Internet DRAFT - draft-midtskogen-netvc-cdef

draft-midtskogen-netvc-cdef







Network Working Group                                      S. Midtskogen
Internet-Draft                                                     Cisco
Intended status: Standards Track                                J. Valin
Expires: April 29, 2018                                          Mozilla
                                                        October 26, 2017


               Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter
                     draft-midtskogen-netvc-cdef-00

Abstract

   This document describes a contrained directional enhancement filter
   for use as a loop filter in the Thor video codec.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on April 29, 2018.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.





Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 1]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     2.1.  Requirements Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     2.2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Direction search  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Filtering Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   5.  Signalling  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   6.  Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  20
   8.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   9.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   10. References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
     10.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
     10.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  21
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  22

1.  Introduction

   Modern video coding standards such as Thor [I-D.fuldseth-netvc-thor]
   include in-loop filters which correct artifacts introduced in the
   encoding process.  Thor includes a deblocking filter which corrects
   artifacts introduced by the block based nature of the encoding
   process.  In addition, Thor introduced the constrained low-pass
   filter (CLPF [I-D.midtskogen-netvc-clpf]), which compensates for
   ringing artifacts not corrected by the deblocking filter, and it
   offers a very favourable complexity/compression trade-off.
   Similarly, the Daala codec has a deringing filter
   [I-D.valin-netvc-deringing].  CLPF and the Daala deringing filter
   have been shown to have additive effects, but rather than running
   these two filters in cascade after the deblocking filter, they can be
   combined into a single filter taking advantage of their similarities
   and reducing the total complexity, giving what we call the
   constrained directional enhancement filter (CDEF), which will be
   described in this document.  This merged filter offers better
   compression objectively than CLPF or the Daala deringing filter
   alone, as well as significantly improved subjective quality, at the
   cost of somewhat higher complexity than CLPF.

2.  Definitions

2.1.  Requirements Language

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].




Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 2]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


2.2.  Terminology

   The filter works by dividing the frame to be filtered into filter
   blocks (FB's) of 64x64 pixels.  This size is fixed regardless of the
   coding block (CB) size which can range from 8x8 to 128x128.
   Different FB's may have different filter parameters.

   If the frame can't fit a whole number of FB's, the FB's at the right
   and bottom edges are clipped to fit.  For instance, if the frame
   resolution is 1920x1080, the size of the FB's at the bottom of the
   frame becomes 64x56.

   FB's that contain only skipped CB's are never filtered.  A CB is
   skipped when it contains no coded residual.

   The frame is further divided into direction blocks (DB) of 8x8
   pixels, and all DB's to be filtered are associated with a direction
   and a variance, both calculated by the encoder and decoder from the
   reconstructed, deblocked frame.  The direction is computed to match
   the edges and patterns within the DB, and the variance is a measure
   of the contrast.

   CDEF is a non-separable non-linear 12-tap filter and the taps are
   located within a 5x5 area centered around the pixel to be filtered.
   One DB is filtered at a time, and the locations of the taps depend on
   the direction associated with the DB.  Furthermore, the taps are
   divided into two groups: the primary taps and the secondary taps.
   The primary taps are associated with a primary strength (S'), and the
   secondary taps are associated with a secondary strength (S'').  The
   primary and secondary strengths can differ.

3.  Direction search

   The search operates on the reconstructed pixels, just after the
   deblocking is applied.  Since those pixels are available to the
   decoder, no signalling is required for the directions.  The direction
   search operates on 8x8 blocks (DB's), which is fine enough to
   adequately handle non-straight edges, while being large enough to
   reliably estimate directions when applied to a quantized image.
   Having a constant direction over an 8x8 region also makes
   vectorization of the filter easier.

   For each block we want to determine the direction that best matches
   the pattern in the block.  This is done by minimizing the sum of
   squared differences (SSD) between the quantized block and a perfectly
   directional block.  A perfectly directional block is a block for
   which each line along a certain direction has a constant value.  For




Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 3]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


   each direction, we assign a line number k to each pixel, as shown in
   the following figures:


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 |11 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 |11 |12 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 |11 |12 |13 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 |11 |12 |13 |14 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 1: Line number k for pixels following direction 0


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 |10 |10 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 2: Line number k for pixels following direction 1





Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 4]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 3: Line number k for pixels following direction 2


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |10 |10 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 4: Line number k for pixels following direction 3









Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 5]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |11 |10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |12 |11 |10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |13 |12 |11 |10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |14 |13 |12 |11 |10 | 9 | 8 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 5: Line number k for pixels following direction 4


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     |10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 6: Line number k for pixels following direction 5









Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 6]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 7: Line number k for pixels following direction 6


                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
                     | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 |
                     +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+


         Figure 8: Line number k for pixels following direction 7

   The direction and variance of a DB are calculated by the following
   algorithm:






Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 7]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


         Initialise all variables to zero
         for d = 0 to 7 do
           for i = 0 to 7 do
             for j = 0 to 7 do
               L <- line_table[d][i][j]
               parial[d][L] <- partial[d][L] + (pixel[i][j] - 128)
               count[d][L] <- count[d][L] + 1
             end for
           end for
           for L = 0 to 14 do
             if count[d][L] > 0 then
               s[d] <- s[d] + partial[d][L]^2 * 840 / count[d][L]
             end if
           end for
         end for
         for d = 0 to 7 do
           if s[d] > s[best_d] then
             best_d <- d
           end if
         end for
         direction <- best_d
         variance <- s[best_d] - s[(best_d + 4) mod 8]


                    Figure 9: Direction search algoritm

   Functionally equivalent algebraic simplifications are possible, but
   they are not shown here for clarity.

4.  Filtering Process

   CDEF is based on a non-linear low-pass filter designed to remove
   coding artifacts without blurring sharp edges.  This is achieved by
   selecting taps based on the identified direction, but also by
   preventing excessive blurring when the filter is applied across an
   edge.  The latter is achieved through the use of a non-linear low-
   pass filter that deemphasizes taps that differ too much from the
   pixel being filtered.  This filter can be expressed as:













Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 8]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                               __
                              \
    y(i,j) = round(x(i,j) + g(/__ w'_m,n * f(x(i,j)-x(m,m), S', D) +
                               __
                              \
                              /__ w''_m,n * f(x(i,j)-x(m,m), S'', D)))


                       Figure 10: Non-linear filter

   where w' and w'' are the weights associated with the primary and
   secondary taps respectively, S' and S'' are the primary and secondary
   strengths, and f, g and the damping value D will be described below.

   The function f constrains the difference between the pixel to be
   filtered and a neighbouring pixel.  It takes as arguments the
   difference d, the strength S and the damping value D:


           | min(d, max(0, S - floor(d/(2^D - floor(log2(S)))))), d >= 0
f(d,S,D) = <
           | max(d, min(0, floor(d/(2^D - floor(log2(S)))) - S)), d < 0


                     Figure 11: The constrain function

   The function restricts the difference to a maximum range defined by
   the strength, then further restricts large differences depending on
   the damping value.  The constrain function can be visualised as
   follows



         S                              ----
                                        /    ----
                                       /         ----
          0 ------------              /              ------------
                        ----         /
                            ----    /
         -S                     ----
                     -2^D          -S 0 S           2^D


                            Figure 12: Graph 1

   The function is anti-symmetric around d = 0 and can be expressed by
   the following pseudo C code:




Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                 [Page 9]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


sign(x) = x >= 0 ? 1 : -1
f(d,S,D) = sign(d)*min(abs(d), max(0, S-(abs(d) >> (D-floor(log2(S))))))


               Figure 13: The constrain function in pseudo C

   The function g(d) is defined as:


     g(d) = clip(d, min_m,n(x(i,j) - x(m,n), max_m,n(x(i,j) - x(m,n))


                       Figure 14: The clip function

   which ensures that the filtered pixel never can attain a value higher
   than or lower than any of the pixels associated with the filter taps.
   This has to be done because sum of the weights of the primary and
   secondary exceeds unity and we want to avoid overcompensation and
   retain the low-pass quality of the filter.

   The direction found in the direction search determines which filter
   taps to use from the 5x5 area centered around the pixel to be
   filtered.  The primary taps with weights w' are given below for each
   direction:


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | X |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 15: Primary taps (w') for direction 0











Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 10]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b | X | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 16: Primary taps (w') for direction 1


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a | b | X | b | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 17: Primary taps (w') for direction 2


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b | X | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 18: Primary taps (w') for direction 3





Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 11]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | X |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 19: Primary taps (w') for direction 4


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | a |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | X |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   | a |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 20: Primary taps (w') for direction 5


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | a |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | X |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | a |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 21: Primary taps (w') for direction 6





Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 12]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | a |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a | b | X | b | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | a |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


               Figure 22: Primary taps (w') for direction 7

   The values of a and b alternate depending on the strength.  For even
   strengths, a = 2/16 and b = 4/16.  For odd strengths, a = b = 3/16.
   The secondary taps are as follows:


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   | a |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b | X | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | a |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


           Figure 23: Secondary taps (w'') for direction 0 and 4

















Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 13]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   |   |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b |   | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | X |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b |   | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   |   |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


           Figure 24: Secondary taps (w'') for direction 1 and 5


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | a |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   | b |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b | X | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   | b |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   | a |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


           Figure 25: Secondary taps (w'') for direction 2 and 6


                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           | a |   |   |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   | b | X |   |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   | b |   |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+
                           |   |   |   |   | a |
                           +---+---+---+---+---+


           Figure 26: Secondary taps (w'') for direction 3 and 7





Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 14]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


   For the secondary taps, a = 1/16 and b = 2/16.  Unlike the primary
   taps, there is no alteration.

   The strengths S' and S'' and damping value D must be set high enough
   to smooth out coding artifacts, but low enough to avoid blurring
   important details in the image.  For 8-bit content S' can have
   integer values between 0 and 15, and S'' can be 0, 1, 2 or 4.  D can
   be set to 3, 4, 5 or 6 for luma, and the damping value for chroma is
   always one less.  The damping value shall never be lower than the
   log2(S) to ensure that the shift value used to compute
   2^(D-floor(log2(S))) in the constrain function never becomes
   negative.  For instance, if for chroma S' = 15 and the luma damping
   is 3, the chroma damping shall also be 3 (and not 2) because
   floor(log2(S')) = 3.

   For higher bit depths (more than 8 bits), S' and S'' are scaled
   according to the extra bit depth, and D is offset accordingly.  For
   example, 12-bit content can have S' values of 0, 16, 32, ..., 240,
   and the valid D values are 7, 8, 9 and 10.  The weight alteration for
   the primary taps, which depends on whether the strength is odd or
   even, are preserved, so for 12-bit content strengths of 16, 48, 80,
   etc are still considered "odd", and 32, 64, 96, etc are still
   considered "even".

   Picking an optimial damping value is less critical for compression
   gains than picking the optimal strengths.  S' and S'' are chosen
   independently for luma and chroma.

   The primary strength S' is adjusted for luma using a variance v (see
   the algorithm given in the previous section) for the 8x8 block (DB)
   as follows:


   S'_adj =
    | floor((S'*(4+min(floor(log2(floor(v/65536)),12))+8)/16), v >= 2^10
    <
    | 0, otherwise


                    Figure 27: Luma strength adjustment

   This adjustment is not applied for chroma, nor for the secondary
   strength S''.  The adjustment reduces the smoothing for blocks
   without a clear directional pattern.







Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 15]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


5.  Signalling

   Some CDEF parameters are signaled at the frame level, and some
   parameters may be signaled at the FB level.  The following is
   signaled at the frame level: the damping D (2 bit), the number of
   bits used for FB signaling (0-3, 2 bits), and a list of 1, 2, 4 or 8
   presets.  One preset contains the luma primary strength (4 bits), the
   chroma primary strength (4 bits), the luma secondary strength (2
   bits), the chroma secondary strength, a luma skip condition bit, and
   a chroma skip condition bit (a total of 14 bits per preset).  The
   filtering is applied one FB at a time.  For each FB, the 0 - 3 bits
   are read to indicate the preset that will be used for this FB.  The
   filter parameters are only coded for FB's that are not completely
   skipped.  Such skipped FB's have CDEF disabled.  Similarly, any
   skipped CB within a FB has filtering disabled unless the skip
   condition bit is set for that FB.

   Since the skip condition flag would be redundant in the case when
   both the primary and secondary filter strengths are 0, this
   combination has a special meaning.  In that case, the block shall be
   filtered with a primary filter strength equal to 19 and a secondary
   filter strength equal to 7.  The skip condition flag is still to be
   regarded as 1.

   When the chroma subsampling differs horizontally and vertically, e.g.
   4:2:2 video, the filter is disabled for chroma, and the chroma
   primary strength, the chroma skip condition flag and the chroma
   secondary strength are not signaled.

6.  Results

   CDEF has been tested in Thor and AV1 codecs using the Are We
   Compressed Yet [AWCY] online testing tool and the objective-1-fast
   test set [I-D.daede-netvc-testing].  The tests were run using
   different encoder configurations: in high and low latency
   configurations for three different complexity configurations.  The
   git SHA used for Thor was b5e5cc5 [Thor-git] and for AV1 it was
   e200b28 [AV1-git].

   The filter is more effective for low latency configurations than high
   latency configuration, and also more effective for low complexity
   configurations.  This makes the filter particularily suited for real-
   time videoconferencing when low transmission delay is required and
   expensive compression tools can't be afforded.  For encoders
   requiring a very low complexity, however, CLPF
   [I-D.midtskogen-netvc-clpf] may still be an attractive alternative.





Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 16]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


   The tables below show the Bjontegaard Delta Rate (BDR [BDR]) by
   different metrics, roughly corresponding to bitrate reductions in
   percent, achieved by CDEF on top of the deblocking filter only (i.e.
   CLPF always disabled).


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-6.1689 |-10.4772 |-11.2394 |  -4.1280 |-7.6027 | -6.1057 |   -10.3280|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


      Figure 28: BDR gains in Thor for the low compexity, low latency
                               configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-4.0168 | -6.3353 | -6.6232 |  -1.6408 |-5.3347 | -2.9643 |    -6.3557|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


     Figure 29: BDR gains in Thor for the low compexity, high latency
                               configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-4.8637 | -7.8556 | -8.0799 |  -2.6514 |-5.5668 | -4.0526 |    -7.6489|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


    Figure 30: BDR gains in Thor for the medium compexity, low latency
                               configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-3.9115 | -5.1303 | -4.9574 |  -1.6244 |-5.1654 | -2.9807 |    -5.3456|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


    Figure 31: BDR gains in Thor for the medium compexity, high latency
                               configuration



Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 17]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-3.1898 | -5.2852 | -5.4605 |  -1.3447 |-3.3103 | -2.2294 |    -5.1828|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


     Figure 32: BDR gains in Thor for the high efficiency, low latency
                               configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-2.2629 | -2.7290 | -2.5596 |  -0.4865 |-2.7491 | -1.3874 |    -3.1324|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


    Figure 33: BDR gains in Thor for the high efficiency, high latency
                               configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-3.6819 | -3.2943 | -4.3394 |  -2.4961 |-4.1543 | -3.0463 |    -4.5402|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


      Figure 34: BDR gains in AV1 for the low complexity, low latency
                               configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-1.9320 | -2.4224 | -3.6913 |  -0.8598 |-1.9586 | -1.1803 |    -2.8803|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


      Figure 35: BDR gains in AV1 for the high effiency, low latency
                               configuration









Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 18]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-1.0813 | -2.1425 | -2.7425 |  -0.1487 |-1.1106 | -0.4353 |    -2.1103|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


      Figure 36: BDR gains in AV1 for the high effiency, high latency
                               configuration

   Experiments running both CDEF and the existing CLPF have shown to
   give only small gains over running CDEF alone, and running both adds
   a risk of excessive smoothing, so CDEF should be considered a
   replacement for CLPF, possibly except for encoders with very strict
   compute budget.  Subjective tests of videos encoded in a high
   efficiency configuration have shown a preference for CDEF for five
   out of five sequences in the test set.  However, the preference was
   only statistically significant for the low delay configuration.
   Objectively, CDEF also gives gains when it replaces CLPF as shown in
   the tables below.  The subjective gains appear to be significantly
   larger.  Results are only shown for Thor, as CLPF was not maintained
   in AV1 during the recent development.


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-0.8304 | -4.0167 | -3.6906 |  -0.7987 |-1.3478 | -1.1405 |    -2.1609|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


     Figure 37: BDR over CLPF gains in Thor for the low compexity, low
                           latency configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-0.9475 | -2.8048 | -2.4094 |  -0.7117 | -0.9714| -0.7862 |    -1.8283|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


    Figure 38: BDR gains over CLPF in Thor for the low compexity, high
                           latency configuration







Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 19]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-0.8168 | -3.5619 | -3.4433 |  -0.7391 |-1.1946 | -1.0011 |    -1.9809|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


   Figure 39: BDR gains over CLPF in Thor for the medium compexity, low
                           latency configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-0.7453 | -2.6455 | -2.5650 |  -0.4544 |-0.7912 | -0.4843 |    -1.6164|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


   Figure 40: BDR gains over CLPF in Thor for the medium compexity, high
                           latency configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-0.5777 | -2.6286 | -2.3601 |  -0.5300 |-1.0664 | -0.8435 |    -1.5601
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


    Figure 41: BDR gains over CLPF in Thor for the high efficiency, low
                           latency configuration


+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|   PSNR | PSNR Cb | PSNR Cr | PSNR HVS |   SSIM | MS SSIM | CIEDE 2000|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+
|-0.4942 | -1.6534 | -1.5278 |  -0.4858 |-0.9091 | -0.7584 |    -1.0541|
+--------+---------+---------+----------+--------+---------+-----------+


   Figure 42: BDR gains over CLPF in Thor for the high efficiency, high
                           latency configuration

7.  IANA Considerations

   This document has no IANA considerations yet.  TBD





Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 20]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


8.  Security Considerations

   This document has no security considerations yet.  TBD

9.  Acknowledgements

   The authors would like to thank Thomas Daede for organizing the
   subjective test.

10.  References

10.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.daede-netvc-testing]
              Daede, T. and J. Jack, "Video Codec Testing and Quality
              Measurement", draft-daede-netvc-testing-02 (work in
              progress), October 2015.

   [I-D.fuldseth-netvc-thor]
              Fuldseth, A., Bjontegaard, G., Midtskogen, S., Davies, T.,
              and M. Zanaty, "Thor Video Codec", draft-fuldseth-netvc-
              thor-03 (work in progress), October 2016.

   [I-D.midtskogen-netvc-clpf]
              Midtskogen, S., Fuldseth, A., and M. Zanaty, "Constrained
              Low Pass Filter", draft-midtskogen-netvc-clpf-04 (work in
              progress), March 2017.

   [I-D.valin-netvc-deringing]
              Valin, J., "Directional Deringing Filter", draft-valin-
              netvc-deringing-01 (work in progress), March 2016.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

10.2.  Informative References

   [AV1-git]  AOMedia, "AV1 codebase", 2017,
              <https://aomedia.googlesource.com/aom>.

   [AWCY]     Xiph.Org, "Are We Compressed Yet?", 2017,
              <https://arewecompressedyet.com/>.

   [BDR]      Bjontegaard, G., "Calculation of average PSNR differences
              between RD-curves", ITU-T SG16 Q6 VCEG-M33 , April 2001.




Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 21]

Internet-Draft Constrained Directional Enhancement Filter   October 2017


   [Thor-git]
              Cisco, "Thor codebase", 2017,
              <https://github.com/cisco/thor>.

Authors' Addresses

   Steinar Midtskogen
   Cisco
   Lysaker
   Norway

   Email: stemidts@cisco.com


   Jean-Marc Valin
   Mozilla
   Mountain View
   USA

   Email: jmvalin@jmvalin.ca































Midtskogen & Valin       Expires April 29, 2018                [Page 22]