New flexible motion estimation technique for scalable MPEG encoding using display frame order and multi-temporal references

The applicability of MPEG video coding can be improved by scaling both the algorithmic complexity and resource usage appropriately for the intended device and application. For this purpose, we present a new technique for motion estimation, based on a scalable three-stage process including frame processing in display order, approximation of motion vector fields using multiple references and optional quality refinements. Experiments show that the computational effort is scalable with a factor of 14, resulting in a global variation of 7 dB SNR in picture quality. At full processing, our technique slightly outperforms a 32×32 full search motion estimation. The technique forms a valuable contribution to mobile MPEG coding applications, following the scalability concepts introduced by Mietens, de With and Hentschel (see IEEE Int. Conf. on Image Proc. (ICIP 2001), vol.3, p.462-465, Oct. 2001)

Malaria and anemia prevention in pregnant women of rural Burkina Faso

BACKGROUND: Pregnant women are a major risk group for malaria in endemic areas. Only little information exists on the compliance of pregnant women with malaria and anaemia preventive drug regimens in the rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In this study, we collected information on malaria and anaemia prevention behaviour in pregnant women of rural Burkina Faso. METHODS: Cross-sectional qualitative and quantitative survey among 225 women of eight villages in rural northwestern Burkina Faso. Four of the villages had a health centre offering antenatal care (ANC) services while the other four were more than five kilometers away from a health centre. RESULTS: Overall ANC coverage (at least one visit) was 71% (95% in health centre villages vs 50% in remote villages). Malaria and anaemia were considered as the biggest problems during pregnancy in this community. ANC using women were quite satisfied with the quality of services, and compliance with malaria and anaemia prevention regimens (chloroquine and iron/folic acid) was high in this population. Knowledge on the benefit of bed nets and good nutrition was less prominent. Distance, lack of money and ignorance were the main reasons for women to not attend ANC services. CONCLUSIONS: There is an urgent need to improve access of rural SSA women to ANC services, either through increasing the number of rural health centres or establishing functioning outreach services. Moreover, alternative malaria and anaemia prevention programmes such as intermittent preventive treatment with effective antimalarials and the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets need to become implemented on a large scale

Resource-aware complexity scalability for mobile MPEG encoding

Complexity scalability attempts to scale the required resources of an algorithm with the chose quality settings, in order to broaden the application range. In this paper, we present complexity-scalable MPEG encoding of which the core processing modules are modified for scalability. Scalability is basically achieved for the computational complexity by varying the number of computed DCT coefficients and the number of evaluated motion vectors, while other modules are designed such that they scale with the previous parameters. Resource usage such as power-consuming memory accesses scale accordingly. The interdependencies of the scalable modules and the system performance are evaluated. Experimental results show scalability giving a smooth change in complexity and coresponding video quality. The elapsed execution time of the scalable encoder, reflecting the computational complexity, can be gradually reduced to roughly 50% of its execution time when operating at high quality. The video quality scaled betwee 21.5 dB and 38.5 dB PSNR for different sequences targeting 1500 kbps. The implemented encoder and the scalability techniques can be successfully applied in mobile systems based on MPEG video compression, and also has advantages in multi-tasking environments like high-end TV sets. The obtained scalability techniques can be applied to other coding standards like MPEG-4 and H.264 as well

New DCT Computation Technique based on Scalable Resources

The applicability of MPEG video coding can be improved by scaling both the algorithmic complexity and resource usage, considering the desired application and device that is going to be used. This paper presents a new DCT computation technique of which both the quality and amount of computations is optimised for a limited number of operations. For halved computing resources, about 2-4 SNR dB improvement was obtained when compared to a diagonally oriented computation of coefficients, matching with the conventional MPEG scanning

Flexible frame-reordering and multi-temporal motion estimation for scalable MPEG encoding in mobile consumer equipment

We present a new scalable three-stage motion estimation technique that allows scaling of the computational effort and memory bandwidth usage by a factor of 14. At full processing, our technique slightly outperforms a 128 × 128 full search motion estimation