H.263甚低速率图像编码的全局判决实现方法

本文对Ｈ．２６３编码算法的现有实现方法作了深入的分析,首先发现变换部分存在大量无效运算,提出了在变换前加判决的前变换判决的编码方案,以压缩无效的变换运算;其次发现运动估计部分由于忽略了图像场景的分级运动而存在一定的无效搜索运算,提出了基于分级运动的可变搜索域法来压缩无效的搜索运算;最后将前变换判决方案与运动估计的可变搜索域法有机地结合在一起,提出了全局判决编码方案,从而比较全面地改进了现有实现方法,因而能大幅度地提高编码器的编码速度．     

Optimization of quadtree segmentation and hybrid two-dimensionaland three-dimensional motion estimation in a rate-distortion framework

A rate-distortion framework is used to define a very low bit-rate coding scheme based on quadtree segmentation and optimized selection of motion estimators. This technique achieves maximum reconstructed image quality under the constraint of a target bit rate for the coding of the vector field and segmentation information. First, a complete scheme is proposed for hybrid two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) motion estimation and compensation. The quadtree object segmentation is optimized for hybrid motion estimation in the rate-distortion sense. This scheme adapts to the depth of the quadtree and the technique used for motion estimation for each leaf of the tree. A more sophisticated technique, adapted to the requirements of a very low bit-rate coder, is also proposed which also considers the transmission of the prediction error corresponding to the particular choice of the motion estimator. Based on these coding schemes, two versions of a very low bit-rate image sequence coder are developed. Experimental results illustrating the performance of the proposed techniques in very low bit-rate image sequence coding application areas are presented and evaluated     

Error-resilient video transmission using long-term memorymotion-compensated prediction

Long-term memory prediction extends the spatial displacement vector utilized in hybrid video coding by a variable time delay, permitting the use of more than one reference frame for motion compensation. This extension leads to improved rate-distortion performance. However, motion compensation in combination with transmission errors leads to temporal error propagation that occurs when the reference frames at the coder and decoder differ. In this paper, we present a framework that incorporates an estimated error into rate-constrained motion estimation and mode decision. Experimental results with a Rayleigh fading channel show that long-term memory prediction significantly outperforms the single-frame prediction H.263-based anchor. When a feedback channel is available, the decoder can inform the encoder about successful or unsuccessful transmission events by sending positive (ACK) or negative (NACK) acknowledgments. This information is utilized for updating the error estimates at the encoder. Similar concepts, such as the ACK and NACK mode known from the H.263 standard, are unified into a general framework providing superior transmission performance     

H.263: video coding for low-bit-rate communication

This article provides an overview of H.263, the new ITU-T Recommendation for low-bit-rate video communication. H.263 specifies a coded representation for compressing the moving picture component of audio-visual signals at low bit rates. The basic structure of the video source coding algorithm is taken from ITU-T Recommendation H.261 and is a hybrid of interpicture prediction to reduce temporal redundancy and transform coding of the prediction residual to reduce spatial redundancy. The source coder can operate on five standardized picture formats: sub-QCIF, QCIF, CIF, 4CIF, and 16CIF. The decoder has motion compensation capability with half-pixel precision, in contrast to H.261 which uses full-pixel precision and employs a loop filter. H.263 includes four negotiable coding options which provide improved coding efficiency: unrestricted motion vectors, syntax-based arithmetic coding, advanced prediction, and PB-frames     

Scalable wavelet video coding using aliasing-reduced hierarchicalmotion compensation

We describe a spatially scalable video coding framework in which motion correspondences between successive video frames are exploited in the wavelet transform domain. The basic motivation for our coder is that motion fields are typically smooth and, therefore, can be efficiently captured through a multiresolutional framework. A wavelet decomposition is applied to each video frame and the coefficients at each level are predicted from the coarser level through backward motion compensation. To remove the aliasing effects caused by downsampling in the transform, a special interpolation filter is designed with the weighted aliasing energy as part of the optimization goal, and motion estimation is carried out with low pass filtering and interpolation in the estimation loop. Further, to achieve robust motion estimation against quantization noise, we propose a novel backward/forward hybrid motion compensation scheme, and a tree structured dynamic programming algorithm to optimize the backward/forward mode choices. A novel adaptive quantization scheme is applied to code the motion predicted residue wavelet coefficients, Experimental results reveal 0.3-2-dB increase in coded PSNR at low bit rates over the state-of-the-art H.263 standard with all enhancement modes enabled, and similar improvements over MPEG-2 at high bit rates, with a considerable improvement in subjective reconstruction quality, while simultaneously supporting a scalable representation.     

An efficient computation-constrained block-based motion estimationalgorithm for low bit rate video coding

We present an efficient computation constrained block-based motion vector estimation algorithm for low bit rate video coding that yields good tradeoffs between motion estimation distortion and number of computations. A reliable predictor determines the search origin, localizing the search process. An efficient search pattern exploits structural constraints within the motion field. A flexible cost measure used to terminate the search allows simultaneous control of the motion estimation distortion and the computational cost. Experimental results demonstrate the viability of the proposed algorithm in low bit rate video coding applications. The resulting low bit rate video encoder yields essentially the same levels of rate-distortion performance and subjective quality achieved by the UBC H.263+ video coding reference software. However, the proposed motion estimation algorithm provides substantially higher encoding speed as well as graceful computational degradation capabilities.     

实现运动估计算法的优化技术

针对H.263编码器,通过研究软件实现提高运动估计算法效率的优化技术,提出一种基于位标识的重复搜索点的识别方法,其思想是根据运动矢量各向非均匀分布特性设置模板内各搜索点顺序,并通过实验验证了该优化方案的有效性。其恢复图像的整像素和半像素搜索点数均有较大的减少,平均每帧的压缩时间大大缩短,而且平均每帧的编码码长也有不同程度的缩短。     

Efficient Mode Decision Algorithm Based on Spatial,Temporal, and Inter‐layer Rate‐Distortion Correlation Coefficients for Scalable Video Coding

The layered coding structure of scalable video coding (SVC) with adaptive inter‐layer prediction causes noticeable computational complexity increments when compared to existing video coding standards. To lighten the computational complexity of SVC, we present a fast algorithm to speed up the inter‐mode decision process. The proposed algorithm terminates inter‐mode decision early in the enhancement layers by estimating the rate‐distortion (RD) cost from the macroblocks of the base layer and the enhancement layer in temporal, spatial, and inter‐layer directions. Moreover, a search range decision algorithm is also proposed in this paper to further increase the motion estimation speed by using the motion vector information from temporal, spatial, or inter‐layer domains. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can determine the best mode and provide more efficient total coding time saving with very slight RD performance degradation for spatial and quality scalabilities.     

Fast macroblock encoding algorithm based on rate-distortion activity for multiview video coding

Multiview video coding (MVC) is the appendix H of H.264/AVC, and it requires a great amount of time to compress multiple viewpoints׳ video with complex prediction structures. To reduce the whole computational complexity of MVC, this paper proposes a fast macroblock (MB) encoding algorithm based on rate-distortion (RD) activity, and it includes the fast mode decision and the fast motion/disparity estimation. First, the RD activity type of the current MB is calculated by utilizing the Skip/Direct RD cost and the average RD costs of classified MB modes. Then, through utilizing the RD activity type and RD costs of the estimated modes, the selection of candidate modes, the early decision of Skip/Direct mode, and the reduction of Inter8×8 mode estimation are all presented in the fast mode decision. By using the RD activity type and the correlations of vectors, the selection of search center and the prediction of search range are introduced in the fast motion/disparity estimation. In addition, the proposed algorithm can be applied to temporal and inter-view views as well as anchor and non-anchor frames. An experiment with a wide range of video scenes, camera setups and quantization parameters was implemented, and the results confirmed that the proposed algorithm can reduce the encoding time significantly while maintaining a similar RD performance as the original MVC encoder. Compared to the state-of-the-art algorithms, the proposed algorithm also demonstrated better performances in the various test cases.     

Adaptive coding of moving objects for very low bit rates

This paper describes an object-based video coding system with new ideas in both the motion analysis and source encoding procedures. The moving objects in a video are extracted by means of a joint motion estimation and segmentation algorithm based on the Markov random field (MRF) model. The two important features of the presented technique are the temporal linking of the objects, and the guidance of the motion segmentation with spatial color information. This facilitates several aspects of an object-based coder. First, a new temporal updating scheme greatly reduces the bit rate to code the object boundaries without resorting to crude lossy approximations. Next, the uncovered regions can be extracted and encoded in an efficient manner by observing their revealed contents. The objects are classified adaptively as P objects or I objects and encoded accordingly. Subband/wavelet coding is applied in encoding the object interiors. Simulations at very low bit rates yielded comparable performance in terms of reconstructed PSNR to the H.263 coder. The object-based coder produced visually more pleasing video with less blurriness and devoid of block artifacts, thus confirming the advantages of object-based coding at very low bit-rates     

Low bit-rate video coding using wavelet vector quantisation

A method for low bit-rate video coding based on wavelet vector quantisation is proposed. Motion estimation/compensation using overlapped block matching (OBM) is employed to eliminate the blocking effects in the prediction error introduced by conventional block matching. It is shown that OBM significantly increases the efficiency of the wavelet transform coder. The motion-compensated interframe prediction error is decomposed using a wavelet transform and a method is employed for the efficient coding of the wavelet coefficients. In this technique, the coefficients are coded with a zero-tree multistage lattice vector quantiser. Simulation results are provided to evaluate the coding performance of the described coding scheme for low bit-rate video coding. It provides constant bit rate, obviating the need for buffer, with just small fluctuations in PSNR. Moreover, comparison with the RM8 implementation of the standard H261 video coder shows that the presented codec provides improvements in both peak signal-to-noise ratio and picture quality     

H.263视频编码算法原理及DSP实现

介绍ITU-T H.263视频编码器在德州仪器（Texas Instruments)公司新一代数字信号处理芯片IMS320C6000上的实时实现技术。编程实现了H.263标准的主要内容及H.263 中提出的新的编码技术，重点讨论了H.263编码在TMS320C6711 DSP上的优化和实现。     

一种提高H.261编码性能的实现方法

研究表明采用最小均方误差或绝对误差准则的块匹配运动估值算法对H.261编码器来说不是最好的。本文提出了一种改进的块匹配运动估值算法。它所采用的准则不仅考虑了预测误差能量的大小,还考虑了运动矢量信息以及帧间预测误差的编码比特数目的多少.实验结果表明新的准则能够显著地改善H.261的编码性能。     

An efficient gray search algorithm for the estimation of motionvectors

Motion vector estimation plays an important role in motion-compensated video coding. An efficient and fast search algorithm is proposed for the estimation of motion vectors. With the help of gray prediction, the algorithm can determine the motion vectors of image blocks quickly and correctly. Since the proposed algorithm performs better than other search algorithms [e.g. the three-step search (TSS), cross-search (CS), new three-step search (NTSS), four-step search (FSS), block-based gradient descent search (BBGDS), simple-and-efficient search (SES), prediction search (PS) and gray prediction search (GPS)], it is very beneficial in applications where the video coding speed is important     

DCT-based motion estimation

We propose novel discrete cosine transform (DCT) pseudophase techniques to estimate shift/delay between two one-dimensional(1-D) signals directly from their DCT coefficients by computing the pseudophase shift hidden in DCT and then employing the sinusoidal orthogonal principles, applicable to signal delay estimation remote sensing. Under the two-dimensional (2-D) translational motion model, we further extend the pseudophase techniques to the DCT-based motion estimation (DXT-ME) algorithm for 2-D signals/images. The DXT-ME algorithm has certain advantages over the commonly used full search block-matching approach (BKM-ME) for application to video coding despite certain limitations. In addition to its robustness in a noisy environment and low computational complexity, O(M(2)) for an MxM search range in comparison to the O(N(2).M(2)) complexity of BKM-ME for an NxN block, its ability to estimate motion completely in DCT domain makes possible the fully DCT-based motion-compensated video coder structure, which has only one major component in the feedback loop instead of three as in the conventional hybrid video coder design, and thus results in a higher system throughput. Furthermore, combination of the DCT and motion estimation units can provide space for further optimization of the overall coder. In addition, the DXT-ME algorithm has solely highly parallel local operations and this property makes feasible parallel implementation suitable for very large scale integration (VLSI) design. Simulation on a number of video sequences is presented with comparison to BKM-ME and other fast block search algorithms for video coding applications even though DXT-ME is completely different from any block search algorithms.     

自适应分区DCT/DWT低码率视频编码算法

为了降低低码率视频编码算法的块效应与环效应，提出了一种基于自适应分区余弦变换／子波变换和重叠运动补偿的视频编码算法，首先给了一种空－是相关自适应运动估计算法，有效降低运算复杂性，然后通过过层游动窗块区域形成算法检测现帧间预测误差场的高能量区域，对大区域进行了子波变换和量化，对零散区域进行余弦变换和量化，根据人类视觉系统（ＨＶＳ）的空－频和时－频特性，给出基于ＨＶＳ的量化模型，以期在信噪比约束下获得     

Advanced side information creation techniques and framework for Wyner–Ziv video coding

Recently, several distributed video coding (DVC) solutions based on the distributed source coding (DSC) paradigm have appeared in the literature. Wyner–Ziv (WZ) video coding, a particular case of DVC where side information is made available at the decoder, enable to achieve a flexible distribution of the computational complexity between the encoder and decoder, promising to fulfill novel requirements from applications such as video surveillance, sensor networks and mobile camera phones. The quality of the side information at the decoder has a critical role in determining the WZ video coding rate-distortion (RD) performance, notably to raise it to a level as close as possible to the RD performance of standard predictive video coding schemes. Towards this target, efficient motion search algorithms for powerful frame interpolation are much needed at the decoder. In this paper, the RD performance of a Wyner–Ziv video codec is improved by using novel, advanced motion compensated frame interpolation techniques to generate the side information. The development of these type of side information estimators is a difficult problem in WZ video coding, especially because the decoder only has available some reference, decoded frames. Based on the regularization of the motion field, novel side information creation techniques are proposed in this paper along with a new frame interpolation framework able to generate higher quality side information at the decoder. To illustrate the RD performance improvements, this novel side information creation framework has been integrated in a transform domain turbo coding based Wyner–Ziv video codec. Experimental results show that the novel side information creation solution leads to better RD performance than available state-of-the-art side information estimators, with improvements up to 2 dB; moreover, it allows outperforming H.264/AVC Intra by up to 3 dB with a lower encoding complexity.     

Perceptual feedback in multigrid motion estimation using animproved DCT quantization

In this paper, a multigrid motion compensation video coder based on the current human visual system (HVS) contrast discrimination models is proposed. A novel procedure for the encoding of the prediction errors has been used. This procedure restricts the maximum perceptual distortion in each transform coefficient. This subjective redundancy removal procedure includes the amplitude nonlinearities and some temporal features of human perception. A perceptually weighted control of the adaptive motion estimation algorithm has also been derived from this model. Perceptual feedback in motion estimation ensures a perceptual balance between the motion estimation effort and the redundancy removal process. The results show that this feedback induces a scale-dependent refinement strategy that gives rise to more robust and meaningful motion estimation, which may facilitate higher level sequence interpretation. Perceptually meaningful distortion measures and the reconstructed frames show the subjective improvements of the proposed scheme versus an H.263 scheme with unweighted motion estimation and MPEG-like quantization.     

An efficient retinex-like brightness normalization method for coding camera flashes and strong brightness variation in videos

Conventional hybrid video coding systems rely on the assumption that the brightness is constant. This does not take inter-frame brightness variations into consideration during motion estimation and compensation processes. Under the influence of inter-frame lighting variations like camera flashes, video motion activities are not accurately estimated and the pixel prediction is poor which directly increases the bits for prediction error coding. In this paper, we propose an efficient algorithm based on the retinex-like system which allows inter-frame brightness being normalized before applying the conventional motion estimation and compensation. Experimental results show that our approach is superior to all similar approaches in the literature and demonstrate that our proposed system is very robust against the inter-frame brightness variations. Further experimental works have been done using the verification models of the MPEG-4 and the H.264 on sequences with brightness variations, results of which show that our proposed system outperforms these coding systems, including the weighted prediction feature in H.264, which were specifically designed for this purpose.