A new predictive search area approach for fast block motion estimation

According to the observation on the distribution of motion differentials among the motion vector of any block and those of its four neighboring blocks from six real video sequences, this paper presents a new predictive search area approach for fast block motion estimation. Employing our proposed simple predictive search area approach into the full search (FS) algorithm, our improved FS algorithm leads to 93.83% average execution-time improvement ratio, but only has a small estimation accuracy degradation. We also investigate the advantages of computation and estimation accuracy of our improved FS algorithm when compared to the edge-based search algorithm of Chan and Siu (see IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol.10, p.1223-1238, Aug. 2001); experimental results reveal that our improved FS algorithm has 74.33% average execution-time improvement ratio and has a higher estimation accuracy. Finally, we further compare the performance among our improved FS algorithm, the three-step search algorithm, and the block-based gradient descent search algorithm.     

A gradient-based adaptive error diffusion method with edge enhancement

This paper presents a gradient-based adaptive error diffusion method with edge enhancement effect while preserving the smoothness effect. The proposed method not only can modulate the threshold in halftoning dynamically but also can determine the weights of the error diffusion filter adaptively to diffuse the quantization error to neighboring pixels properly. Under six testing images, experimental results demonstrate that our proposed new error diffusion method has a good compromise between the edge enhancement effect in the halftone image and the image quality effect in the corresponding inverse halftone image when compared to the methods by Floyd–Steinberg, Eschbach and Knox, Hwang et al., Li, and Feng et al., but it has some execution-time degradation.     

A novel two-phase Hilbert-scan-based search algorithm for block motion estimation using CTF data structure

Motion estimation is one of the kernel issues in MPEG series. In this correspondence, a novel two-phase Hilbert-scan-based search algorithm for block motion estimation is presented. First in the intra-phase, a segmentation of the Hilbert curve is applied to the current block, then a novel coarse-to-fine data structure is developed to eliminate the impossible reference blocks in the search window of the reference frame. In the inter-phase, a new prediction scheme for estimating the initial motion vector of the current block is presented. Experimental results reveal that when compared to the GAPD algorithm, our proposed algorithm has better execution time and estimation accuracy performance. Under the same estimation accuracy, our proposed algorithm has better execution time performance when compared to the FS algorithm. In addition, when comparing with the TSS algorithm, our proposed algorithm has better estimation accuracy performance, but has worse execution time performance.     

An empirical study of the effectiveness of multimedia disclosure of informed consent: A technology mediated learning perspective

Informed consent is a term used to describe communications between physicians and their patients; it gives rise to important ethical and legal implications. We explored how multimedia-mediated disclosure of informed consent prior to surgery influenced the learning process and learning outcomes of patients.A total of 107 samples were obtained from patients with degenerative knee arthritis. Our research indicated that multimedia-mediated disclosure outperformed other more traditional method in that it enhanced learning, interest, remembering, comprehension, and satisfaction. Also learning motivation and interest were positively and strongly correlated with perceived comprehension and satisfaction. Furthermore, learning interest was more influential in improving the process than was learning motivation.     

Inverse halftoning algorithm using edge-based lookup table approach

The inverse halftoning algorithm is used to reconstruct a gray image from an input halftone image. Based on the recently published lookup table (LUT) technique, this paper presents a novel edge-based LUT method for inverse halftoning which improves the quality of the reconstructed gray image. The proposed method first uses the LUT-based inverse halftoning method as a preprocessing step to transform the given halftone image to a base gray image, and then the edges are extracted and classified from the base gray image. According to these classified edges, a novel edge-based LUT is built up to reconstruct the gray image. Based on a set of 30 real training images with both low- and high-frequency contents, experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method achieves a better image quality when compared to the currently published two methods, by Chang et al. and Mes$80e and Vaidyanathan.     

Efficient region segmentation on compressed gray images using quadtree and shading representation

Image segmentation, which partitions the image into homogeneous regions, is a fundamental operation in image processing. Suppose the input gray image with size N×N has been compressed into the compressed image via quadtree and shading representation. Assume that the number of blocks in the representation is B, commonly B<N² due to the compression effect. This paper first derives some closed forms for computing the mean/variance of any block and for calculating the two statistical measures of any merged region in O(1) time. It then presents an efficient O(Bα(B))-time algorithm for performing region segmentation on the compressed image directly where α(B) is the inverse of the Ackerman's function and is a very slowly growing function. With the same time complexity, our results extend the pioneering results by Dillencourt and Samet from the map image to the gray image. In addition, with four real images, experimental results show that our proposed algorithm has about 55.4% execution time improvement ratio when compared to the previous fastest region-segmentation algorithm by Fiorio and Gustedt whose O(N²)-time algorithm is run on the original N×N gray image.     

Coupling efficiency of surface-emitting LED's to single-mode fibers

Using coherent-mode representation, the light emission of a surface-emitting LED (SELED) with a Lambertian far-field and a uniform near-field intensity is expressed by coherent modes. The coupling efficiency of the SELED to a single-mode fiber is calculated as the weighted sum of the coupling efficiencies of the coherent modes to the fiber mode. The absolute maximum achievable efficiency is found to be the inverse of the number of the coherent modes, and is equal to (lambda^{2}/pi A), whereAis the LED emission area and λ is the emission wavelength. This efficiency can be obtained by butt coupling if the LED areaAis about equal to or larger than the fiber mode size. The theoretical prediction agrees well with published experimental data.     

An effective bilinear interpolation-based iterative chroma subsampling method for color images

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Prior to encoding a color image, such as the RGB full-color image IRGB, the Bayer color filter array (CFA) image IBayer, or the digital time delay integration...     

Linear-time prediction mode reduction method for intracoding in H.264/AVC

We present a linear-time elimination method to adaptively reduce the nine intraprediction modes in H.264/AVC to two, three, five, or nine modes while preserving a satisfactory reconstructed video quality. Resemblance between prediction modes and appearing frequency for each prediction mode are first determined in an off-line way from the training video sequences. Prediction modes are modeled as vertices and resemblance between two prediction modes as the weight of the connecting edge in a complete graph. Then, find the Hamilton cycle with the minimum sum of weights. When encoding each intrablock, prediction modes corresponding to the adjacent vertices along the Hamilton cycle are examined for similarity. The prediction mode which appears less frequently in a pair of similar prediction modes is declared as redundant and eliminated. When compared with Laroche et al.’s method which aims to reduce the bitrate, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed elimination method can substantially reduce the execution time while preserving the peak signal-to-noise ratio and bitrate performance.