Apple Patent | Point cloud compression

Patent: Point cloud compression

Drawings: Click to check drawins

Publication Number: 20210185331

Publication Date: 20210617

Applicant: Apple

Assignee: Apple Inc.

Abstract

A system comprises an encoder configured to compress attribute information and/or spatial for a point cloud and/or a decoder configured to decompress compressed attribute and/or spatial information for the point cloud. To compress the attribute and/or spatial information, the encoder is configured to convert a point cloud into an image based representation. Also, the decoder is configured to generate a decompressed point cloud based on an image based representation of a point cloud. The encoder generates an occupancy map and may also encode the occupancy map as an image based representation. In some embodiments, a video encoder encodes image based representations of spatial information for the points of the point cloud, image based representations of attribute values for points of the point cloud, and an image based representation of an occupancy map for the spatial and attribute images.

Claims

1.-20. (canceled)

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive one or more patch image frames and one or more corresponding occupancy map image frames that have been video encoded, wherein: the one or more patch image frames comprise patch images and padding, wherein the patch images comprise spatial information or attribute information for a set of points of a point cloud corresponding to a patch projected onto a patch plane and the padding represents space in the patch image frame not covered by the one or more patch images; and the one or more occupancy map image frames comprise information indicating for respective portions of a corresponding patch image frame whether the portions correspond to one of the patch images or are padded portions of the patch image frame that do not correspond to one of the patch images; video decode the one or more occupancy map image frames to generate occupancy maps for the one or more patch image frames; video decode the one or more patch image frames; determine, based on the occupancy maps, portions of the decoded patch image frames that correspond to respective ones of patches of the point cloud; and reconstruct the point cloud based on the spatial information and attribute information for the sets of points included in the respective ones of the patches of the point cloud.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the program instructions, when executed on the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to: receive auxiliary information for the one or more patch image frames; and decode the auxiliary information, wherein determining the portions of the decoded patch image frames that correspond to respective ones of the patches of the point cloud is performed using the occupancy maps for the one or more patch image frames and the auxiliary information for the one or more patch image frames.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the received auxiliary information comprises: information regarding a bounding box size or bounding box location for respective bounding boxes for the patch images in the respective patch image frames.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the received auxiliary information comprises: an index of blocks or sub-blocks of the patch image frames and corresponding candidate patches that include at least one point falling within the respective blocks or sub-blocks of the patch image frame.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein for respective ones of the blocks or sub-blocks the candidate patches are ordered in the index from smallest patch to largest patch.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein an occupancy map video image frame for a given patch video image frame is encoded at a lower resolution than the given patch video image frame.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 26, wherein: respective blocks of the one or more patch video image frames are organized in a grid, the one or more occupancy map video image frames include blocks organized into a grid that have a size that is a multiple larger than the blocks of the one or more patch video image frames; and each of the blocks of the one or more occupancy map video image frames is encoded using two or more color values, wherein, for a given occupancy map block, each of the color values indicates whether respective sub-divisions of a given patch video image block, which correspond with the given occupancy map block, is occupied by a patch image or is filled with padding.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 27, wherein: for the given occupancy map block, a pixel value of a pixel of the occupancy map block is encoded with one of the two or more color values, the two or more color values represent patch index values for the index correspond with candidate patches listed in the index, wherein the program instructions, when executed on or across the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: determine a patch corresponding with the block or sub-division of the block comprising the pixel encoded with the pixel value indicating the one of the two or more colors using the index.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the patch image frames are received encoded in accordance with a high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard.

30. A device, comprising: a memory storing program instructions; and one or more processors, wherein the program instructions, when executed on or across the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: receive one or more patch image frames and one or more corresponding occupancy map image frames that have been video encoded, wherein: the one or more patch image frames comprise patch images and padding, wherein the patch images comprise spatial information or attribute information for a set of points of a point cloud corresponding to a patch projected onto a patch plane and the padding represents space in the patch image frame not covered by the one or more patch images; and the one or more occupancy map image frames comprise information indicating for respective portions of a corresponding patch image frame whether the portions correspond to one of the patch images or are padded portions of the patch image frame that do not correspond to one of the patch images; video decode the one or more occupancy map image frames to generate occupancy maps for the one or more patch image frames; video decode the one or more patch image frames; determine portions of the decoded patch image frames that correspond to respective ones of patches of the point cloud; and reconstruct the point cloud based on the spatial information and attribute information for the sets of points included in the respective ones of the patches of the point cloud.

31. The device of claim 30, wherein the program instructions, when executed on or across the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: receive auxiliary information for the one or more patch image frames; and decode the auxiliary information via an arithmetic decoder, wherein said determining the portions of the decoded patch image frames that correspond to respective ones of the patches of the point cloud is performed using the occupancy maps for the one or more patch image frames and the auxiliary information for the one or more patch image frames.

32. The device of claim 31, wherein the auxiliary information comprises: information regarding a bounding box size or bounding box location for respective bounding boxes for the patch images in the respective patch image frames.

33. The device of claim 31, wherein the auxiliary information comprises: an index of blocks or sub-blocks of the patch image frames and corresponding candidate patches that include at least one point falling within the respective blocks or sub-blocks of the patch image frame.

34. The device of claim 30, wherein the patch image frames are received encoded in accordance with a high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard.

35. A device, comprising: a memory storing program instructions; and one or more processors, wherein the program instructions, when executed on or across the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: determine, for a point cloud, a plurality of patches each corresponding to portions of the point cloud; for each patch, generate one or more patch images comprising a set of points of the point cloud corresponding to a patch projected onto a patch plane, wherein the one or more patch images comprise spatial information for the set of points or attribute information for the set of points; pack generated patch images for each of the determined patches into one or more patch video image frames; generate an occupancy map video image frame for each of the one or more patch video image frames, wherein the occupancy map video image frames indicate for respective portions of corresponding patch video image frames whether the respective portions represent one of the patch images or are padded portions of the patch video image frames that do not correspond to one of the generated patch images; and encode the one or more patch video image frames and the occupancy map video image frames using a video encoder.

36. The device claim 35, wherein the program instructions, when executed on the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: encode auxiliary information for the patch video image frames that comprises information regarding a bounding box size or bounding box location for respective bounding boxes for the patch images in the respective patch video image frames, wherein the auxiliary information is encoded via an arithmetic encoder distinct from the video encoder.

37. The device of claim 35, wherein the auxiliary information further comprises an index of blocks or sub-blocks of the patch video image frames and corresponding candidate patches that include at least one point falling within the respective blocks or sub-blocks of the patch video image frames.

38. The device of claim 37, wherein the one or more patch video image frames and the one or more occupancy map video image frames are encoded by the video encoder encoded in accordance with a high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard.

39. The device of claim 38, wherein the program instructions, when executed on the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to: encode the auxiliary information using an arithmetic encoding process that is distinct from a video encoding process of the video encoder.

40. The device of claim 35, further comprising: one or more sensors configured to capture a plurality of points that make up the point cloud.

Description

PRIORITY CLAIM

[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/380,922, filed Apr. 10, 2019, which claims benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/655,763, filed Apr. 10, 2018, and which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

[0002] This disclosure relates generally to compression and decompression of point clouds comprising a plurality of points, each having associated spatial information and attribute information.

Description of the Related Art

[0003] Various types of sensors, such as light detection and ranging (LIDAR) systems, 3-D-cameras, 3-D scanners, etc. may capture data indicating positions of points in three dimensional space, for example positions in the X, Y, and Z planes. Also, such systems may further capture attribute information in addition to spatial information for the respective points, such as color information (e.g. RGB values), texture information, intensity attributes, reflectivity attributes, motion related attributes, modality attributes, or various other attributes. In some circumstances, additional attributes may be assigned to the respective points, such as a time-stamp when the point was captured. Points captured by such sensors may make up a “point cloud” comprising a set of points each having associated spatial information and one or more associated attributes. In some circumstances, a point cloud may include thousands of points, hundreds of thousands of points, millions of points, or even more points. Also, in some circumstances, point clouds may be generated, for example in software, as opposed to being captured by one or more sensors. In either case, such point clouds may include large amounts of data and may be costly and time-consuming to store and transmit.

SUMMARY OF EMBODIMENTS

[0004] In some embodiments, a system includes one or more sensors configured to capture points that collectively make up a point cloud, wherein each of the points comprises spatial information identifying a spatial location of the respective point and attribute information defining one or more attributes associated with the respective point.

[0005] The system also includes an encoder configured to compress the attribute and/or spatial information of the points. To compress the attribute and/or spatial information, the encoder is configured to determine, for the point cloud, a plurality of patches, each corresponding to portions of the point cloud, wherein each patch comprises points with surface normal vectors that deviate from one another less than a threshold amount. The encoder is further configured to, for each patch, generate a patch image comprising the set of points corresponding to the patch projected onto a patch plane and generate another patch image comprising depth information for the set of points corresponding to the patch, wherein the depth information represents depths of the points in a direction perpendicular to the patch plane.

[0006] For example, the patch image corresponding to the patch projected onto a patch plane may depict the points of the point cloud included in the patch in two directions, such as an X and Y direction. The points of the point cloud may be projected onto a patch plane approximately perpendicular to a normal vector, normal to a surface of the point cloud at the location of the patch. Also, for example, the patch image comprising depth information for the set of points included in the patch may depict depth information, such as depth distances in a Z direction. To depict the depth information, the depth patch image may include a parameter that varies in intensity based on the depth of points in the point cloud at a particular location in the patch image. For example, the patch image depicting depth information may have a same shape as the patch image representing attributes of points projected onto the patch plane. However, the depth information patch image may be an image comprising image attributes, such as one or more colors, that vary in intensity based on depth, wherein the intensity of the one or more image attributes corresponds to a depth of a corresponding point of the point cloud at a location in the patch image where the image attribute is displayed in the patch image depicting depth. For example, points that are closer to the patch plane may be encoded as darker values in the patch image depicting depth and points that are further away from the patch plane may be encoded as lighter values in the patch image depicting depth, for example in a monochromatic patch image depicting depth. Thus, the depth information patch image when aligned with other patch images representing attribute values for points projected onto the patch plane may indicate the relative depths of the points projected onto the patch plane, based on respective image attribute intensities at locations in the depth patch image that correspond to locations of the points in the other patch images comprising point cloud points projected onto the patch plane.

[0007] The encoder is further configured to pack generated patch images (including a depth patch image and, optionally, one or more additional patch images for one or more other attributes) for each of the determined patches into one or more image frames and encode the one or more image frames. In some embodiments, the encoder may utilize various image or video encoding techniques to encode the one or more image frames. For example, the encoder may utilize a video encoder in accordance with the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) standard or other suitable standards such as, the Advanced Video Coding (AVC/H.264) standard, the AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) video coding format produced by the Alliance for Open Media (AOM), etc. In some embodiments, the encoder may utilize an image encoder in accordance with a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), a Joint Photography Experts Group (JPEG) standard, an International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication standard (e.g. ITU-T standard), etc.

[0008] In some embodiments, a decoder is configured to receive one or more encoded image frames comprising patch images for a plurality of patches of a compressed point cloud, wherein, for each patch, the one or more encoded image frames comprise: a patch image comprising a set of points of the patch projected onto a patch plane and a patch image comprising depth information for the set of points of the patch, wherein the depth information indicates depths of the points of the patch in a direction perpendicular to the patch plane. In some embodiments, a depth patch image may be packed into an image frame with other attribute patch images. For example, a decoder may receive one or more image frames comprising packed patch images as generated by the encoder described above.

[0009] The decoder is further configured to decode the one or more encoded image frames comprising the patch images. In some embodiments, the decoder may utilize a video decoder in accordance with the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard or other suitable standards such as, the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard, the AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) video coding format, etc. In some embodiments, the decoder may utilize an image decoder in accordance with a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) or a Joint Photography Experts Group (JPEG) standard, etc.

[0010] The decoder is further configured to determine, for each patch, spatial information for the set of points of the patch based, at least in part, on the patch image comprising the set of points of the patch projected onto the patch plane and the patch image comprising the depth information for the set of points of the patch, and generate a decompressed version of the compressed point cloud based, at least in part, on the determined spatial information for the plurality of patches and the attribute information included in the patches.

[0011] In some embodiments, a method includes receiving one or more encoded image frames comprising patch images for a plurality of patches of a compressed point cloud, wherein, for each patch, the one or more encoded image frames comprise: a patch image comprising a set of points of the patch projected onto a patch plane and a patch image comprising depth information for the set of points of the patch, wherein the depth information indicates depths of the points of the patch in a direction perpendicular to the patch plane. The method further includes decoding the one or more encoded image frames comprising the patch images. In some embodiments, decoding may be performed in accordance with the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard or other suitable standards such as, the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard, an AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) video coding format, etc. In some embodiments, decoding may be performed in accordance with a Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) or a Joint Photography Experts Group (JPEG) standard, etc.

[0012] The method further includes determining, for each patch, spatial information for the set of points of the patch based, at least in part, on the patch image comprising the set of points of the patch projected onto the patch plane and the patch image comprising the depth information for the set of points of the patch, and generating a decompressed version of the compressed point cloud based, at least in part, on the determined spatial information for the plurality of patches.

[0013] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores program instruction that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement an encoder as described herein to compress attribute information of a point cloud.

[0014] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores program instruction that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a decoder as described herein to decompress attribute information of a point cloud

[0015] In some embodiments, a system includes one or more sensors configured to capture a plurality of points that make up a point cloud, wherein respective ones of the points comprise spatial information and attribute information. The system also includes an encoder configured to compress the point cloud. The encoder is configured to determine a plurality of patches each corresponding to portions of the points of the point cloud and for each patch, generate one or more patch images comprising a set of points of the point cloud corresponding to the patch projected onto a patch plane, wherein the one or more patch images comprise spatial information or attribute information for the set of points projected onto the patch plane. The encoder is also configured to pack the generated one or more patch images for each of the determined patches into one or more patch video image frames. Additionally, the encoder is configured to generate one or more occupancy map video image frames for each of the patch video image frames, wherein respective ones of the occupancy map video image frame comprise information indicating for respective portions of a corresponding patch video image frame whether the respective portions correspond with one of the patch images or correspond to a padded portion of the patch video image frame that does not correspond to one of the generated patch images. Also the encoder is configured to encode the one or more patch video image frames and the occupancy map video image frame using a video encoder.

[0016] In some embodiments, a method includes receiving, by a decoder, one or more patch image frames and one or more corresponding occupancy map image frames that have been video encoded. The one or more patch image frames comprise patch images and padding, wherein the patch images comprise spatial information or attribute information for a set of points of a point cloud corresponding to a patch projected onto a patch plane and the padding represents space in the patch image frame not covered by the one or more patch images. Also, the one or more occupancy map image frames comprise information indicating for respective portions of a corresponding patch image frame whether the portions correspond to one of the patch images or are padded portions of the patch image frame that do not correspond to one of the patch images. The method further includes video decoding the one or more occupancy map image frames to generate occupancy maps for the one or more patch image frames and video decoding the one or more patch image frames. Additionally, the method includes determining portions of the decoded patch image frames that correspond to respective ones of patches of the point cloud and reconstructing the point cloud based on the spatial information and attribute information for the sets of points included in the respective ones of the patches of the point cloud.

[0017] In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium stores program instructions that when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine, for a point cloud, a plurality of patches each corresponding to portions of the point cloud and for each patch, generate one or more patch images comprising a set of points of the point cloud corresponding to a patch projected onto a patch plane, wherein the one or more patch images comprise spatial information for the set of points or attribute information for the set of points. The program instructions further cause the one or more processors to pack generated patch images for each of the determined patches into one or more patch video image frames. Additionally, the program instructions cause the one or more processors to generate an occupancy map video image frame for each of the one or more patch video image frames, wherein the occupancy map video image frames indicate for respective portions of corresponding patch video image frames whether the respective portions represent one of the patch images or are padded portions of the patch video image frames that do not correspond to one of the generated patch images. Also, the program instructions cause the one or more processors to encode the one or more patch video image frames and the occupancy map video image frames using a video encoder.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates a system comprising a sensor that captures information for points of a point cloud and an encoder that compresses spatial information and attribute information of the point cloud, where the compressed spatial and attribute information is sent to a decoder, according to some embodiments.

[0019] FIG. 2A illustrates components of an encoder for encoding intra point cloud frames, according to some embodiments.

[0020] FIG. 2B illustrates components of a decoder for decoding intra point cloud frames, according to some embodiments.

[0021] FIG. 2C illustrates components of an encoder for encoding inter point cloud frames, according to some embodiments.

[0022] FIG. 2D illustrates components of a decoder for decoding inter point cloud frames, according to some embodiments.

[0023] FIG. 3A illustrates an example patch segmentation process, according to some embodiments.

[0024] FIG. 3B illustrates an example image frame comprising packed patch images and padded portions, according to some embodiments

[0025] FIG. 3C illustrates an example image frame comprising patch portions and padded portions, according to some embodiments.

[0026] FIG. 3D illustrates a point cloud being projected onto multiple projections, according to some embodiments.

[0027] FIG. 3E illustrates a point cloud being projected onto multiple parallel projections, according to some embodiments.

[0028] FIG. 4A illustrates components of an encoder for encoding intra point cloud frames with color conversion, according to some embodiments.

[0029] FIG. 4B illustrates components of an encoder for encoding inter point cloud frames with color conversion, according to some embodiments.

[0030] FIG. 4C illustrates components of a closed-loop color conversion module, according to some embodiments.

[0031] FIG. 4D illustrates an example process for determining a quality metric for a point cloud upon which an operation has been performed, according to some embodiments.

[0032] FIG. 5A illustrates components of an encoder that includes geometry, texture, and/or other attribute downscaling, according to some embodiments.

[0033] FIG. 5B illustrates components of a decoder that includes geometry, texture, and/or other attribute upscaling, according to some embodiments.

[0034] FIG. 5C illustrates rescaling from the perspective of an encoder, according to some embodiments

[0035] FIG. 5D illustrates rescaling from the perspective of a decoder, according to some embodiments.

[0036] FIG. 5E illustrates an example open loop rescaling, according to some embodiments.

[0037] FIG. 5F illustrates an example closed loop rescaling, according to some embodiments.

[0038] FIG. 5G illustrates an example closed loop rescaling with multiple attribute layers, according to some embodiments.

[0039] FIG. 5H illustrates an example of video level spatiotemporal scaling, according to some embodiments

[0040] FIG. 5I illustrates an example closed loop rescaling with spatiotemporal scaling, according to some embodiments.

[0041] FIG. 6A illustrates components of a decoder that further includes post video decompression texture processing and/or filtering and post video decompression geometry processing/filtering according to some embodiments.

[0042] FIG. 6B illustrates, a bit stream structure for a compressed point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0043] FIG. 6C illustrates an example application where an attribute plane is up-scaled using its corresponding geometry information and the geometry extracted edges, according to some embodiments.

[0044] FIG. 7A illustrates an example of a PCCNAL unit based bit stream, according to some embodiments.

[0045] FIG. 7B illustrates an example of a PCCNAL units grouped by POC, according to some embodiments.

[0046] FIG. 7C illustrates an example of a PCCNAL unit grouped by type, according to some embodiments.

[0047] FIG. 8A illustrates a process for compressing attribute and spatial information of a point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0048] FIG. 8B illustrates a process for decompressing attribute and spatial information of a point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0049] FIG. 8C illustrates patch images being generated and packed into an image frame to compress attribute and spatial information of a point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0050] FIG. 9 illustrates patch images being generated and packed into an image frame to compress attribute and spatial information of a moving or changing point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0051] FIG. 10 illustrates a decoder receiving image frames comprising patch images, patch information, and an occupancy map, and generating a decompressed representation of a point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0052] FIG. 11A illustrates an encoder, adjusting encoding based on one or more masks for a point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0053] FIG. 11B illustrates a decoder, adjusting decoding based on one or more masks for a point cloud, according to some embodiments.

[0054] FIG. 12A illustrates more detail regarding compression of an occupancy map, according to some embodiments.

[0055] FIG. 12B illustrates example blocks and traversal patterns for compressing an occupancy map, according to some embodiments.

[0056] FIG. 12C illustrates more detail regarding compression of an occupancy map, according to some embodiments.

[0057] FIG. 13A illustrates an example lossless encoding process that encodes points omitted from generated patches, according to some embodiments.

[0058] FIG. 13B illustrates an example encoding process for encoding points omitted from generated patches, according to some embodiments.

[0059] FIG. 13C illustrates an alternative example encoding process for encoding points omitted from generated patches, according to some embodiments.

[0060] FIG. 13D illustrates example scanning techniques including a raster scan, a zigzag scan, a “Z” scan, and a traverse scan, according to some embodiments.

[0061] FIG. 13E illustrates examples of interleaved missed point components in a video frame and grouped missed point components in a video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0062] FIG. 13F illustrates an example video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0063] FIG. 13G illustrates an example video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0064] FIG. 13H illustrates an example video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0065] FIG. 13I illustrates an example video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0066] FIG. 13J illustrates an example video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0067] FIG. 13K illustrates an example video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0068] FIG. 13L illustrates an example video frame, according to some embodiments.

[0069] FIG. 13M illustrates an example scanning order, according to some embodiments.

[0070] FIG. 13N illustrates an example scanning order, according to some embodiments.

[0071] FIG. 13O illustrates an example of two curves that result from applying different filters, according to some embodiments.

[0072] FIG. 13P illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map, according to some embodiments.

[0073] FIG. 13Q illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map that has been down-sampled, according to some embodiments.

[0074] FIG. 13R illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map that has been up-sampled, according to some embodiments.

[0075] FIG. 13S illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map that has been down-sampled, according to some embodiments.

[0076] FIG. 13T illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map, wherein the patch (e.g. the patch shown in FIG. 13S) has been shifted, according to some embodiments.

[0077] FIG. 13U illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map, according to some embodiments.

[0078] FIG. 13V illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map that has been separated into two patch bounding boxes, according to some embodiments. For example, the patch shown in FIG. 13U has been split into two patches in two bounding boxes in FIG. 13V.

[0079] FIG. 13W illustrates an example patch bounding box of an occupancy map wherein a patch in the bounding box has been trimmed, according to some embodiments. For example, the patch illustrated in FIG. 13S has been trimmed as shown in FIG. 13W.

[0080] FIG. 14 illustrates compressed point cloud information being used in a 3-D telepresence application, according to some embodiments.

[0081] FIG. 15 illustrates compressed point cloud information being used in a virtual reality application, according to some embodiments.

[0082] FIG. 16 illustrates an example computer system that may implement an encoder or decoder, according to some embodiments

[0083] This specification includes references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment.” The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner consistent with this disclosure.

[0084] “Comprising.” This term is open-ended. As used in the appended claims, this term does not foreclose additional structure or steps. Consider a claim that recites: “An apparatus comprising one or more processor units … .” Such a claim does not foreclose the apparatus from including additional components (e.g., a network interface unit, graphics circuitry, etc.).

[0085] “Configured To.” Various units, circuits, or other components may be described or claimed as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configured to” is used to connote structure by indicating that the units/circuits/components include structure (e.g., circuitry) that performs those task or tasks during operation. As such, the unit/circuit/component can be said to be configured to perform the task even when the specified unit/circuit/component is not currently operational (e.g., is not on). The units/circuits/components used with the “configured to” language include hardware–for example, circuits, memory storing program instructions executable to implement the operation, etc. Reciting that a unit/circuit/component is “configured to” perform one or more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 112(f), for that unit/circuit/component. Additionally, “configured to” can include generic structure (e.g., generic circuitry) that is manipulated by software and/or firmware (e.g., an FPGA or a general-purpose processor executing software) to operate in manner that is capable of performing the task(s) at issue. “Configure to” may also include adapting a manufacturing process (e.g., a semiconductor fabrication facility) to fabricate devices (e.g., integrated circuits) that are adapted to implement or perform one or more tasks.

[0086] “First,” “Second,” etc. As used herein, these terms are used as labels for nouns that they precede, and do not imply any type of ordering (e.g., spatial, temporal, logical, etc.). For example, a buffer circuit may be described herein as performing write operations for “first” and “second” values. The terms “first” and “second” do not necessarily imply that the first value must be written before the second value.

[0087] “Based On.” As used herein, this term is used to describe one or more factors that affect a determination. This term does not foreclose additional factors that may affect a determination. That is, a determination may be solely based on those factors or based, at least in part, on those factors. Consider the phrase “determine A based on B.” While in this case, B is a factor that affects the determination of A, such a phrase does not foreclose the determination of A from also being based on C. In other instances, A may be determined based solely on B.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0088] As data acquisition and display technologies have become more advanced, the ability to capture point clouds comprising thousands or millions of points in 2-D or 3-D space, such as via LIDAR systems, has increased. Also, the development of advanced display technologies, such as virtual reality or augmented reality systems, has increased potential uses for point clouds. However, point cloud files are often very large and may be costly and time-consuming to store and transmit. For example, communication of point clouds over private or public networks, such as the Internet, may require considerable amounts of time and/or network resources, such that some uses of point cloud data, such as real-time uses, may be limited. Also, storage requirements of point cloud files may consume a significant amount of storage capacity of devices storing the point cloud files, which may also limit potential applications for using point cloud data.

[0089] In some embodiments, an encoder may be used to generate a compressed point cloud to reduce costs and time associated with storing and transmitting large point cloud files. In some embodiments, a system may include an encoder that compresses attribute and/or spatial information of a point cloud file such that the point cloud file may be stored and transmitted more quickly than non-compressed point clouds and in a manner that the point cloud file may occupy less storage space than non-compressed point clouds. In some embodiments, compression of attributes of points in a point cloud may enable a point cloud to be communicated over a network in real-time or in near real-time. For example, a system may include a sensor that captures attribute information about points in an environment where the sensor is located, wherein the captured points and corresponding attributes make up a point cloud. The system may also include an encoder that compresses the captured point cloud attribute information. The compressed attribute information of the point cloud may be sent over a network in real-time or near real-time to a decoder that decompresses the compressed attribute information of the point cloud. The decompressed point cloud may be further processed, for example to make a control decision based on the surrounding environment at the location of the sensor. The control decision may then be communicated back to a device at or near the location of the sensor, wherein the device receiving the control decision implements the control decision in real-time or near real-time. In some embodiments, the decoder may be associated with an augmented reality system and the decompressed attribute information may be displayed or otherwise used by the augmented reality system. In some embodiments, compressed attribute information for a point cloud may be sent with compressed spatial information for points of the point cloud. In other embodiments, spatial information and attribute information may be separately encoded and/or separately transmitted to a decoder.

[0090] In some embodiments, a system may include a decoder that receives one or more sets of point cloud data comprising compressed attribute information via a network from a remote server or other storage device that stores the one or more point cloud files. For example, a 3-D display, a holographic display, or a head-mounted display may be manipulated in real-time or near real-time to show different portions of a virtual world represented by point clouds. In order to update the 3-D display, the holographic display, or the head-mounted display, a system associated with the decoder may request point cloud data from the remote server based on user manipulations of the displays, and the point cloud data may be transmitted from the remote server to the decoder and decoded by the decoder in real-time or near real-time. The displays may then be updated with updated point cloud data responsive to the user manipulations, such as updated point attributes.

[0091] In some embodiments, a system, may include one or more LIDAR systems, 3-D cameras, 3-D scanners, etc., and such sensor devices may capture spatial information, such as X, Y, and Z coordinates for points in a view of the sensor devices. In some embodiments, the spatial information may be relative to a local coordinate system or may be relative to a global coordinate system (for example, a Cartesian coordinate system may have a fixed reference point, such as a fixed point on the earth, or may have a non-fixed local reference point, such as a sensor location).

[0092] In some embodiments, such sensors may also capture attribute information for one or more points, such as color attributes, reflectivity attributes, velocity attributes, acceleration attributes, time attributes, modalities, and/or various other attributes. In some embodiments, other sensors, in addition to LIDAR systems, 3-D cameras, 3-D scanners, etc., may capture attribute information to be included in a point cloud. For example, in some embodiments, a gyroscope or accelerometer, may capture motion information to be included in a point cloud as an attribute associated with one or more points of the point cloud. For example, a vehicle equipped with a LIDAR system, a 3-D camera, or a 3-D scanner may include the vehicle’s direction and speed in a point cloud captured by the LIDAR system, the 3-D camera, or the 3-D scanner. For example, when points in a view of the vehicle are captured they may be included in a point cloud, wherein the point cloud includes the captured points and associated motion information corresponding to a state of the vehicle when the points were captured.

Example System Arrangement

[0093] FIG. 1 illustrates a system comprising a sensor that captures information for points of a point cloud and an encoder that compresses attribute information of the point cloud, where the compressed attribute information is sent to a decoder, according to some embodiments.

[0094] System 100 includes sensor 102 and encoder 104. Sensor 102 captures a point cloud 110 comprising points representing structure 106 in view 108 of sensor 102. For example, in some embodiments, structure 106 may be a mountain range, a building, a sign, an environment surrounding a street, or any other type of structure. In some embodiments, a captured point cloud, such as captured point cloud 110, may include spatial and attribute information for the points included in the point cloud. For example, point A of captured point cloud 110 comprises X, Y, Z coordinates and attributes 1, 2, and 3. In some embodiments, attributes of a point may include attributes such as R, G, B color values, a velocity at the point, an acceleration at the point, a reflectance of the structure at the point, a time stamp indicating when the point was captured, a string-value indicating a modality when the point was captured, for example “walking”, or other attributes. The captured point cloud 110 may be provided to encoder 104, wherein encoder 104 generates a compressed version of the point cloud (compressed attribute information 112) that is transmitted via network 114 to decoder 116. In some embodiments, a compressed version of the point cloud, such as compressed attribute information 112, may be included in a common compressed point cloud that also includes compressed spatial information for the points of the point cloud or, in some embodiments, compressed spatial information and compressed attribute information may be communicated as separate sets of data.

[0095] In some embodiments, encoder 104 may be integrated with sensor 102. For example, encoder 104 may be implemented in hardware or software included in a sensor device, such as sensor 102. In other embodiments, encoder 104 may be implemented on a separate computing device that is proximate to sensor 102.

Example Intra-Frame Encoder

[0096] FIG. 2A illustrates components of an encoder for encoding intra point cloud frames, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the encoder described above in regard to FIG. 1 may operate in a similar manner as encoder 200 described in FIG. 2A and encoder 250 described in FIG. 2C.

[0097] The encoder 200 receives uncompressed point cloud 202 and generates compressed point cloud information 204. In some embodiments, an encoder, such as encoder 200, may receive the uncompressed point cloud 202 from a sensor, such as sensor 102 illustrated in FIG. 1, or, in some embodiments, may receive the uncompressed point cloud 202 from another source, such as a graphics generation component that generates the uncompressed point cloud in software, as an example.

[0098] In some embodiments, an encoder, such as encoder 200, includes decomposition into patches module 206, packing module 208, spatial image generation module 210, texture image generation module 212, and attribute information generation module 214. In some embodiments, an encoder, such as encoder 200, also includes image frame padding module 216, video compression module 218 and multiplexer 224. In addition, in some embodiments an encoder, such as encoder 200, may include an occupancy map compression module, such as occupancy map compression module 220, and an auxiliary patch information compression module, such as auxiliary patch information compression module 222. In some embodiments, an encoder, such as encoder 200, converts a 3D point cloud into an image-based representation along with some meta data (e.g., occupancy map and patch info) necessary to convert the compressed point cloud back into a decompressed point cloud.

[0099] In some embodiments, the conversion process decomposes the point cloud into a set of patches (e.g., a patch is defined as a contiguous subset of the surface described by the point cloud), which may be overlapping or not, such that each patch may be described by a depth field with respect to a plane in 2D space. More details about the patch decomposition process are provided above with regard to FIGS. 3A-3C.

[0100] After or in conjunction with the patches being determined for the point cloud being compressed, a 2D sampling process is performed in planes associated with the patches. The 2D sampling process may be applied in order to approximate each patch with a uniformly sampled point cloud, which may be stored as a set of 2D patch images describing the geometry/texture/attributes of the point cloud at the patch location. The “Packing” module 208 may store the 2D patch images associated with the patches in a single (or multiple) 2D images, referred to herein as “image frames” or “video image frames.” In some embodiments, a packing module, such as packing module 208, may pack the 2D patch images such that the packed 2D patch images do not overlap (even though an outer bounding box for one patch image may overlap an outer bounding box for another patch image). Also, the packing module may pack the 2D patch images in a way that minimizes non-used images pixels of the image frame.

[0101] In some embodiments, “Geometry/Texture/Attribute generation” modules, such as modules 210, 212, and 214, generate 2D patch images associated with the geometry/texture/attributes, respectively, of the point cloud at a given patch location. As noted before, a packing process, such as performed by packing module 208, may leave some empty spaces between 2D patch images packed in an image frame. Also, a padding module, such as image frame padding module 216, may fill in such areas in order to generate an image frame that may be suited for 2D video and image codecs.

[0102] In some embodiments, an occupancy map (e.g., binary information describing for each pixel or block of pixels whether the pixel or block of pixels are padded or not) may be generated and compressed, for example by occupancy map compression module 220. The occupancy map may be sent to a decoder to enable the decoder to distinguish between padded and non-padded pixels of an image frame.

[0103] Note that other metadata associated with patches may also be sent to a decoder for use in the decompression process. For example, patch information indicating sizes and shapes of patches determined for the point cloud and packed in an image frame may be generated and/or encoded by an auxiliary patch-information compression module, such as auxiliary patch-information compression module 222. In some embodiments one or more image frames may be encoded by a video encoder, such as video compression module 218. In some embodiments, a video encoder, such as video compression module 218, may operate in accordance with the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard or other suitable video encoding standard. In some embodiments, encoded video images, encoded occupancy map information, and encoded auxiliary patch information may be multiplexed by a multiplexer, such as multiplexer 224, and provided to a recipient as compressed point cloud information, such as compressed point cloud information 204.

[0104] In some embodiments, an occupancy map may be encoded and decoded by a video compression module, such as video compression module 218. This may be done at an encoder, such as encoder 200, such that the encoder has an accurate representation of what the occupancy map will look like when decoded by a decoder. Also, variations in image frames due to lossy compression and decompression may be accounted for by an occupancy map compression module, such as occupancy map compression module 220, when determining an occupancy map for an image frame. In some embodiments, various techniques may be used to further compress an occupancy map, such as described in FIGS. 12A-12B and 13A-13W.

Example Intra-Frame Decoder

[0105] FIG. 2B illustrates components of a decoder for decoding intra point cloud frames, according to some embodiments. Decoder 230 receives compressed point cloud information 204, which may be the same compressed point cloud information 204 generated by encoder 200. Decoder 230 generates reconstructed point cloud 246 based on receiving the compressed point cloud information 204.

[0106] In some embodiments, a decoder, such as decoder 230, includes a de-multiplexer 232, a video decompression module 234, an occupancy map decompression module 236, and an auxiliary patch-information decompression module 238. Additionally a decoder, such as decoder 230 includes a point cloud generation module 240, which reconstructs a point cloud based on patch images included in one or more image frames included in the received compressed point cloud information, such as compressed point cloud information 204. In some embodiments, a decoder, such as decoder 203, further comprises a smoothing filter, such as smoothing filter 244. In some embodiments, a smoothing filter may smooth incongruences at edges of patches, wherein data included in patch images for the patches has been used by the point cloud generation module to recreate a point cloud from the patch images for the patches. In some embodiments, a smoothing filter may be applied to the pixels located on the patch boundaries to alleviate the distortions that may be caused by the compression/decompression process.

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