Low complexity shape-adaptive DCT for coding of arbitrarily shaped image segments

A low complexity shape-adaptive DCT transform algorithm for coding pels in arbitrarily shaped image segments is presented. The proposed algorithm is compared to the well established generalized shape-adaptive transform method introduced by Gilge et al. in terms of transform efficiency and computational complexity. Results obtained under both theoretical and experimental conditions show that the new algorithm achieves a transform efficiency close to that of the Gilge method with considerably reduced computational complexity. The proposed shape-adaptive DCT algorithm was implemented into a standard MPEG-1 coder to provide object or segment based coding of images and video with additional content-based functionality. The extended MPEG-1 object based coding scheme can handle generic input sequences and can readily provide MPEG-1 backward compatibility if no contour data is transmitted for a given video sequence. Results for INTRA coding of images indicate that the algorithm allows efficient coding over a wide range of coding parameters — thus providing means for generic coding of segmented video between very high and very low bit rates. It is further shown that some of the content-based based functionalities currently discussed in MPEG-4 can be provided efficiently using the proposed object based coding scheme.