Yoshiteru Mino

An evaluation of the subframe parallel approach for image clustering

This paper describes a high-speed parallel clustering method that is suitable for use as a preprocessor for motion picture compression and coding. In the parallel clustering process, plural pixels are sampled in one frame of an image. Clusters are gathered according to their characteristics, among them, colors, motion vectors, etc., as a way to organize clusters or modify cluster-parameters in parallel. This operation is repeated until the frame is segmented optimally by a set of clusters. We propose the subframe parallel approach in order to enhance the parallelism of the clustering method and avoid load-imbalance in parallel tasks. The effectiveness of this approach is also presented and it is shown that a real-time clustering of motion picture images is available in most cases.