Overview of 3D Video: Coding Algorithms, Implementations and Standardization

Projecte final de carrera fet en col.laboració amb Linköping Institute of TechnologyEnglish: 3D technologies have aroused a great interest over the world in the last years. Television, cinema and videogames are introducing, little by little, 3D technologies into the mass market. This comes as a result of the research done in the 3D field, solving many of its limitations such as quality, contents creation or 3D displays. This thesis focus on 3D video, considering concepts that concerns the coding issues and the video formats. The aim is to provide an overview of the current state of 3D video, including the standardization and some interesting implementations and alternatives that exist. In the report necessary background information is presented in order to understand the concepts developed: compression techniques, the different video formats, their standardization and some advances or alternatives to the processes previously explained. Finally, a comparison between the different concepts is presented to complete the overview, ending with some conclusions and proposed ideas for future works.Castellano: Las tecnologías 3D han despertado un gran interés en todo el mundo en los últimos años. Televisión, cine y videojuegos están introduciendo, poco a poco, ésta tecnología en el mercado. Esto es resultado de la investigación realizada en el campo de las 3D, solucionando muchas de sus limitaciones, como la calidad, la creación de contenidos o las pantallas 3D. Este proyecto se centra en el video 3D, considerando los conceptos relacionados con la codificación y los formatos de vídeo. El objetivo es proporcionar una visión del estado actual del vídeo 3D, incluyendo los estándares y algunas de las implementaciones más interesantes que existen. En la memoria, se presenta información adicional para facilitar el seguimiento de los conceptos desarrollados: técnicas de compresión, formatos de vídeo, su estandarización y algunos avances o alternativas a los procesos explicados. Finalmente, se presentan diferentes comparaciones entre los conceptos tratados, acabando el documento con las conclusiones obtenidas e ideas propuestas para futuros trabajos.Català: Les tecnologies 3D han despertat un gran interès a tot el món en els últims anys. Televisió, cinema i videojocs estan introduint, lentament, aquesta tecnologia en el mercat. Això és resultat de la investigació portada a terme en el camp de les 3D, solucionant moltes de les seves limitacions, com la qualitat, la creació de continguts o les pantalles 3D. Aquest proyecte es centra en el video 3D, considerant els conceptes relacionats amb la codificació i els formats de video. L'objectiu és proporcionar una visió de l'estat actual del video 3D, incloent-hi els estandàrds i algunes de les implementacions més interessants que existeixen. A la memòria, es presenta informació adicional per facilitar el seguiment dels conceptes desenvolupats: tècniques de compressió, formats de video, la seva estandardització i alguns avenços o alternatives als procesos explicats. Finalment, es presenten diferents comparacions entre els conceptes tractats i les conclusions obtingudes, juntament amb propostes per a futurs treballs

A Novel Multi-Symbol Curve Fit based CABAC Framework for Hybrid Video Codec's with Improved Coding Efficiency and Throughput

Video compression is an essential component of present-day applications and a decisive factor between the success or failure of a business model. There is an ever increasing demand to transmit larger number of superior-quality video channels into the available transmission bandwidth. Consumers are increasingly discerning about the quality and performance of video-based products and there is therefore a strong incentive for continuous improvement in video coding technology for companies to have market edge over its competitors. Even though processor speeds and network bandwidths continue to increase, a better video compression results in a more competitive product. This drive to improve video compression technology has led to a revolution in the last decade. In this thesis we addresses some of these data compression problems in a practical multimedia system that employ Hybrid video coding schemes. Typically Real life video signals show non-stationary statistical behavior. The statistics of these signals largely depend on the video content and the acquisition process. Hybrid video coding schemes like H264/AVC exploits some of the non-stationary characteristics but certainly not all of it. Moreover, higher order statistical dependencies on a syntax element level are mostly neglected in existing video coding schemes. Designing a video coding scheme for a video coder by taking into consideration these typically observed statistical properties, however, offers room for significant improvements in coding efficiency.In this thesis work a new frequency domain curve-fitting compression framework is proposed as an extension to H264 Context Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coder (CABAC) that achieves better compression efficiency at reduced complexity. The proposed Curve-Fitting extension to H264 CABAC, henceforth called as CF-CABAC, is modularly designed to conveniently fit into existing block based H264 Hybrid video Entropy coding algorithms. Traditionally there have been many proposals in the literature to fuse surfaces/curve fitting with Block-based, Region based, Training-based (VQ, fractals) compression algorithms primarily to exploiting pixel- domain redundancies. Though the compression efficiency of these are expectantly better than DCT transform based compression, but their main drawback is the high computational demand which make the former techniques non-competitive for real-time applications over the latter. The curve fitting techniques proposed so far have been on the pixel domain. The video characteristic on the pixel domain are highly non-stationary making curve fitting techniques not very efficient in terms of video quality, compression ratio and complexity. In this thesis, we explore using curve fitting techniques to Quantized frequency domain coefficients. we fuse this powerful technique to H264 CABAC Entropy coding. Based on some predictable characteristics of Quantized DCT coefficients, a computationally in-expensive curve fitting technique is explored that fits into the existing H264 CABAC framework. Also Due to the lossy nature of video compression and the strong demand for bandwidth and computation resources in a multimedia system, one of the key design issues for video coding is to optimize trade-off among quality (distortion) vs compression (rate) vs complexity. This thesis also briefly studies the existing rate distortion (RD) optimization approaches proposed to video coding for exploring the best RD performance of a video codec. Further, we propose a graph based algorithm for Rate-distortion. optimization of quantized coefficient indices for the proposed CF-CABAC entropy coding

High efficiency block coding techniques for image data.

by Lo Kwok-tung.Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992.Includes bibliographical references.ABSTRACT --- p.iACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iiiLIST OF PRINCIPLE SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS --- p.ivLIST OF FIGURES --- p.viiLIST OF TABLES --- p.ixTABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.xChapter CHAPTER 1 --- IntroductionChapter 1.1 --- Background - The Need for Image Compression --- p.1-1Chapter 1.2 --- Image Compression - An Overview --- p.1-2Chapter 1.2.1 --- Predictive Coding - DPCM --- p.1-3Chapter 1.2.2 --- Sub-band Coding --- p.1-5Chapter 1.2.3 --- Transform Coding --- p.1-6Chapter 1.2.4 --- Vector Quantization --- p.1-8Chapter 1.2.5 --- Block Truncation Coding --- p.1-10Chapter 1.3 --- Block Based Image Coding Techniques --- p.1-11Chapter 1.4 --- Goal of the Work --- p.1-13Chapter 1.5 --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.1-14Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- Block-Based Image Coding TechniquesChapter 2.1 --- Statistical Model of Image --- p.2-1Chapter 2.1.1 --- One-Dimensional Model --- p.2-1Chapter 2.1.2 --- Two-Dimensional Model --- p.2-2Chapter 2.2 --- Image Fidelity Criteria --- p.2-3Chapter 2.2.1 --- Objective Fidelity --- p.2-3Chapter 2.2.2 --- Subjective Fidelity --- p.2-5Chapter 2.3 --- Transform Coding Theroy --- p.2-6Chapter 2.3.1 --- Transformation --- p.2-6Chapter 2.3.2 --- Quantization --- p.2-10Chapter 2.3.3 --- Coding --- p.2-12Chapter 2.3.4 --- JPEG International Standard --- p.2-14Chapter 2.4 --- Vector Quantization Theory --- p.2-18Chapter 2.4.1 --- Codebook Design and the LBG Clustering Algorithm --- p.2-20Chapter 2.5 --- Block Truncation Coding Theory --- p.2-22Chapter 2.5.1 --- Optimal MSE Block Truncation Coding --- p.2-24Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- Development of New Orthogonal TransformsChapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.3-1Chapter 3.2 --- Weighted Cosine Transform --- p.3-4Chapter 3.2.1 --- Development of the WCT --- p.3-6Chapter 3.2.2 --- Determination of a and β --- p.3-9Chapter 3.3 --- Simplified Cosine Transform --- p.3-10Chapter 3.3.1 --- Development of the SCT --- p.3-11Chapter 3.4 --- Fast Computational Algorithms --- p.3-14Chapter 3.4.1 --- Weighted Cosine Transform --- p.3-14Chapter 3.4.2 --- Simplified Cosine Transform --- p.3-18Chapter 3.4.3 --- Computational Requirement --- p.3-19Chapter 3.5 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.3-21Chapter 3.5.1 --- Evaluation using Statistical Model --- p.3-21Chapter 3.5.2 --- Evaluation using Real Images --- p.3-28Chapter 3.6 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.3-31Chapter 3.7 --- Note on Publications --- p.3-32Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- Pruning in Transform Coding of ImagesChapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.4-1Chapter 4.2 --- "Direct Fast Algorithms for DCT, WCT and SCT" --- p.4-3Chapter 4.2.1 --- Discrete Cosine Transform --- p.4-3Chapter 4.2.2 --- Weighted Cosine Transform --- p.4-7Chapter 4.2.3 --- Simplified Cosine Transform --- p.4-9Chapter 4.3 --- Pruning in Direct Fast Algorithms --- p.4-10Chapter 4.3.1 --- Discrete Cosine Transform --- p.4-10Chapter 4.3.2 --- Weighted Cosine Transform --- p.4-13Chapter 4.3.3 --- Simplified Cosine Transform --- p.4-15Chapter 4.4 --- Operations Saved by Using Pruning --- p.4-17Chapter 4.4.1 --- Discrete Cosine Transform --- p.4-17Chapter 4.4.2 --- Weighted Cosine Transform --- p.4-21Chapter 4.4.3 --- Simplified Cosine Transform --- p.4-23Chapter 4.4.4 --- Generalization Pruning Algorithm for DCT --- p.4-25Chapter 4.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.4-26Chapter 4.6 --- Note on Publications --- p.4-27Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- Efficient Encoding of DC Coefficient in Transform Coding SystemsChapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.5-1Chapter 5.2 --- Minimum Edge Difference (MED) Predictor --- p.5-3Chapter 5.3 --- Performance Evaluation --- p.5-6Chapter 5.4 --- Simulation Results --- p.5-9Chapter 5.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.5-14Chapter 5.6 --- Note on Publications --- p.5-14Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- Efficient Encoding Algorithms for Vector Quantization of ImagesChapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.6-1Chapter 6.2 --- Sub-Codebook Searching Algorithm (SCS) --- p.6-4Chapter 6.2.1 --- Formation of the Sub-codebook --- p.6-6Chapter 6.2.2 --- Premature Exit Conditions in the Searching Process --- p.6-8Chapter 6.2.3 --- Sub-Codebook Searching Algorithm --- p.6-11Chapter 6.3 --- Predictive Sub-Codebook Searching Algorithm (PSCS) --- p.6-13Chapter 6.4 --- Simulation Results --- p.6-17Chapter 6.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.5-20Chapter 6.6 --- Note on Publications --- p.6-21Chapter CHAPTER 7 --- Predictive Classified Address Vector Quantization of ImagesChapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.7-1Chapter 7.2 --- Optimal Three-Level Block Truncation Coding --- p.7-3Chapter 7.3 --- Predictive Classified Address Vector Quantization --- p.7-5Chapter 7.3.1 --- Classification of Images using Three-level BTC --- p.7-6Chapter 7.3.2 --- Predictive Mean Removal Technique --- p.7-8Chapter 7.3.3 --- Simplified Address VQ Technique --- p.7-9Chapter 7.3.4 --- Encoding Process of PCAVQ --- p.7-13Chapter 7.4 --- Simulation Results --- p.7-14Chapter 7.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.7-18Chapter 7.6 --- Note on Publications --- p.7-18Chapter CHAPTER 8 --- Recapitulation and Topics for Future InvestigationChapter 8.1 --- Recapitulation --- p.8-1Chapter 8.2 --- Topics for Future Investigation --- p.8-3REFERENCES --- p.R-1APPENDICESChapter A. --- Statistics of Monochrome Test Images --- p.A-lChapter B. --- Statistics of Color Test Images --- p.A-2Chapter C. --- Fortran Program Listing for the Pruned Fast DCT Algorithm --- p.A-3Chapter D. --- Training Set Images for Building the Codebook of Standard VQ Scheme --- p.A-5Chapter E. --- List of Publications --- p.A-

In search of "better-than-DCT" unitary transforms for encoding of residual signals

It is well known that the discrete cosine transform (DCT) closely approximates the optimal KarhunenLove transform (KLT) under the first-order stationary Markov condition with a strong inter-pixel correlation. However, if the inter-pixel correlation is weak or becomes negative, transforms other than the DCT would possibly become better. In this letter, we present a design framework for finding new unitary transforms according to two principles: 1) they are indeed more efficient than the DCT in encoding of signals with a weak or negative inter-pixel correlation (e.g., the residual signals after motion-compensation or intra- prediction) and 2) each has a fixed transform matrix (i.e., signal-independent) and can be implemented as efficiently as the DCT. Some of the new transforms will be used to demonstrate an improved RD performance in the video coding scenario. © 2010 IEEE