maps (also referred to as 2D atlas in some examples), and then encoding the 2D maps using image or video codecs. Different techniques can be used to generate the 2D maps.
In an example, the patches A, B, C and D in 3D are mapped to a 2D domain, such as the 2D atlas (620) that is also referred to as UV atlas (620) or map (620). For example, the patch A is mapped to a 2D shape (also referred to as UV patch) A′ in the map (620), the patch B is mapped to a 2D shape (also referred to as UV patch) B′ in the map (620), the patch C is mapped to a 2D shape (also referred to as UV patch) C′ in the map (620), and the patch D is mapped to a 2D shape (also referred to as UV patch) D′ in the map (620). In some examples, the coordinates in 3D domain are referred to as (x, y, z) coordinates, the coordinates in 2D domain, such as the map (620), are referred to as UV coordinates. A vertex in the 3D mesh can have corresponding UV coordinates in the map (620).
The map (620) can be geometry map with geometry information, or can be texture map with color, normal, textile, or other attribute information, or can be occupancy map with occupancy information.
While each patch is represented by a triangle in the
In an example, the geometry information of the vertices can be stored into a 2D geometry map. For example, the 2D geometry map stores the (x, y, z) coordinates of sampling points at a corresponding point in the 2D geometry map. For example, a point in the 2D geometry map at (u, v) position has a vector value of 3 components respectively corresponding to the x, y and z values of a corresponding sampling point in the 3D mesh.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, areas in a map may not be fully occupied. For example, in
In some examples, when a mesh includes non-position attributes, such as colors, normal, displacement, texture, UV/texture coordinates (e.g., as shown in
In a related example, the connectivity of a non-position attribute is coded as a separate mesh in a directly coding approach, and the correspondence between the corners of the non-position attribute and 3D positions can be signaled. However, signaling the correspondence between the corners of the non-position attribute and 3D positions requires a large amount of bits, and the redundancies between the position connectivity and the non-position attribute connectivity (the connectivity of the non-position attribute) are significant, so encoding the non-position attribute connectivity using the directly coding approach may not be inefficient.
In another related example, the seam edges are signaled. When an edge between two 3D vertices in 3D space is split into two edges in a space for non-position attribute (also referred to as non-position attribute space, e.g., 2D UV chart), the edge in the 3D space is referred to as a seam edge. In the related example, the non-position attribute connectivity can be deduced from the position connectivity and information of the seam edges, thus signaling of the corner correspondence between the corners of the non-position attributes to the 3D vertices can be avoided.
According to some aspects of the disclosure, signaling seam edges is also not efficient since the number of edges are much larger than the number of vertices and faces. Some aspects of the disclosure provide more efficient techniques to code connectivity of non-position attributes, such as the UV coordinates, normal, and the like, for polygon mesh compression.
Some aspects of the disclosure provide techniques to code the connectivity of non-position attributes of polygon meshes, such as texture coordinates, normals, colors, and the like with high coding efficiency, such as without using any additional bytes. In some examples, for some special cases (also referred to as extreme cases), the connectivity (also referred to as non-position attribute connectivity) of the non-position attributes of a mesh can be deduced from the connectivity (also referred to as position connectivity) of the vertices (3D vertices) of the mesh in 3D space. The encoder can determine whether the connectivity of a non-position attribute of a mesh belongs to one or more extreme cases, and include the determined extreme case information in a bitstream of coded information of the mesh. When the decoder side knows the connectivity of the non-position attribute of the mesh belongs to an extreme case, the decoder can determine the connectivity of the non-position attribute from the connectivity of the 3D vertices of the mesh. It is noted that the various disclosed techniques to code the connectivity for polygon mesh attributes can be applied individually or by any form of combination.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, for a polygon mesh, the correspondence between position vertices (also referred to s spatial vertices, 3D vertices) and non-position attribute vertices is usually either a one-to-one mapping or a one-to-many mapping. For example, any non-position attribute vertex (e.g., UV vertex) cannot be shared by different spatial vertices. In other words, the connectivity of non-position attributes can be obtained by cutting the position connectivity, and no gluing of position vertices/edges are allowed.
In various examples, the connectivity of non-position attributes can be obtained by cutting the position connectivity not gluing the position vertices/edges, and the number of vertices of a non-position attribute can carry information about the connectivity of the non-position attribute. Since cutting the position connectivity an increase the number of non-position attribute vertices compared to the position vertices, there are three cases related to the cutting of the position connectivity. The three cases are referred to as a first case, a second case and a third case.
In the first case, the number of vertices of a non-position attribute (also referred to as non-position attribute vertices, attribute vertices) equals to the number of position vertices (vertices in 3D space, also referred to as 3D vertices), then there is no cutting applied on the position connectivity, so the connectivity of the attribute (also referred to as non-position attribute connectivity) and the position connectivity are the same. In some examples, the first case is referred to as a first extreme case of no cutting.
In the second case, the number of vertices of a non-position attribute equals to the total face degree. In an example, the total face degree is the sum of the number of vertices incident to each face. In an example, a face degree of a vertex is defined as the number of faces that are incident to the vertex, the total face degree is the sum of face degrees of vertices. In the second case, cuttings are applied on every non-boundary edge of the position connectivity, so all faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected/isolated. In some examples, the second case is referred to as a second extreme case of cutting every edge.
The third case is between the first case and the second case described above, e.g., between the first extreme case of no cutting and the second extreme case of cutting every edge. In the third case, in some examples, signaling how the position connectivity is cut into the attribute connectivity may be performed.
According to some aspects of the disclosure, the first case and the second case are not mutually exclusive. For example, when all faces in the position connectivity are already disconnected, then there is nothing to cut, so position connectivity and non-position connectivity can have the same number of vertices, and the number of vertices in the position connectivity and in the non-position connectivity are both equal to the total face degree. In such case, the position attribute (3D position) and non-position attributes share the same connectivity, which is all disconnected faces.
According to some aspects of the disclosure, for the first extreme case and the second extreme case, two bits can be used to signal the connectivity of a non-position attribute. For example, a first bit in the two bits can indicate whether the first case is true (position attribute and the non-position attribute have the same number of vertices), and a second bit in the two bits can indicate whether the second case is true (the number of vertices of the non-position attribute equals to the total face degree).
In some examples, instead of using additional bytes to signal the connectivity of the two extreme cases, the two bits can be a portion in other signaled information. For example, to signal the quantization bit of UV coordinates (denoted as QT), six bits in a byte, such as the first 6 bits in a byte, can be used to signal QT, then the remain 2 bits in that byte can be used to signal the connectivity of the two extreme cases. In this way, using any additional byte to signal the connectivity of a non-position attribute can be avoided.
At (S810), a bitstream of coded information of a mesh is received, the mesh includes a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space, and at least a non-position attribute, the coded information includes a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space.
At (S820), whether the coded information of the mesh indicates that a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least an extreme case is determined.
At (S830), the non-position attribute connectivity is determined according to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices when the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to the extreme case.
In some examples, the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to a first extreme case is determined. In the first extreme case, the non-position attribute connectivity matches the position connectivity. In an example, when the position connectivity is suitably determined, the non-position attribute connectivity is the same as the position connectivity.
In some examples, the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to a second extreme case is determined. In the second extreme case, faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected. In an example, when the position connectivity is suitably determined, the non-position attribute connectivity can be obtained by disconnecting all the faces.
In some examples, at least a signal is decoded from the coded information of the mesh. The signal indicates whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least the extreme case.
In some examples, a first bit and a second bit are decoded from the coded information of the mesh, the first bit indicates whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a first extreme case that the non-position attribute connectivity matches the position connectivity, and the second bit indicates whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a second extreme case that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected. For example, a byte from the coded information of the mesh, the byte includes 6 bits indicating a quantization parameter, the first bit and the second bit.
It is noted that the non-position attribute can be any suitable non-position attribute, such as colors, normals, displacements, texture, UV coordinates and the like.
Then, the process proceeds to (S899) and terminates.
The process (800) can be suitably adapted. Step(s) in the process (800) can be modified and/or omitted. Additional step(s) can be added. Any suitable order of implementation can be used.
At (S910), for a mesh that includes a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space and at least a non-position attribute, whether a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least an extreme case is determined.
At (S920), a signal indicative of whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to the extreme case is encoded into a bitstream of coded information of the mesh.
In some examples, whether a first number of non-position attribute vertices for representing the non-position attribute in a 2D map is equal to a second number of the plurality of 3D vertices is checked. The non-position attribute connectivity is determined to be a first extreme case that the non-position attribute connectivity matches a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space when the first number is equal to the second number.
In some examples, whether a first number of non-position attribute vertices for representing the non-position attribute in a 2D map is equal to a total number of face degree of the mesh is checked, the total number of face degree being a sum of a number of vertices incident to each face of the mesh. The non-position attribute connectivity is determined to be a second extreme case that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected when the first number is equal to the total number of face degree.
In some examples, a first bit and a second bit are encoded into the bitstream of the coded information of the mesh. The first bit indicates whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a first extreme case that the non-position attribute connectivity matches a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space, and the second bit indicates whether the non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to a second extreme case that faces of the non-position attribute are disconnected.
In some examples, a byte is encoded into the bitstream of the coded information of the mesh. The byte includes 6 bits indicating a quantization parameter, the first bit and the second bit.
In some examples, the non-position attribute includes at least one of colors, normals, displacements, texture and UV coordinates.
Then, the process proceeds to (S999) and terminates.
The process (900) can be suitably adapted. Step(s) in the process (900) can be modified and/or omitted. Additional step(s) can be added. Any suitable order of implementation can be used.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, a method of processing mesh is provided. In the method, a conversion between a mesh file and a bitstream of compressed mesh is performed according to a format rule. For example, the bitstream may be a bitstream that is decoded/encoded in any of the decoding and/or encoding methods described herein. The format rule may specify one or more constraints of the bitstream and/or one or more processes to be performed by the decoder and/or encoder.
In an example, the bitstream includes coded information of a mesh, the mesh includes a plurality of three-dimensional (3D) vertices in a 3D space, and at least a non-position attribute, the coded information includes a position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices in the 3D space. The format rule specifies that whether the coded information of the mesh indicates that a non-position attribute connectivity of the non-position attribute corresponds to at least an extreme case is determined; and the non-position attribute connectivity is determined according to the position connectivity of the plurality of 3D vertices when the non-position attribute connectivity corresponds to the extreme case.
The techniques described above, can be implemented as computer software using computer-readable instructions and physically stored in one or more computer-readable media. For example,
The computer software can be coded using any suitable machine code or computer language, that may be subject to assembly, compilation, linking, or like mechanisms to create code comprising instructions that can be executed directly, or through interpretation, micro-code execution, and the like, by one or more computer central processing units (CPUs), Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), and the like.
The instructions can be executed on various types of computers or components thereof, including, for example, personal computers, tablet computers, servers, smartphones, gaming devices, internet of things devices, and the like.
The components shown in
Computer system (1000) may include certain human interface input devices. Such a human interface input device may be responsive to input by one or more human users through, for example, tactile input (such as: keystrokes, swipes, data glove movements), audio input (such as: voice, clapping), visual input (such as: gestures), olfactory input (not depicted). The human interface devices can also be used to capture certain media not necessarily directly related to conscious input by a human, such as audio (such as: speech, music, ambient sound), images (such as: scanned images, photographic images obtain from a still image camera), video (such as two-dimensional video, three-dimensional video including stereoscopic video).
Input human interface devices may include one or more of (only one of each depicted): keyboard (1001), mouse (1002), trackpad (1003), touch screen (1010), data-glove (not shown), joystick (1005), microphone (1006), scanner (1007), camera (1008).
Computer system (1000) may also include certain human interface output devices. Such human interface output devices may be stimulating the senses of one or more human users through, for example, tactile output, sound, light, and smell/taste. Such human interface output devices may include tactile output devices (for example tactile feedback by the touch-screen (1010), data-glove (not shown), or joystick (1005), but there can also be tactile feedback devices that do not serve as input devices), audio output devices (such as: speakers (1009), headphones (not depicted)), visual output devices (such as screens (1010) to include CRT screens, LCD screens, plasma screens, OLED screens, each with or without touch-screen input capability, each with or without tactile feedback capability-some of which may be capable to output two dimensional visual output or more than three dimensional output through means such as stereographic output; virtual-reality glasses (not depicted), holographic displays and smoke tanks (not depicted)), and printers (not depicted).
Computer system (1000) can also include human accessible storage devices and their associated media such as optical media including CD/DVD ROM/RW (1020) with CD/DVD or the like media (1021), thumb-drive (1022), removable hard drive or solid state drive (1023), legacy magnetic media such as tape and floppy disc (not depicted), specialized ROM/ASIC/PLD based devices such as security dongles (not depicted), and the like.
Those skilled in the art should also understand that term “computer readable media” as used in connection with the presently disclosed subject matter does not encompass transmission media, carrier waves, or other transitory signals.
Computer system (1000) can also include an interface (1054) to one or more communication networks (1055). Networks can for example be wireless, wireline, optical. Networks can further be local, wide-area, metropolitan, vehicular and industrial, real-time, delay-tolerant, and so on. Examples of networks include local area networks such as Ethernet, wireless LANs, cellular networks to include GSM, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE and the like, TV wireline or wireless wide area digital networks to include cable TV, satellite TV, and terrestrial broadcast TV, vehicular and industrial to include CANBus, and so forth. Certain networks commonly require external network interface adapters that attached to certain general purpose data ports or peripheral buses (1049) (such as, for example USB ports of the computer system (1000)); others are commonly integrated into the core of the computer system (1000) by attachment to a system bus as described below (for example Ethernet interface into a PC computer system or cellular network interface into a smartphone computer system). Using any of these networks, computer system (1000) can communicate with other entities. Such communication can be uni-directional, receive only (for example, broadcast TV), uni-directional send-only (for example CANbus to certain CANbus devices), or bi-directional, for example to other computer systems using local or wide area digital networks. Certain protocols and protocol stacks can be used on each of those networks and network interfaces as described above.
Aforementioned human interface devices, human-accessible storage devices, and network interfaces can be attached to a core (1040) of the computer system (1000).
The core (1040) can include one or more Central Processing Units (CPU) (1041), Graphics Processing Units (GPU) (1042), specialized programmable processing units in the form of Field Programmable Gate Areas (FPGA) (1043), hardware accelerators for certain tasks (1044), graphics adapters (1050), and so forth. These devices, along with Read-only memory (ROM) (1045), Random-access memory (1046), internal mass storage such as internal non-user accessible hard drives, SSDs, and the like (1047), may be connected through a system bus (1048). In some computer systems, the system bus (1048) can be accessible in the form of one or more physical plugs to enable extensions by additional CPUs, GPU, and the like. The peripheral devices can be attached either directly to the core's system bus (1048), or through a peripheral bus (1049). In an example, the screen (1010) can be connected to the graphics adapter (1050). Architectures for a peripheral bus include PCI, USB, and the like.
CPUs (1041), GPUs (1042), FPGAs (1043), and accelerators (1044) can execute certain instructions that, in combination, can make up the aforementioned computer code. That computer code can be stored in ROM (1045) or RAM (1046). Transitional data can also be stored in RAM (1046), whereas permanent data can be stored for example, in the internal mass storage (1047). Fast storage and retrieve to any of the memory devices can be enabled through the use of cache memory, that can be closely associated with one or more CPU (1041), GPU (1042), mass storage (1047), ROM (1045), RAM (1046), and the like.
The computer readable media can have computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The media and computer code can be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present disclosure, or they can be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts.
As an example and not by way of limitation, the computer system having architecture (1000), and specifically the core (1040) can provide functionality as a result of processor(s) (including CPUs, GPUs, FPGA, accelerators, and the like) executing software embodied in one or more tangible, computer-readable media. Such computer-readable media can be media associated with user-accessible mass storage as introduced above, as well as certain storage of the core (1040) that are of non-transitory nature, such as core-internal mass storage (1047) or ROM (1045). The software implementing various aspects of the present disclosure can be stored in such devices and executed by core (1040). A computer-readable medium can include one or more memory devices or chips, according to particular needs. The software can cause the core (1040) and specifically the processors therein (including CPU, GPU, FPGA, and the like) to execute particular processes or particular parts of particular processes described herein, including defining data structures stored in RAM (1046) and modifying such data structures according to the processes defined by the software. In addition or as an alternative, the computer system can provide functionality as a result of logic hardwired or otherwise embodied in a circuit (for example: accelerator (1044)), which can operate in place of or together with software to execute particular processes or particular parts of particular processes described herein. Reference to software can encompass logic, and vice versa, where appropriate. Reference to a computer-readable media can encompass a circuit (such as an integrated circuit (IC)) storing software for execution, a circuit embodying logic for execution, or both, where appropriate. The present disclosure encompasses any suitable combination of hardware and software.
The use of “at least one of” or “one of” in the disclosure is intended to include any one or a combination of the recited elements. For example, references to at least one of A, B, or C; at least one of A, B, and C; at least one of A, B, and/or C; and at least one of A to C are intended to include only A, only B, only C or any combination thereof. References to one of A or B and one of A and B are intended to include A or B or (A and B). The use of “one of” does not preclude any combination of the recited elements when applicable, such as when the elements are not mutually exclusive.
While this disclosure has described several examples of aspects, there are alterations, permutations, and various substitute equivalents, which fall within the scope of the disclosure. It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be able to devise numerous systems and methods which, although not explicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of the disclosure and are thus within the spirit and scope thereof.
The above disclosure also encompasses the features noted below. The features may be combined in various manners and are not limited to the combinations noted below.
The present application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/547,965, “Zero Byte Coding of Attribute Connectivity in Polygon Meshes” filed on Nov. 9, 2023, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63547965 | Nov 2023 | US |
