3,379 research outputs found
Perceptually-Driven Video Coding with the Daala Video Codec
The Daala project is a royalty-free video codec that attempts to compete with
the best patent-encumbered codecs. Part of our strategy is to replace core
tools of traditional video codecs with alternative approaches, many of them
designed to take perceptual aspects into account, rather than optimizing for
simple metrics like PSNR. This paper documents some of our experiences with
these tools, which ones worked and which did not. We evaluate which tools are
easy to integrate into a more traditional codec design, and show results in the
context of the codec being developed by the Alliance for Open Media.Comment: 19 pages, Proceedings of SPIE Workshop on Applications of Digital
Image Processing (ADIP), 201
Reducing the complexity of a multiview H.264/AVC and HEVC hybrid architecture
With the advent of 3D displays, an efficient encoder is required to compress the video information needed by them. Moreover, for gradual market acceptance of this new technology, it is advisable to offer backward compatibility with existing devices. Thus, a multiview H.264/Advance Video Coding (AVC) and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) hybrid architecture was proposed in the standardization process of HEVC. However, it requires long encoding times due to the use of HEVC. With the aim of tackling this problem, this paper presents an algorithm that reduces the complexity of this hybrid architecture by reducing the encoding complexity of the HEVC views. By using Na < ve-Bayes classifiers, the proposed technique exploits the information gathered in the encoding of the H.264/AVC view to make decisions on the splitting of coding units in HEVC side views. Given the novelty of the proposal, the only similar work found in the literature is an unoptimized version of the algorithm presented here. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve a good tradeoff between coding efficiency and complexity
Graph Spectral Image Processing
Recent advent of graph signal processing (GSP) has spurred intensive studies
of signals that live naturally on irregular data kernels described by graphs
(e.g., social networks, wireless sensor networks). Though a digital image
contains pixels that reside on a regularly sampled 2D grid, if one can design
an appropriate underlying graph connecting pixels with weights that reflect the
image structure, then one can interpret the image (or image patch) as a signal
on a graph, and apply GSP tools for processing and analysis of the signal in
graph spectral domain. In this article, we overview recent graph spectral
techniques in GSP specifically for image / video processing. The topics covered
include image compression, image restoration, image filtering and image
segmentation
Efficient HEVC-based video adaptation using transcoding
In a video transmission system, it is important to take into account the great diversity of the network/end-user constraints. On the one hand, video content is typically streamed over a network that is characterized by different bandwidth capacities. In many cases, the bandwidth is insufficient to transfer the video at its original quality. On the other hand, a single video is often played by multiple devices like PCs, laptops, and cell phones. Obviously, a single video would not satisfy their different constraints.
These diversities of the network and devices capacity lead to the need for video adaptation techniques, e.g., a reduction of the bit rate or spatial resolution. Video transcoding, which modifies a property of the video without the change of the coding format, has been well-known as an efficient adaptation solution. However, this approach comes along with a high computational complexity, resulting in huge energy consumption in the network and possibly network latency.
This presentation provides several optimization strategies for the transcoding process of HEVC (the latest High Efficiency Video Coding standard) video streams. First, the computational complexity of a bit rate transcoder (transrater) is reduced. We proposed several techniques to speed-up the encoder of a transrater, notably a machine-learning-based approach and a novel coding-mode evaluation strategy have been proposed. Moreover, the motion estimation process of the encoder has been optimized with the use of decision theory and the proposed fast search patterns. Second, the issues and challenges of a spatial transcoder have been solved by using machine-learning algorithms. Thanks to their great performance, the proposed techniques are expected to significantly help HEVC gain popularity in a wide range of modern multimedia applications
REGION-BASED ADAPTIVE DISTRIBUTED VIDEO CODING CODEC
The recently developed Distributed Video Coding (DVC) is typically suitable for the
applications where the conventional video coding is not feasible because of its
inherent high-complexity encoding. Examples include video surveillance usmg
wireless/wired video sensor network and applications using mobile cameras etc. With
DVC, the complexity is shifted from the encoder to the decoder.
The practical application of DVC is referred to as Wyner-Ziv video coding (WZ)
where an estimate of the original frame called "side information" is generated using
motion compensation at the decoder. The compression is achieved by sending only
that extra information that is needed to correct this estimation. An error-correcting
code is used with the assumption that the estimate is a noisy version of the original
frame and the rate needed is certain amount of the parity bits. The side information is
assumed to have become available at the decoder through a virtual channel. Due to
the limitation of compensation method, the predicted frame, or the side information, is
expected to have varying degrees of success. These limitations stem from locationspecific
non-stationary estimation noise. In order to avoid these, the conventional
video coders, like MPEG, make use of frame partitioning to allocate optimum coder
for each partition and hence achieve better rate-distortion performance. The same,
however, has not been used in DVC as it increases the encoder complexity.
This work proposes partitioning the considered frame into many coding units
(region) where each unit is encoded differently. This partitioning is, however, done at
the decoder while generating the side-information and the region map is sent over to
encoder at very little rate penalty. The partitioning allows allocation of appropriate
DVC coding parameters (virtual channel, rate, and quantizer) to each region. The
resulting regions map is compressed by employing quadtree algorithm and
communicated to the encoder via the feedback channel. The rate control in DVC is
performed by channel coding techniques (turbo codes, LDPC, etc.). The performance
of the channel code depends heavily on the accuracy of virtual channel model that models estimation error for each region. In this work, a turbo code has been used and
an adaptive WZ DVC is designed both in transform domain and in pixel domain. The
transform domain WZ video coding (TDWZ) has distinct superior performance as
compared to the normal Pixel Domain Wyner-Ziv (PDWZ), since it exploits the
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spatial redundancy during the encoding. The performance evaluations show that the
proposed system is superior to the existing distributed video coding solutions.
Although the, proposed system requires extra bits representing the "regions map" to be
transmitted, fuut still the rate gain is noticeable and it outperforms the state-of-the-art
frame based DVC by 0.6-1.9 dB.
The feedback channel (FC) has the role to adapt the bit rate to the changing
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statistics between the side infonmation and the frame to be encoded. In the
unidirectional scenario, the encoder must perform the rate control. To correctly
estimate the rate, the encoder must calculate typical side information. However, the
rate cannot be exactly calculated at the encoder, instead it can only be estimated. This
work also prbposes a feedback-free region-based adaptive DVC solution in pixel
domain based on machine learning approach to estimate the side information.
Although the performance evaluations show rate-penalty but it is acceptable
considering the simplicity of the proposed algorithm.
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