Image compression with Cool-chic¶
Encoding your own image is achieved by using the script coolchic/encode.py
.
(venv) ~/Cool-Chic$ python coolchic/encode.py \
--input=path_to_my_example \
--output=bitstream.bin \
--workdir=./my_temporary_workdir/ \
--enc_cfg=cfg/enc/intra/fast_10k.cfg \
--dec_cfg_residue=cfg/dec/intra_residue/mop.cfg \
--lmbda=0.001 # Typical range is 1e-2 (low rate) to 1e-4 (high rate)
Unlike the decoding script which only takes input and output arguments, the encoder has many arguments allowing to tune Cool-chic for your need.
Encoder configuration affects the encoding duration by changing the training parameters. This is set through the argument
--enc_cfg
. Several encoder configuration files are available incfg/enc/
.Decoder configuration parametrizes the decoder architecture and complexity. This is set through the argument
--dec_cfg
. Several encoder configuration files are available incfg/dec/
.
Working directory¶
The --workdir
argument is used to specify a folder where all necessary data
will be stored. This includes the encoder logs and the PyTorch model
(workdir/0000-frame_encoder.pt
).
Attention
If present, the PyTorch model inside workdir workdir/0000-frame_encoder.pt
is reloaded by the coolchic/encode.py
script. In order to encode a new
image using the same workdir, you must first clean out the workdir.
I/O format¶
Cool-chic is able to encode PPM, PNG, YUV420 & YUV 444 files. The naming of YUV files must comply with the following convention
--input=<videoname>_<Width>x<Height>_<framerate>p_yuv<chromasampling>_<bitdepth>b.yuv
Note that Cool-Chic outputs either PPM (and not PNG!) or YUV files.
Rate constraint¶
The rate constraint --lmbda
is used to balance the rate and the distortion when encoding an image.
Indeed, Cool-chic parameters are optimized through gradient descent according to the following rate-distortion objective: