2,826 research outputs found
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Mobile Audiovisual Terminal: System Design and Subjective Testing in DECT and UMTS networks
It is anticipated that there will shortly be a requirement
for multimedia terminals that operate via mobile
communications systems. This paper presents a functional specification
for such a terminal operating at 32 kb/s in a digital
European cordless telecommunications (DECT) and universal
mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) radio network. A terminal
has been built, based on a PC with digital signal processor
(DSP) boards for audio and video coding and decoding. Speech
coding is by a phonetically driven code-excited linear prediction
(CELP) speech coder and video coding by a block-oriented hybrid
discrete cosine transform (DCT) coder. Separate channel coding
is provided for the audio and video data. The paper describes the
techniques used for audio and video coding, channel coding, and
synchronization. Methods of subjective testing in a DECT network
and in a UMTS network are also described. These consisted of
subjective tests of first impressions of the mobile audio–visual
terminal (MAVT) quality, interactive tests, and the completion
of an exit questionnaire. The test results showed that the quality
of the audio was sufficiently good for comprehension and the
video was sufficiently good for following and repeating simple
mechanical tasks. However, the quality of the MAVT was not
good enough for general use where high-quality audio and video
was needed, especially when transmission was in a noisy radio
environment
Low-complexity face-assisted video coding
[[abstract]]This paper presents a novel face-assisted video coding scheme to enhance the visual quality of the face regions in video telephony applications. A skin-color based face detection and tracking scheme is proposed to locate the face regions in real-time. After classifying the macroblocks into the face and non-face regions, we present a dynamic distortion weighting adjustment (DDWA) scheme to drop the static non-face macroblocks, and the saved bits are used to compensate the face region by adjusting the distortion weighting of the face macroblocks. The quality of face regions will thus be enhanced. Moreover, the computation originally required for the skipped macroblocks can also be saved. The experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the PSNR and the subjective quality of face regions, while the degradation introduced on the non-face areas is relatively insensitive to human perception. The proposed algorithm is fully compatible with the H.263 standard, and the low complexity feature makes it well suited to implement for real-time applications[[fileno]]2030144030041[[department]]電機工程學
Error resilient packet switched H.264 video telephony over third generation networks.
Real-time video communication over wireless networks is a challenging problem because
wireless channels suffer from fading, additive noise and interference, which translate
into packet loss and delay. Since modern video encoders deliver video packets with
decoding dependencies, packet loss and delay can significantly degrade the video quality
at the receiver. Many error resilience mechanisms have been proposed to combat packet
loss in wireless networks, but only a few were specifically designed for packet switched
video telephony over Third Generation (3G) networks.
The first part of the thesis presents an error resilience technique for packet switched
video telephony that combines application layer Forward Error Correction (FEC) with
rateless codes, Reference Picture Selection (RPS) and cross layer optimization. Rateless
codes have lower encoding and decoding computational complexity compared to traditional
error correcting codes. One can use them on complexity constrained hand-held
devices. Also, their redundancy does not need to be fixed in advance and any number of
encoded symbols can be generated on the fly. Reference picture selection is used to limit
the effect of spatio-temporal error propagation. Limiting the effect of spatio-temporal
error propagation results in better video quality. Cross layer optimization is used to
minimize the data loss at the application layer when data is lost at the data link layer.
Experimental results on a High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network simulator for
H.264 compressed standard video sequences show that the proposed technique achieves
significant Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Percentage Degraded Video Duration
(PDVD) improvements over a state of the art error resilience technique known as
Interactive Error Control (IEC), which is a combination of Error Tracking and feedback
based Reference Picture Selection. The improvement is obtained at a cost of higher
end-to-end delay.
The proposed technique is improved by making the FEC (Rateless code) redundancy
channel adaptive. Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) is used to adjust the redundancy
of the Rateless codes according to the channel conditions. Experimental results show
that the channel adaptive scheme achieves significant PSNR and PDVD improvements
over the static scheme for a simulated Long Term Evolution (LTE) network.
In the third part of the thesis, the performance of the previous two schemes is
improved by making the transmitter predict when rateless decoding will fail. In this
case, reference picture selection is invoked early and transmission of encoded symbols
for that source block is aborted. Simulations for an LTE network show that this results
in video quality improvement and bandwidth savings.
In the last part of the thesis, the performance of the adaptive technique is improved
by exploiting the history of the wireless channel. In a Rayleigh fading wireless channel,
the RLC-PDU losses are correlated under certain conditions. This correlation is
exploited to adjust the redundancy of the Rateless code and results in higher Rateless
code decoding success rate and higher video quality. Simulations for an LTE network
show that the improvement was significant when the packet loss rate in the two wireless
links was 10%.
To facilitate the implementation of the proposed error resilience techniques in practical
scenarios, RTP/UDP/IP level packetization schemes are also proposed for each
error resilience technique.
Compared to existing work, the proposed error resilience techniques provide better
video quality. Also, more emphasis is given to implementation issues in 3G networks
Content-prioritised video coding for British Sign Language communication.
Video communication of British Sign Language (BSL) is important for remote interpersonal communication and for the equal provision of services for deaf people. However, the use of video telephony and video conferencing applications for BSL communication is limited by inadequate video quality. BSL is a highly structured, linguistically complete, natural language system that expresses vocabulary and grammar visually and spatially using a complex combination of facial expressions (such as eyebrow movements, eye blinks and mouth/lip shapes), hand gestures, body movements and finger-spelling that change in space and time. Accurate natural BSL communication places specific demands on visual media applications which must compress video image data for efficient transmission. Current video compression schemes apply methods to reduce statistical redundancy and perceptual irrelevance in video image data based on a general model of Human Visual System (HVS) sensitivities. This thesis presents novel video image coding methods developed to achieve the conflicting requirements for high image quality and efficient coding. Novel methods of prioritising visually important video image content for optimised video coding are developed to exploit the HVS spatial and temporal response mechanisms of BSL users (determined by Eye Movement Tracking) and the characteristics of BSL video image content. The methods implement an accurate model of HVS foveation, applied in the spatial and temporal domains, at the pre-processing stage of a current standard-based system (H.264). Comparison of the performance of the developed and standard coding systems, using methods of video quality evaluation developed for this thesis, demonstrates improved perceived quality at low bit rates. BSL users, broadcasters and service providers benefit from the perception of high quality video over a range of available transmission bandwidths. The research community benefits from a new approach to video coding optimisation and better understanding of the communication needs of deaf people
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Robust Adaptive Intra Refresh for Multiview Video
Transmission error propagation in wireless multimedia communication systems has become a recurring
problem. This persistent problem has led to grave consequences on the visual quality of the decoded video.
It is against this backdrop that, we present an adaptive intra refresh (AIR) error-resilient coding tool to
mitigate the effect of transmission error propagation in 3D video communications. This work utilizes
periodic insertion of intra macroblocks in badly error-infected frames temporally as well as related frames
in the multi view video scheme. Our objective is to maximize the transmission efficiency while ensuring the
transmission robustness of the coded bitstream. The selection of periodic macroblocks is based on areas
with high motion above a pre-set threshold. The coding modes of the macroblocks are based on the
distortion expectation due to transmission errors. Extensive simulation results show significant
improvement in both objective and subjective video quality at different intra refresh rates
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A low bit-rate video-coding algorithm based upon variable pattern selection
Recent research into pattern representation of moving regions in blocked-based motion estimation and compensation in video sequences, has focused mainly upon using a fixed number of regular shaped patterns. These are used to match the macroblocks in a frame that have two distinct regions involving static background and moving objects. In this paper a new Variable Pattern Selection (VPS) algorithm is presented which selects a preset number of best-matched patterns from a pattern codebook of regular shaped patterns. While more patterns are used than in the previous work, the performance of the VPS algorithm in using variable length coding, by exploiting the frequency of the best-matched patterns, leads to a higher compression ratio, without degrading the overall image quality
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