Fast coding strategy for HEVC by motion features and saliency applied on difference between successive image blocks

Introducing a number of innovative and powerful coding tools, the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard promises double compression efficiency, compared to its predecessor H.264, with similar perceptual quality. The increased computational time complexity is an important issue for the video coding research community as well. An attempt to reduce this complexity of HEVC is adopted in this paper, by efficient selection of appropriate block-partitioning modes based on motion features and the saliency applied to the difference between successive image blocks. As this difference gives us the explicit visible motion and salient information, we develop a cost function by combining the motion features and image difference salient feature. The combined features are then converted into area of interest (AOI) based binary pattern for the current block. This pattern is then compared with a previously defined codebook of binary pattern templates for a subset of mode selection. Motion estimation (ME) and motion compensation (MC) are performed only on the selected subset of modes, without exhaustive exploration of all modes available in HEVC. The experimental results reveal a reduction of 42% encoding time complexity of HEVC encoder with similar subjective and objective image quality

A novel motion classification based intermode selection strategy for HEVC performance improvement

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard adopts several new approaches to achieve higher coding efficiency (approximately 50% bit-rate reduction) compared to its predecessor H.264/AVC with same perceptual image quality. Huge computational time has also increased due to the algorithmic complexity of HEVC compared to H.264/AVC. However, it is really a demanding task to reduce the encoding time while preserving the similar quality of the video sequences. In this paper, we propose a novel efficient intermode selection technique and incorporate into HEVC framework to predict motion estimation and motion compensation modes between current and reference blocks and perform faster inter mode selection based on three dissimilar motion types in divergent video sequences. Instead of exploring and traversing all the modes exhaustively, we merely select a subset of candidate modes and the final mode from the selected subset is determined based on their lowest Lagrangian cost function. The experimental results reveal that average encoding time can be downscaled by 40% with similar rate-distortion performance compared to the exhaustive mode selection strategy in HEVC

Fast mode decision in the HEVC Video coding standard by exploiting region with dominated motion and saliency features

The emerging High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard introduces a number of innovative and powerful coding tools to acquire better compression efficiency compared to its predecessor H.264. The encoding time complexities have also increased multiple times that is not suitable for realtime video coding applications. To address this limitation, this paper employs a novel coding strategy to reduce the time complexity in HEVC encoder by efficient selection of appropriate block-partitioning modes based on human visual features (HVF). The HVF in the proposed technique comprise with human visual attention modelling-based saliency feature and phase correlation-based motion features. The features are innovatively combined through a fusion process by developing a content-based adaptive weighted cost function to determine the region with dominated motion/saliency (RDMS)- based binary pattern for the current block. The generated binary pattern is then compared with a codebook of predefined binary pattern templates aligned to the HEVC recommended block-paritioning to estimate a subset of inter-prediction modes. Without exhaustive exploration of all modes available in the HEVC standard, only the selected subset of modes are motion estimated and motion compensated for a particular coding unit. The experimental evaluation reveals that the proposed technique notably down-scales the average computational time of the latest HEVC reference encoder by 34% while providing similar rate-distortion (RD) performance for a wide range of video sequences

Optimisation du codage HEVC par des moyens de pré-analyse et/ou de pré-codage du contenu

La compression vidéo HEVC standardisée en 2013 offre des gains de compression supérieurs dépassant les 50% par rapport au standard de compression précédent MPEG4-AVC/H.264. Ces gains de compression se paient par une augmentation très importante de la complexité de codage. Si on ajoute à cela l’augmentation de complexité générée par l’accroissement de résolution et de fréquence images du signal vidéo d’entrée pour passer de la Haute Définition (HD) à l’Ultra Haute Définition (UHD), on comprend vite l’intérêt de techniques de réduction de complexité pour le développement de codeurs économiquement viables. En premier lieu, un effort particulier a été réalisé pour réduirela complexité des images Intra. Nous proposons une méthode d’inférence des modes de codage à partir d’un pré-codage d’un version réduite en HD de la vidéo UHD. Ensuite, nous proposons une méthode de partitionnement rapide basée sur la pré-analyse du contenu. La première méthode offre une réduction de complexité d’un facteur 3 et la deuxième, d’un facteur 6, contre une perte de compression proche de 5%. En second lieu, nous avons traité le codage des images Inter. En mettant en oeuvre une solution d’inférence des modes de codage UHD à partir d’un pré-codage au format HD, la complexité de codage est réduite d’un facteur 3 en considérant les 2 flux produits et d’un facteur 9.2 sur le seul flux UHD, pour une perte en compression proche de 3%. Appliqué à une configuration de codage proche d’un système réellement déployé, l’apport de notre algorithme reste intéressant puisqu’il réduit la complexité de codage du flux UHD d’un facteur proche de 2 pour une perte de compression limitée à 4%. Les stratégies de réduction de complexité mises en oeuvre au cours de cette thèse pour le codage Intra et Inter offrent des perspectives intéressantes pour le développement de codeurs HEVC UHD plus économes en ressources de calculs. Elles sont particulièrement adaptées au domaine de la WebTV/OTT qui prend une part croissante dans la diffusion de la vidéo et pour lequel le signal vidéo est codé à des résolutions multiples pour adresser des réseaux et des terminaux de capacités variées.The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard was released in 2013 which reduced network bandwidth by a factor of 2 compared to the prior standard H.264/AVC. These gains are achieved by a very significant increase in the encoding complexity. Especially with the industrial demand to shift in format from High Definition (HD) to Ultra High Definition (UHD), one can understand the relevance of complexity reduction techniques to develop cost-effective encoders. In our first contribution, we attempted new strategies to reduce the encoding complexity of Intra-pictures. We proposed a method with inference rules on the coding modes from the modes obtained with pre-encoding of the UHD video down-sampled in HD. We, then, proposed a fast partitioning method based on a preanalysis of the content. The first method reduced the complexity by a factor of 3x and the second one, by a factor of 6, with a loss of compression efficiency of 5%. As a second contribution, we adressedthe Inter-pictures. By implementing inference rules in the UHD encoder, from a HD pre-encoding pass, the encoding complexity is reduced by a factor of 3x when both HD and UHD encodings are considered, and by 9.2x on just the UHD encoding, with a loss of compression efficiency of 3%. Combined with an encoding configuration imitating a real system, our approach reduces the complexity by a factor of close to 2x with 4% of loss. These strategies built during this thesis offer encouraging prospects for implementation of low complexity HEVC UHD encoders. They are fully adapted to the WebTV/OTT segment that is playing a growing part in the video delivery, in which the video signal is encoded with different resolution to reach heterogeneous devices and network capacities