Zero-quantised discrete cosine transform prediction technique for video encoding

A new analytical model to eliminate redundant discrete cosine transform (DCT) and quantisation (Q) computations in block-based video encoders is proposed. The dynamic ranges of the quantised DCT coefficients are analysed, then a threshold scheme is derived to determine whether the DCT and Q computations can be skipped without video quality degradation. In addition, fast DCT/inverse DCT (IDCT) algorithms are presented to implement the proposed analytical model. The proposed analytical model is compared with other comparable analytical models reported in the literature. Both the theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed analytical model can greatly reduce the computational complexity of video encoding without any performance degradation and outperforms other analytical models     

Video coding scheme using DCT-pyramid vector quantization

A new and effective video coding scheme for contribution quality is proposed. The CMTT/2, a joint committee of CCIR and CCITT, has proposed a video coding scheme (already approved at European level by ETS) working at 34-45 Mbit/s. Basically this proposal includes a DCT transform for spatial correlation removal and motion compensation for temporal correlation removal. The individual transform coefficients are then scalar quantized with a non uniform bit assignment. Starting from the CMTT/2 proposal, the study presents a new video coding scheme designed using a vector quantizer solution instead of the scalar one. Specifically, the pyramid vector quantization (PVQ) has been chosen as the vector quantization method as it is able to reduce the DCT coefficients Laplacian distribution. Simulation results show that the proposed video coding scheme gives the same contribution quality at 22 Mbit/s as the one obtained with the CMTT/2 proposal at 45 Mbit/s.     

Computation reduction for standard-based video encoders based on the energy preservation property of DCT

Based on the energy preservation property of DCT, an optimization technique for motion estimation (ME), DCT, and quantization for standard-based video encoders is developed. First, a stopping criterion for ME is proposed to reduce the number of checking points in finding the motion vectors, and save the computations. The advantage of introducing such a stopping criterion lies in its adaptability to the quantization parameter and applicability to various fast ME algorithms. Then, the DCT and quantization are jointly optimized by tracing the remaining signal energy and removing unnecessary calculations in the process of DCT and quantization. A pruned 2-D DCT based on Huang's fast DCT algorithm is presented to demonstrate the superiority of this algorithm to the full DCT and an existing all-zero block detection method. Although proved to be computationally efficient, the algorithms introduce no obvious quality loss.     

Synthesis filterbank with low hardware complexity for subband imagecoding

Different algorithms are evaluated and optimizations are performed to obtain a filterbank for subband coding of images especially suited for very large scale integration (VLSI) implementation. Based on a filterbank consisting of two finite impulse response (FIR) filters combined with an 8-point discrete cosine transform (DCT), we investigate how the quantization of filter coefficients and twiddle factors in different algorithms affects the quality of the filterbank. It is found that a DCT based on a Stasinksi (1989) algorithm with twiddle factors of only 5 b together with FIR filter coefficients of 10 b gives a filterbank with high coding gain, no blocking artifacts, and limited ringing. The VLSI complexity is comparable to that of DCT transforms.     

Rate bounds on SSIM index of quantized images

In this paper, we derive bounds on the structural similarity (SSIM) index as a function of quantization rate for fixed-rate uniform quantization of image discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients under the high-rate assumption. The space domain SSIM index is first expressed in terms of the DCT coefficients of the space domain vectors. The transform domain SSIM index is then used to derive bounds on the average SSIM index as a function of quantization rate for uniform, Gaussian, and Laplacian sources. As an illustrative example, uniform quantization of the DCT coefficients of natural images is considered. We show that the SSIM index between the reference and quantized images fall within the bounds for a large set of natural images. Further, we show using a simple example that the proposed bounds could be very useful for rate allocation problems in practical image and video coding applications.     

Image postprocessing by Non-local Kuan’s filter

Blocking artifacts exist in images and video sequences compressed to low bit rates using block-based discrete cosine transform (DCT) compression standards. In order to reduce blocking artifacts, two image postprocessing techniques, DNLK filter and OCDNLK filter, are presented in this paper. A more accurate DCT domain Kuan’s filter based on Non-local parameter estimation was proposed from the linear minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) criterion. We analyze the required two assumptions for the filter theoretically. Then the DCT domain Kuan’s filter for low frequency coefficients and Non-local mean filter for high frequency AC coefficients constitute the proposed Non-local Kuan’s (NLK) filter. After that, we propose the Dual Non-local Kuan’s (DNLK) filter by applying the proposed filter in dual layer. The DNLK filter is extended to form the Overcomplete Dual Non-local Kuan’s (OCDNLK) filter by applying to the overcomplete DCT coefficients. Experimental results on coded images using test quantization tables and JPEG coded images show the effectiveness of the two methods.     

A DCT/DST-based error propagation-free data hiding algorithm for HEVC intra-coded frames

Currently, two error propagation-free discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based data hiding algorithms, one by Ma et al. and the other by Lin et al., were presented for H.264/AVC intra-coded frames. However, the state-of-the-art video codec, high efficiency video coding (HEVC), adopts both integer DCT and discrete sine transform (DST) such that the previous DCT-based algorithms cannot fully utilize available capacity for data hiding in HEVC. This paper presents the first DCT/DST-based data hiding algorithm for HEVC intra-coded frames where the block DCT and DST coefficient characteristics are investigated to locate the transformed coefficients that can be perturbed without propagating errors to neighboring blocks. Experimental results confirm the merits of the proposed algorithm in providing the intra-frame error propagation-free advantage, the quality improvement for marked images, the compression power inherited from HEVC, and the superiority of embedding capacity for low bitrate coding when compared with the previous two algorithms for H.264/AVC.     

基于H.264的子带DCT快速算法

DCT快速算法是H.264编码的关键问题之一。该文根据H.264中44块残差系数的分布特征及DCT系数的能量分布特性,提出一种基于DCT系数子带划分的子带DCT快速算法。该算法在DCT和量化前预判出为零的DCT系数,节省了这些系数的DCT和量化计算开销,提高编码效率。该文提出了划分DCT系数子带的判断标准,预判出子带中量化后为零的DCT系数后,仅计算非零的DCT系数,相应地也减少量化(Q),反DCT(IDCT),反量化(IQ)的计算。实验结果表明,该文算法在保持图像质量和码率的同时,极大地节省了DCT, Q,IQ,IDCT的计算量,提高了H.264的编码效率。     

Arbitrary resizing of images in DCT space

Using the spatial relationship of the block discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients and subband approximations, algorithms for image halving and doubling operations are presented. The computational steps identified in the process provide a general framework for image resizing operations. Some of the previously reported image halving and doubling algorithms are shown to be special cases. The proposed approach is general enough to accommodate resizing operations with arbitrary factors, namely with integral and rational factors. The application of these methods to the conversion in the compressed domain of images (video frames) from one format to another is demonstrated.     

Adaptive DCT coding of video signals

A coefficient-by-coefficient adaptive discrete cosine transform (DCT) is investigated. The interframe DCT has been known to possess an adverse effect in that it generates mosquito and blocking noise. By analyzing DCT for the intraframe and the interframe video signals, a new adaptive intra/interframe DCT is developed. Cases without and with the movement-compensation are discussed separately. Through simulations, it is shown that a substantial improvement gain (1.0-5.0 dB_p-p or 0.2-2.0 dB_p-p, respectively) can be obtained by the new adaptive method. The improvement is brought about by the reduction of the blocking noise conventionally generated by the coarse quantization of the higher order interframe DCT coefficients. By calculating the improvement bound, a further possibility is discussed     

All phase biorthogonal transform and its application in JPEG-like image compression

This paper proposes new concepts of the all phase biorthogonal transform (APBT) and the dual biorthogonal basis vectors. In the light of all phase digital filtering theory, three kinds of all phase biorthogonal transforms based on the Walsh transform (WT), the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and the inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) are proposed. The matrices of APBT based on WT, DCT and IDCT are deduced, which can be used in image compression instead of the conventional DCT. Compared with DCT-based JPEG (DCT-JPEG) image compression algorithm at the same bit rates, the PSNR and visual quality of the reconstructed images using these transforms are approximate to DCT, outgoing DCT-JPEG at low bit rates especially. But the advantage is that the quantization table is simplified and the transform coefficients can be quantized uniformly. Therefore, the computing time becomes shorter and the hardware implementation easier.     

Text detection,localization, and tracking in compressed video

Video text information plays an important role in semantic-based video analysis, indexing and retrieval. Video texts are closely related to the content of a video. Usually, the fundamental steps of text-based video analysis, browsing and retrieval consist of video text detection, localization, tracking, segmentation and recognition. Video sequences are commonly stored in compressed formats where MPEG coding techniques are often adopted. In this paper, a unified framework for text detection, localization, and tracking in compressed videos using the discrete cosines transform (DCT) coefficients is proposed. A coarse to fine text detection method is used to find text blocks in terms of the block DCT texture intensity information. The DCT texture intensity of an 8×8 block of an intra-frame is approximately represented by seven AC coefficients. The candidate text block regions are further verified and refined. The text block region localization and tracking are carried out by virtue of the horizontal and vertical block texture intensity projection profiles. The appearing and disappearing frames of each text line are determined by the text tracking. The final experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

No-reference quality assessment for DCT-based compressed image

A blind/no-reference (NR) method is proposed in this paper for image quality assessment (IQA) of the images compressed in discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain. When an image is measured by structural similarity (SSIM), two variances, i.e. mean intensity and variance of the image, are used as features. However, the parameters of original copies are actually unavailable in NR applications; hence SSIM is not widely applicable. To extend SSIM in general cases, we apply Gaussian model to fit quantization noise in spatial domain, and directly estimate noise distribution from the compressed version. Benefit from this rearrangement, the revised SSIM does not require original image as the reference. Heavy compression always results in some zero-value DCT coefficients, which need to be compensated for more accurate parameter estimate. By studying the quantization process, a machine-learning based algorithm is proposed to estimate quantization noise taking image content into consideration. Compared with state-of-the-art algorithms, the proposed IQA is more heuristic and efficient. With some experimental results, we verify that the proposed algorithm (provided no reference image) achieves comparable efficacy to some full reference (FR) methods (provided the reference image), such as SSIM.     

An Improved Floating-to-Fixed-Point Conversion Scheme for DCT Quantization Algorithm

Conventional fixed-point implementation of the DCT coefficients quantization algorithm in video compression may result in deteriorated image quality. The paper investigates this problem and proposes an improved floating-to-fixed-point conversion scheme. With a proper scaling factor and a new-established look-up table, the proposed fixed-point scheme can obtain bit-wise consistence to the floating-point realization. Experimental results verify the validity of the proposed method.     

Novel Efficient De-blocking Method for Highly Compressed Images

Due to coarse quantization, block-based discrete cosine transform（BDCT） compression methods usually suffer from visible blocking artifacts at the block boundaries. A novel efficient deblocking method in DCT domain is proposed. A specific criterion for edge detection is given, one-dimensional DCT is applied on each row of the adjacent blocks and the shifted block in smooth region, and the transform coefficients of the shifted block are modified by weighting the average of three coefficients of the block. Mean square difference of slope criterion is used to judge the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show that the new method not only obtains satisfactory image quality, but also maintains high frequency information.     

基于多分类的QDCT域大容量H.264/AVC视频信息隐藏算法

提出了一种在开环外的量化离散余弦变换(QDCT )系数上的H.264视频信息隐藏算法。在抑制漂移失真的条件下,对 邻块所需参考像素进行多组分类。其次,充分挖掘帧 内4×4亮度可用QDCT系数对,结合9进制方向调整(EMD)嵌入算法和 矩阵编码,实 现秘密信息的高容量嵌入。同时,通过最多修改一组QDCT系数保证了含密视频的质量。 此外,本文的信息提取算法不需要对含密视频完全解码,只需得到QDCT系数和帧内预测 模式,即可完全提取秘密信息。实验结果表明,本文算法在大幅度提高嵌入容量的同时,对 比特率和视频的质量影响不大。     

Image vector quantizer based on a classification in the DCT domain

A classification algorithm in the discrete cosine transform (DCT) domain for the classified vector quantization (CVQ) technique is proposed. The classifier employs four DCT coefficients of 4×4 subblock as edge-oriented features. The classifier is designed using a cluster-seeking algorithm to ensure that the centroid of a set of vectors in a class always belong to that class. Since the classification is performed in the DCT domain, this approach can be easily extended to the DCT transform coding technique. Simulation results show that a good visual quality of the coded image at fixed rates in the 0.625-0.813 b/pixel (bpp) range is obtained with comparable complexity. The weighted MSE (WMSE) analysis in conjunction with the proposed classifier is discussed     

H.264/AVC整数DCT变换与量化的FPGA实现

根据H.264/AVC的变换量化原理,在FPGA上设计并实现了整数变换及量化部分。首先采用层次化、模块化的思想,将系统划分为多个功能模块,降低了硬件实现的复杂度,对DCT算法进行了优化,并对量化模块采用了流水线操作,最后设计全部采用Verilog硬件描述语言实现,并用Modelsim进行功能仿真,同时实验结果通过在Xilinx公司Vertex2P系列的XC2VP30 FPGA上验证。仿真及综合结果表明,与优化之前相比,系统所需时钟周期减少了29个,最大时钟频率可达到135.498MHz,为H.264标准的硬件实现提供了参考。     

Modified STDM based on hybrid transform and sub-block correlation

In this paper, two modified spread transform dither modulation (MSTDM) algorithms are proposed based on combination of transforms of discrete wavelet transform and discrete cosine transform (DD: abbreviation of the two discrete transform). They are called MSTDM-CO-DD algorithm based on correlation between adjacent blocks and MSTDM-PCO-DD based on the correlation between adjacent blocks after pretreatment of the adjacent sub-block before embedding. In both algorithms, we first make wavelet decomposition of the image, and divide the low-frequency sub-band into blocks. MSTDM-CO-DD gets the projection vectors and quantization steps from the previous sub-block to modulate the latter sub-block based on the correlation between adjacent blocks. As a result, MSTDM-CO-DD solves the problem of the difference of projection vector and quantization step between embedding and detecting. MSTDM-PCO-DD exchanges the coefficients of the previous sub-block and the latter one before embedding. As a result MSTDM-PCO-DD is more robust. The quantization step of the proposed algorithms varies with the brightness of the carrier image adaptively based on modified Watson model. From the results of numerical simulation, it is obvious that our proposed algorithms are robust to many attacks. Moreover, based on the Quantized Projection Methods our algorithms have been analyzed in performance.     

Wavelet to DCT transcoding in transform domain

Wavelet to DCT transcoding provides inter-operability between standards using the two transforms for encoding. Transcoding in transform domain avoids inverse transform and re-transform operations and saves computation. In this paper, we propose new algorithms for transcoding wavelet coefficients to block DCT coefficients. In the first step, the wavelet coefficients are transformed into upsampled DCT coefficients. Subsequently, these trans-formed coefficients are synthesized in the block DCT space for transcoding. The proposed approach restricts all operations in the DCT domain that makes filtering involved in the synthesis process computationally efficient. The proposed technique could be used by the block DCT based services when the input is available as wavelet coefficients.