45 research outputs found
Multiresolution vector quantization
Multiresolution source codes are data compression algorithms yielding embedded source descriptions. The decoder of a multiresolution code can build a source reproduction by decoding the embedded bit stream in part or in whole. All decoding procedures start at the beginning of the binary source description and decode some fraction of that string. Decoding a small portion of the binary string gives a low-resolution reproduction; decoding more yields a higher resolution reproduction; and so on. Multiresolution vector quantizers are block multiresolution source codes. This paper introduces algorithms for designing fixed- and variable-rate multiresolution vector quantizers. Experiments on synthetic data demonstrate performance close to the theoretical performance limit. Experiments on natural images demonstrate performance improvements of up to 8 dB over tree-structured vector quantizers. Some of the lessons learned through multiresolution vector quantizer design lend insight into the design of more sophisticated multiresolution codes
Multi-resolution VQ: parameter meaning and choice
In multi-resolution source coding, a single code is used to give an embedded data description that may be decoded at a variety of rates. Recent work in practical multi-resolution coding treats the optimal design of fixed- and variable-rate tree-structured vector quantizers for multi-resolution coding. In that work the codes are optimized for a designer-specified priority schedule over the system rates, distortions, or slopes. The method relies on a collection of parameters, which may be difficult to choose. This paper explores the meaning and choice of the multi-resolution source coding parameters
Algorithms for Optimal Control with Fixed-Rate Feedback
We consider a discrete-time linear quadratic Gaussian networked control setting where the (full information) observer and controller are separated by a fixed-rate noiseless channel. The minimal rate required to stabilize such a system has been well studied. However, for a given fixed rate, how to quantize the states so as to optimize performance is an open question of great theoretical and practical significance. We concentrate on minimizing the control cost for first-order scalar systems. To that end, we use the Lloyd-Max algorithm and leverage properties of logarithmically-concave functions and sequential Bayesian filtering to construct the optimal quantizer that greedily minimizes the cost at every time instant. By connecting the globally optimal scheme to the problem of scalar successive refinement, we argue that its gain over the proposed greedy algorithm is negligible. This is significant since the globally optimal scheme is often computationally intractable. All the results are proven for the more general case of disturbances with logarithmically-concave distributions and rate-limited time-varying noiseless channels. We further extend the framework to event-triggered control by allowing to convey information via an additional "silent symbol", i.e., by avoiding transmitting bits; by constraining the minimal probability of silence we attain a tradeoff between the transmission rate and the control cost for rates below one bit per sample
Quantization as Histogram Segmentation: Optimal Scalar Quantizer Design in Network Systems
An algorithm for scalar quantizer design on discrete-alphabet sources is proposed. The proposed algorithm can be used to design fixed-rate and entropy-constrained conventional scalar quantizers, multiresolution scalar quantizers, multiple description scalar quantizers, and Wyner–Ziv scalar quantizers. The algorithm guarantees globally optimal solutions for conventional fixed-rate scalar quantizers and entropy-constrained scalar quantizers. For the other coding scenarios, the algorithm yields the best code among all codes that meet a given convexity constraint. In all cases, the algorithm run-time is polynomial in the size of the source alphabet. The algorithm derivation arises from a demonstration of the connection between scalar quantization, histogram segmentation, and the shortest path problem in a certain directed acyclic graph
Asymptotically Scale-invariant Multi-resolution Quantization
A multi-resolution quantizer is a sequence of quantizers where the output of
a coarser quantizer can be deduced from the output of a finer quantizer. In
this paper, we propose an asymptotically scale-invariant multi-resolution
quantizer, which performs uniformly across any choice of average quantization
step, when the length of the range of input numbers is large. Scale invariance
is especially useful in worst case or adversarial settings, ensuring that the
performance of the quantizer would not be affected greatly by small changes of
storage or error requirements. We also show that the proposed quantizer
achieves a tradeoff between rate and error that is arbitrarily close to the
optimum.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. This paper is the extended version of a paper
submitted to the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory 202
Optimal multiple description and multiresolution scalar quantizer design
The author presents new algorithms for fixed-rate multiple description and multiresolution scalar quantizer design. The algorithms both run in time polynomial in the size of the source alphabet and guarantee globally optimal solutions. To the author's knowledge, these are the first globally optimal design algorithms for multiple description and multiresolution quantizers
Incremental Refinements and Multiple Descriptions with Feedback
It is well known that independent (separate) encoding of K correlated sources
may incur some rate loss compared to joint encoding, even if the decoding is
done jointly. This loss is particularly evident in the multiple descriptions
problem, where the sources are repetitions of the same source, but each
description must be individually good. We observe that under mild conditions
about the source and distortion measure, the rate ratio Rindependent(K)/Rjoint
goes to one in the limit of small rate/high distortion. Moreover, we consider
the excess rate with respect to the rate-distortion function, Rindependent(K,
M) - R(D), in M rounds of K independent encodings with a final distortion level
D. We provide two examples - a Gaussian source with mean-squared error and an
exponential source with one-sided error - for which the excess rate vanishes in
the limit as the number of rounds M goes to infinity, for any fixed D and K.
This result has an interesting interpretation for a multi-round variant of the
multiple descriptions problem, where after each round the encoder gets a
(block) feedback regarding which of the descriptions arrived: In the limit as
the number of rounds M goes to infinity (i.e., many incremental rounds), the
total rate of received descriptions approaches the rate-distortion function. We
provide theoretical and experimental evidence showing that this phenomenon is
in fact more general than in the two examples above.Comment: 62 pages. Accepted in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theor