Advances in Image Communication – serie

Image communication technologies have advanced rapidly in recent years and the book series, Advances in Image Communication is dedicated to documenting these developments. Third in the series, this publication contributes as effectively as its forerunners to the multidisciplinary overview afforded by the series as a whole. At the same time, it stands alone as a comprehensive synopsis of its own particular area of interest.

The book specifically explores two complementary topics, namely:

the coding algorithms made to compress the data rate of digital moving-picture sequences (video-telephony, television [TV] and high-definition television [HDTV]) and

the transmission on Asynchronous Transfer Mode [ATM] networks (packet-switching transmission media). It provides an in-depth view of the current state-of-the-art and endeavors to stimulate increasing research efforts for the future.

In recent years, the paradigm of video coding has shifted from that of a frame-based approach to a content-based approach, particularly with the finalization of the ISO multimedia coding standard, MPEG-4. MPEG-4 is the emerging standard for the coding of multimedia content. It defines a syntax for a set of content-based functionalities, namely, content-based interactivity, compression and universal access. However, it does not specify how the video content is to be generated. To generate the video content, video has to be segmented into video objects and tracked as they transverse across the video frames. This book addresses the difficult problem of video segmentation, and the extraction and tracking of video object planes as defined in MPEG-4. It then focuses on the specific issue of face segmentation and coding as applied to videoconferencing in order to improve the quality of videoconferencing images especially in the facial region. Modal-based coding is a content-based coding technique used to code synthetic objects that have become an important part of video content. It results in extremely low bit rates because only the parameters needed to represent the modal are transmitted. Model-based coding is included to provide background information for the synthetic object coding in MPEG-4. Lastly, MPEG-4, the first coding standard for multimedia content is described in detail. The topics covered include the coding of audio objects, the coding of natural and synthetic video objects, and error resilience. Advanced Video Coding is one of the first books on content-based coding and MPEG-4 coding standard. It serves as an excellent information source and reference for both researchers and practicing engineers.

The rapid advancements in image communication technologies are documented in the book series, Advances in Image Communication. Each publication provides an in-depth exploration of an intrinsic element of the multi-disciplinary field and together they form a comprehensive overview of the whole.

This volume, the fifth in the series, examines the definition, study and use of the wavelet transform in communications for two-dimensional (2-D) digital signals. The transform is used for signal reorganization before compression and the trade-off between these two steps and the whole compression process is discussed.

The five chapters specifically present the theory of wavelets applied to images, then applications of compression of still images and sequences. Chapter 1 introduces biorthogonal bases of compactly supported wavelets: this generalization of orthonormal wavelet theory allows the use of linear phase filters. A non rectangular wavelet representation of 2-D signals is developed in the second chapter: the properties usually used with wavelets, phase, linearity, and regularity are discussed. Chapter 3 is composed of three parts: a description of commonly used biorthogonal wavelets; a presentation of vector quantization algorithms; a consideration of lattice vector quantization followed by a discussion of the bit allocation procedure (with experimental results given). The fourth chapter deals with a region-based discrete wavelet transform for image coding. Chapter 5 investigates the transmission of image sequences: wavelet transforms and motion estimation are detailed in a multiconstraint approach of image sequence coding.

Sixth in the book series, Advances in Image Communication, which documents the rapid advancements of recent years in image communication technologies, this volume provides a comprehensive exploration of subband coding.

Originally, subband coding and transform coding were developed separately. The former, however, benefitted considerably from the earlier evolution of transform coding theory and practice. Retaining their own terminology and views, the two methods are closely related and this book indeed aims to unify the approaches. Specifically, the volume contributes effectively to the understanding of frequency domain coding techniques. Many images from coding experiments are presented, enabling the reader to consider the properties of different coders.

Chapter 1 introduces the problem of image compression in general terms. Sampling of images and other fundamental concepts, such as entropy and the rate distortion function, are briefly reviewed. The idea of viewing coding techniques as series expansions is also introduced. The second chapter presents signal decomposition and the conditions for perfect reconstruction from minimum representations. Chapter 3 deals with filter bank structures, primarily those displaying the perfect reconstruction property. Quantization techniques and the efficient exploitation of the bit resources are discussed from a theoretical perspective in Chapter 4 and this issue is further examined in Chapter 6, from a more practical point of view. Chapter 5 provides a development of gain formulas, i.e. quantitative measures of the performance of filter banks in a subband coding context, and these are then employed in a search for optimal filter banks. A number of examples of coded images using different subband coders are presented in Chapter 7, these indicating that subband coders give rise to some characteristic types of image degradations. Accordingly, Chapter 8 presents several techniques for minimizing these artifacts. The theory and practice of subband coding of video, at several target bit rates, is discussed in the last chapter.