Objective analysis and bit rate analysis of HEVC compressed 4D-fMRI images

Medical imaging and clinical diagnostics are complementary to one another since their analysis is typical and contains critical information. The growing volume of data has become one of the biggest challenges, as the acquisition of medical modalities is currently having high resolution from the improved and efficient machines (3 to 7 T or more). Moreover, image and video compression is a need with the consideration that there should not be any gap for losing the important information. Less bitrate requirement with high compression ratio without sacrificing important detail is a challenge these days. The current study, is dealing with the compression of 4D-functional medical resonance images (fMRI) with a codec, that is, high-efficient video coding (HEVC/H.265) and its objective analysis along with its predecessor that is advanced video coding (AVC/H.264) and with VP8 (WebM Project of Google) reported here. Further, the bit rate analysis that has been conducted, also accounts in conjunction with the bitrate investigation, which is an imperative perspective vital for the telemedicine field. The simulation results reported here represents the compression ratio (CR = 118.23:1) with HEVC/H.265 codec over the compression ratio (CR = 20.52:1) provided by AVC/H.264 and VP8 (CR = 78.29:1). There has been significant improvement observed in alignment of the peak signal-to-noise ratio (APSNR), structural similarity (SSIM), and mean squared error (MSE) metrics. Overall, the performance of the anticipated technique is satisfactory for the forthcoming telemedicine or clinical use.     

Reversible Data Hiding Based on Run-Level Coding in H.264/AVC Video Streams

This paper presents a reversible data hiding (RDH) method, which is designed by combining histogram modification (HM) with run-level coding in H.264/advanced video coding (AVC). In this scheme, the run-level is changed for embedding data into H.264/AVC video sequences. In order to guarantee the reversibility of the proposed scheme, the last nonzero quantized discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients in embeddable 4×4 blocks are shifted by the technology of histogram modification. The proposed scheme is realized after quantization and before entropy coding of H.264/AVC compression standard. Therefore, the embedded information can be correctly extracted at the decoding side. Peak-signal-noise-to-ratio (PSNR) and Structure similarity index (SSIM), embedding payload and bit-rate variation are exploited to measure the performance of the proposed scheme. Experimental results have shown that the proposed scheme leads to less SSIM variation and bit-rate increase.     

Suitability of VVC and HEVC for Video Telehealth Systems

Video compression in medical video streaming is one of the key technologies associated with mobile healthcare. Seamless delivery of medical video streams over a resource constrained network emphasizes the need of a video codec that requires minimum bitrates and maintains high perceptual quality. This paper presents a comparative study between High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and its potential successor Versatile Video Coding (VVC) in the context of healthcare. A large-scale subjective experiment comprising of twenty-four non-expert participants is presented for eight different test conditions in Full High Definition (FHD) videos. The presented analysis highlights the impact of compression artefacts on the perceptual quality of HEVC and VVC processed videos. Our results and findings show that VVC clearly outperforms HEVC in terms of achieving higher compression, while maintaining high quality in FHD videos. VVC requires upto 40% less bitrate for encoding an FHD video at excellent perceptual quality. We have provided rate-quality curves for both encoders and a degree of overlap across both codecs in terms of perceptual quality. Overall, there is a 71% degree of overlap in terms of quality between VVC and HEVC compressed videos for eight different test conditions.     

Efficient rate control scheme using modified inter-layer dependency for spatial scalability

Scalable video coding extension has been added to H.264AVC to support compression and encoding of multiple resolution video sequences, having different frame rates and fidelities in a single bit stream. The motion vectors and the residual data of the enhancement layers are derived from up-sampling the co-located macroblock (MB) of the base layer. The peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) across the enhancement layers is degraded as up-sampling introduces distortion of high-frequency components. In this paper, a spatial-resolution-ratio-based MB mode decision scheme is proposed for spatially enhanced layers. The scheme uses the motion estimated at the base layer, to encode the respective MBs in the enhancement layers. The spatial–temporal search schemes at the enhancement layers are used to derive motion vectors and residues that are encoded using a quantization parameter obtained using independent rate control (IRC) scheme. The IRC from the prior art is modified to achieve better rate control per layer by recursive updates for mean absolute difference values of each basic unit. Proposed modified inter-layer dependency shows improvement in the PSNR for enhancement layers while the updated IRC enforces better IRC for all the layers.     

H.264/AVC baseline profile to MPEG‐4 visual simple profile transcoding to reduce the spatial resolution

In this study, we propose a heterogeneous transcoding method of converting an H.264/Advanced video coding (AVC) Baseline profile (BP) video bitstream into an MPEG‐4 Visual simple profile (VSP) video bitstream. The proposed method reduces the spatial resolution for mobile terminals, which support only low resolution video bitstreams. When the H.264/AVC BP video bitstream is transformed into the MPEG‐4 VSP video bitstream, the conversions between the H.264/AVC BP block types and the MPEG‐4 VSP block types are performed by analyzing the macroblocks (MBs) conversion probability and calculating the difference values of motion vector. The proposed transcoding method runs on average 5.5 times faster than the cascaded transcoding methods, for a degradation of the PSNR (peak‐signal‐to ratio) of less than 0.5 dB. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 16, 24–33, 2006     

Fast intra prediction mode decision for H.264/AVC video coding

Abstract

Intra coding is used for reducing the spatial redundancy in video coding. H.264 supports several macroblocks of predictions for intra coding such as luma block four 16×16 modes, nine 4×4 modes and chroma block four modes, which significantly improve intra coding efficiency, but increase the encoding complexity. In order to select the best mode, we need to calculate the cost of the various modes. In this paper, a fast intra prediction mode decision for H.264/AVC video coding is proposed. Based on Laplacian, this intra prediction mode decision detects edges and selects the best mode for the block. This mode decision can shorten the time to reduce the encoding time. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves an encoding time saving of 70% on average.     

A no reference quality metric to measure the blocking artefacts for video sequences

The need to measure video quality arises in the development of video equipment and in the delivery and storage of video and image information. In this paper, we propose a new perceptually significant video quality metric to estimate the effect of block coding for standards H.264 AVC and MPEG2. Our method operates in the spatial domain and does not require a high complexity of computation. We evaluate the performance of the proposed method by using three sequences CIF ‘common intermediate file’ with different compression rate. We compare it with Suthaharan’s and MSU’s techniques by using ‘LIVE’ and ‘IVP’ databases. Results indicate that the proposed method outperforms Suthaharan’s and MSU techniques in H264 coder. They also indicate that our method is more effective than MSU’s and Suthaharan’s techniques for the H.264 AVC standards with the Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient.     

A HEVC Video Steganalysis Algorithm Based on PU Partition Modes

Steganalysis is a technique used for detecting the existence of secret information embedded into cover media such as images and videos. Currently, with the higher speed of the Internet, videos have become a kind of main methods for transferring information. The latest video coding standard High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) shows better coding performance compared with the H.264/AVC standard published in the previous time. Therefore, since the HEVC was published, HEVC videos have been widely used as carriers of hidden information.
In this paper, a steganalysis algorithm is proposed to detect the latest HEVC video steganography method which is based on the modification of Prediction Units (PU) partition modes. To detect the embedded data, All the PU partition modes are extracted from P pictures, and the probability of each PU partition mode in cover videos and stego videos is adopted as the classification feature. Furthermore, feature optimization is applied, that the 25-dimensional steganalysis feature has been reduced to the 3-dimensional feature. Then the Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to identify stego videos. It is demonstrated in experimental results that the proposed steganalysis algorithm can effectively detect the stego videos, and much higher classification accuracy has been achieved compared with state-of-the-art work.     

Optimal Mode Decision Method for Interframe Prediction in H.264/AVC

Studies show that encoding technologies in H.264/AVC, including prediction and conversion, are essential technologies. However, these technologies are more complicated than the MPEG-4, which is a standard method and widely adopted worldwide. Therefore, the amount of calculation in H.264/AVC is significantly up-regulated compared to that of the MPEG-4. In the present study, it is intended to simplify the computational expenses in the international standard compression coding system H.264/AVC for moving images. Inter prediction refers to the most feasible compression technology, taking up to 60% of the entire encoding. In this regard, prediction error and motion vector information are proposed to simplify the computation of inter predictive coding technology. In the initial frame, motion compensation is performed in all target modes and then basic information is collected and analyzed. After the initial frame, motion compensation is performed only in the middle 8×8 modes, and the basic information amount shifts. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method and assess the motion image compression coding, four types of motion images, defined by the international telecommunication union (ITU), are employed. Based on the obtained results, it is concluded that the developed method is capable of simplifying the calculation, while it is slightly affected by the inferior image quality and the amount of information.     

Novel fast block motion estimation using diamond‐arc‐hexagon search patterns

Abstract

This work presents a novel block motion estimation (ME) approach, diamond‐arc‐hexagon search (DAHS), which uses diamond, arc, and hexagon search patterns to accomplish the fast searching process. According to the characteristic of the center‐based motion vector distribution for the real‐world video sequence, DAHS employs a small diamond pattern extended hexagon search to refine the central area search. Furthermore for estimation in large motion situations, the strategy of the large diamond‐to‐arc search can preserve good performance. Experimental results indicate that DAHS is suitable for both (quasi‐) stationary and large motion searches. DAHS outperforms the efficient three‐step (E3SS) and hexagon‐based search (HEXBS) in prediction quality, and improves the searching speed about 9% compared to E3SS. The proposed algorithm was tested using several sequences and delivered excellent performance in search speed and prediction of video quality. The DAHS can be applied to real‐time video processes, such as H.264/MPEG‐4 advanced video coding (AVC) and scalable video coding (SVC).     

A MV-Based Steganographic Algorithm for H.264/AVC without Distortion

H.264/AVC video is one of the most popular multimedia and has been widely used as the carriers of video steganography. In this paper, a novel motion vector (MV) based steganographic algorithm is proposed for the H.264/AVC compressed video without distortion. Four modules are introduced to eliminate the distortion caused by the modifications of motion vectors and guarantee the security of the algorithm. In the embedding block, the motion vector space encoding is used to embed a (2n+1)-ary notational number into an n-dimension vector composed of motion vectors generated from the selection block. Scrambling is adopted to disturb the order of steganographic carriers to improve the randomness of the carrier before the operation of embedding. The re-motion compensation (re-MC) block will re-construct the macroblock (MB) whose motion vectors have been modified by embedding block. System block plays the role of the generator for chaotic sequences and encryptor for secret data. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed algorithm can achieve high embedding capacity without stego video visual quality distortion, it also presents good undetectability for existing MV-based steganalysis feature. Performance comparisons with other existing algorithms are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm.     

A Cauchy distribution-based ternary hypothesis testing for bipolar additive watermark detection in H.264/AVC video

Abstract

The statistical distribution of discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients is important for video watermarking since they are the main carriers for watermark embedding. For the statistical distribution of intra-coded DCT coefficients in the H.264/AVC video stream, non-parametric hypothesis test is utilised to verify that Cauchy distribution is better than generalised Gaussian distribution (GGD). Moreover, ternary hypothesis test is introduced into the detection of bipolar additive watermarks. By adjusting the watermark strength parameter, the detector performance can be guaranteed. Experimental results show that for those bipolar additive watermarks in the H.264/AVC stream, the proposed approach can achieve a detection accuracy of more than 80% on average.     

基于编码模式的H.264/AVC视频信息隐藏算法

本文提出一种基于编码模式的H.264/AVC信息隐藏方法,通过调制某些宏块的编码模式,分别在Ⅰ帧、P帧和B帧中嵌入隐秘信息.对帧内4x4预测模式的宏块,是通过调整宏块中某个4×4块的编码模式嵌入隐秘信息;对P帧和B帧其它类型的宏块,则是通过调整宏块的编码模式嵌入隐秘信息,模式调整后对宏块做了优化处理.在模式调制过程中引入率失真代价,取得了较好的率失真平衡,减小了隐秘信息嵌入后对视频质量和视频码流的影响.该算法可以实现隐秘信息的快速提取,满足视频实时处理的要求,实验仿真结果证明了该算法的有效性.     

An FPGA-friendly CABAC-encoding architecture with dataflow modelling programming

Video compression standards play an important role in video encoding, transmitting and decoding. To exploit the similarities or commonality among standards, a Reconfigurable Video Coding framework is developed in MPEG by employing a dataflow modelling method to modulate the basic configuration components of encoders or decoders. However, the entropy coding for bitstream generating and parsing during the configuration process is very complex, especially when employing the Context Adaptive Based Arithmetic Coding (CABAC). This paper proposes an optimized ‘Producer–Consumer’ architecture for CABAC by dataflow modelling. To achieve high-throughput and low-resource consumption, the buffer accessing speed and buffer size in the architecture is analysed and refined. The proposed CABAC is implemented by dataflow language Cal and is synthesized to FPGA. Results show that it can process 3.5 bins/cycle with a 10-byte buffer consumption at a 120?MHz working frequency. It is sufficient for real-time encoding of H.265/HEVC at level 6.2 main tier.     

H.264帧内预测与帧间块模式选择快速算法

针对H.264帧间预测时的多子块模式选择和帧内预测的多模式选择问题,提出了一种实用的基于统计门限的模式快速选择算法,通过门限设定有效限定了编码模式的选择范围.多组视频序列的实验结果表明,基于统计门限的帧内预测模式选择算法在Ⅰ帧的PSNR值有微小变化的情况下,大大降低了编码时间,Ⅰ帧的编码时间降低17%～23%,PSNR下降不到0.4%.基于统计门限的帧间块模式选择算法使得平均PSNR值下降了0.047dB(PSNR最大下降不到1%),但是相对全模式预测时,编码器速度提高了20%～30%.     

3D LiDAR point cloud image codec based on Tensor

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a new and efficient codec called 3D Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) point cloud coding based on tensor (LPCT) concepts. By combining the techniques of Statistical Subspace Outlier Detection and Logarithmic Transformation, LPCT effectively makes the unreliable points imperceptible and diminishes the spatial coefficient ranges. LPCT is applied to achieve the perfect encoding and decoding performances by using tensor. The iterative compression method is introduced to immensely reduce the dimension of a higher-order point cloud data. Experimental results reveal that the proposed LPCT yields a better independent compression ratio (CR) and impressive quality of a decompressed image than the existing well-liked compression approaches, namely 7-Zip and WinRAR. This work proves that the proposed lossless LPCT algorithm compresses the spatial information of various size point cloud images into six bytes and produces better Hausdorff peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) for the shortest distance point cloud image.     

Efficient depth map compression for view rendering in 3D video

Abstract

A depth map represents three-dimensional (3D) scene information, which is used to synthesise virtual views in 3D video coding. Since the quality of synthesised virtual view highly depends on the quality of depth map, efficient depth coding is crucial for the 3D video system. However, depth map is not directly used for display but to generate virtual views. Compressing depth map using existing video coding techniques yields unacceptable distortions in rendered virtual view. Thus, the depth map needs to be compressed in a way that can minimise distortions in the rendered views. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient depth map compression method for view rendering based on view rendering distortion other than depth map distortion itself. Firstly, we derive relationship between distortion in coded depth map and the rendered view. Then, a region-based video characteristic distortion model is proposed to precisely estimate distortion in view synthesis. Finally, a multilateral filtering is applied as an in-loop filter to reduce rendering artefacts. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves 2 dB coding gain in terms of PSNR and subjective quality improvement of synthesised views.     

Highly efficient CAVLC encoder for MPEG-4 AVC/H.264

In dealing with high-resolution video information, encoding (or decoding) with an efficient context-based adaptive variable length code (CAVLC) encoder is important. A highly efficient CAVLC encoder is proposed for video coding application of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. The main concept is to use block-based pipelining to speed up encoding efficiency and reduce the pipeline storage elements by using the associated input buffer. We also use zero-block detection to speed up encoding efficiency and eliminate the same codeword from all the tables to save the hardware cost. Simulation results show that our design can meet the real-time processing for 1920 times 1088 resolution with lower operation frequency. We also accomplish the higher encoding throughput with a more complete CAVLC design than others. The proposed design has been implemented and synthesised with TSMC 0.18 mum standard cell library. The synthesis result indicates that the gate count is 12 125 with the clock constraint of 125 MHz.     

Fast mode decision based on systematic deployment of predictive resources for H.264/AVC

Abstract

This paper presents a well organised fast mode decision scheme for H.264/AVC that systematically integrates and deploys applicable predictive resources using constructive compromise. This scheme is constructed by primary SKIP mode checking, spatial prior temporal hard decision (STHD), and succinct mode decision (SMD). The STHD is connected with the predictive macroblocks searched. In STHD, only when spatial hard decision fails, temporal hard decision is performed using the potential partition characteristic vector (PPCV) addressed. If it fails, too, then SMD takes care of mode checking also using PPCV. The SMD consists of succinct P16?×?16 mode decision and succinct geometric/statistical extension examination, which are formed as an effective two-stage judgment. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method by systematically deploying the predictive resources can achieve 58–74% runtime savings in encoding QCIF, CIF and high definition videos with low performance losses. In addition, most processes of the proposed scheme could be implemented on logical operations, only.