Frame-layer bit allocation for multi-view video coding based on frame complexity estimation

Current multi-view video coding （MVC） reference model in joint video team （JVT） does not provide efficient rate control schemes. This paper presents a rate control algorithm for MVC by improving the quadratic rate-distortion （R-D） model. We reasonably allocate bit-rate among views based on the correlation analysisl The proposed algorithm consists of three levels to control the rate bits more accurately, of which the frame layer allocates bits according to the frame complexity and the temporal activity. Extensive experiments show that the proposed algorithm can control the bit rate efficiently.

Efficient fast mode decision using mode complexity for multi-view video coding

The variable block-size motion estimation(ME) and disparity estimation(DE) are adopted in multi-view video coding(MVC) to achieve high coding efficiency. However, much higher computational complexity is also introduced in coding system, which hinders practical application of MVC. An efficient fast mode decision method using mode complexity is proposed to reduce the computational complexity. In the proposed method, mode complexity is firstly computed by using the spatial, temporal and inter-view correlation between the current macroblock(MB) and its neighboring MBs. Based on the observation that direct mode is highly possible to be the optimal mode, mode complexity is always checked in advance whether it is below a predefined threshold for providing an efficient early termination opportunity. If this early termination condition is not met, three mode types for the MBs are classified according to the value of mode complexity, i.e., simple mode, medium mode and complex mode, to speed up the encoding process by reducing the number of the variable block modes required to be checked. Furthermore, for simple and medium mode region, the rate distortion(RD) cost of mode 16×16 in the temporal prediction direction is compared with that of the disparity prediction direction, to determine in advance whether the optimal prediction direction is in the temporal prediction direction or not, for skipping unnecessary disparity estimation. Experimental results show that the proposed method is able to significantly reduce the computational load by 78.79% and the total bit rate by 0.07% on average, while only incurring a negligible loss of PSNR(about 0.04 d B on average), compared with the full mode decision(FMD) in the reference software of MVC.

Color compensation for multi-view video coding based on diversity of cameras

A novel color compensation method for multi-view video coding (MVC) is proposed, which efficiently exploits the inter-view dependencies between views with the existence of color mismatch caused by the diversity of cameras. A color compensation model is developed in RGB channels and then extended to YCbCr channels for practical use. A modified inter-view reference picture is constructed based on the color compensation model, which is more similar to the coding picture than the original inter-view reference picture. Moreover, the color compensation factors can be derived in both encoder and decoder, therefore no additional data need to be transmitted to the decoder. The experimental results show that the proposed method improves the coding efficiency of MVC and maintains good subjective quality.

Recent Advances in Video Coding for Machines Standard and Technologies

To improve the performance of video compression for machine vision analysis tasks,a video coding for machines(VCM)standard working group was established to promote standardization procedures.In this paper,recent advances in video coding for machine standards are presented and comprehensive introductions to the use cases,requirements,evaluation frameworks and corresponding metrics of the VCM standard are given.Then the existing methods are presented,introducing the existing proposals by category and the research progress of the latest VCM conference.Finally,we give conclusions.

Adaptive Hybrid Forward Error Correction Coding Scheme for Video Transmission

This paper proposes an adaptive hybrid forward error correction(AH-FEC)coding scheme for coping with dynamic packet loss events in video and audio transmission.Specifically,the proposed scheme consists of a hybrid Reed-Solomon and low-density parity-check(RS-LDPC)coding system,combined with a Kalman filter-based adaptive algorithm.The hybrid RS-LDPC coding accommodates a wide range of code length requirements,employing RS coding for short codes and LDPC coding for medium-long codes.We delimit the short and medium-length codes by coding performance so that both codes remain in the optimal region.Additionally,a Kalman filter-based adaptive algorithm has been developed to handle dynamic alterations in a packet loss rate.The Kalman filter estimates packet loss rate utilizing observation data and system models,and then we establish the redundancy decision module through receiver feedback.As a result,the lost packets can be perfectly recovered by the receiver based on the redundant packets.Experimental results show that the proposed method enhances the decoding performance significantly under the same redundancy and channel packet loss.

The Confidentiality of Coding Video Games with Cheat Code and Bots for Cheating in a Virtual World

Video games have been around for several decades and have had many advancements from the original start of video games. Video games started as virtual games that were advertised towards children, and these virtual games created a virtual reality of a variety of genres. These genres included sports games, such as tennis, football, baseball, war games, fantasy, puzzles, etc. The start of these games was derived from a sports genre and now has a popularity in multiplayer-online-shooting games. The purpose of this paper is to investigate different types of tools available for cheating in virtual world making players have undue advantage over other players in a competition. With the advancement in technology, these video games have become more expanded in the development aspects of gaming. Video game developers have created long lines of codes to create a new look of video games. As video games have progressed, the coding, bugs, bots, and errors of video games have changed throughout the years. The coding of video games has branched out from the original video games, which have given many benefits to this virtual world, while simultaneously creating more problems such as bots. Analysis of tools available for cheating in a game has disadvantaged normal gamer in a fair contest.

Adaptive data-driven parallelization of multi-view video coding on multi-core processor

Multi-view video coding （MVC） comprises rich 3D information and is widely used in new visual media, such as 3DTV and free viewpoint TV （FTV）. However, even with mainstream computer manufacturers migrating to multi-core processors, the huge computational requirement of MVC currently prohibits its wide use in consumer markets. In this paper, we demonstrate the design and implementation of the first parallel MVC system on Cell Broadband Engine^TM processor which is a state-of-the-art multi-core processor. We propose a task-dispatching algorithm which is adaptive data-driven on the frame level for MVC, and implement a parallel multi-view video decoder with modified H.264/AVC codec on real machine. This approach provides scalable speedup （up to 16 times on sixteen cores） through proper local store management, utilization of code locality and SIMD improvement. Decoding speed, speedup and utilization rate of cores are expressed in experimental results.

Optimizing inter-view prediction structures for multi-view video coding using simulated annealing

New video applications, such as 3D video and free viewpoint video, require efficient compression of multi-view video. In addition to temporal redundancy, exploiting the inter-view redundancy is crucial to improve the performance of multi-view video coding. In this paper, we present a novel method to construct the optimal inter-view prediction structure for multi-view video coding using simulated annealing. In the proposed model, the design of the prediction structure is converted to the arrangement of coding order. Then, a simulated annealing algorithm is employed to minimize the total cost for obtaining the best coding order. This method is applicable to arbitrary irregular camera arrangements. As experiment results reveal, the annealing process converges to satisfactory results rapidly and the generated optimal prediction structure outperforms the reference prediction structure of the joint multi-view video model (JMVM) by 0.1-0.8 dB PSNR gains.

Cloud‐based video streaming services:Trends,challenges,and opportunities

Cloud computing has drastically changed the delivery and consumption of live streaming content.The designs,challenges,and possible uses of cloud computing for live streaming are studied.A comprehensive overview of the technical and business issues surrounding cloudbased live streaming is provided,including the benefits of cloud computing,the various live streaming architectures,and the challenges that live streaming service providers face in delivering high‐quality,real‐time services.The different techniques used to improve the performance of video streaming,such as adaptive bit‐rate streaming,multicast distribution,and edge computing are discussed and the necessity of low‐latency and high‐quality video transmission in cloud‐based live streaming is underlined.Issues such as improving user experience and live streaming service performance using cutting‐edge technology,like artificial intelligence and machine learning are discussed.In addition,the legal and regulatory implications of cloud‐based live streaming,including issues with network neutrality,data privacy,and content moderation are addressed.The future of cloud computing for live streaming is examined in the section that follows,and it looks at the most likely new developments in terms of trends and technology.For technology vendors,live streaming service providers,and regulators,the findings have major policy‐relevant implications.Suggestions on how stakeholders should address these concerns and take advantage of the potential presented by this rapidly evolving sector,as well as insights into the key challenges and opportunities associated with cloud‐based live streaming are provided.

Local curve fitting based Lagrange multiplier selection for Id-slice in multi-view video coding

The rate and distortion of Id-slice do not fit the globally linear relationship on a logarithmic scale. Lagrange multiplier selection methods based on the globally linear approximate relationship are neither efficient nor optimal for multi-view video coding (MVC). To improve the coding efficiency of MVC, a local curve fitting based Lagrange multiplier selection method is proposed in this paper, where Lagrange multipliers are selected according to the local slopes of the approximate curves. Experi-mental results showed that the proposed method improves the coding efficiency. Up to 2.5 dB gain was achieved at low bitrates.

Distributed Video Coding Using LDPC Codes for Wireless Video

Popular video coding standards like H.264 and MPEG working on the principle of motion-compensated pre-dictive coding demand much of the computational resources at the encoder increasing its complexity. Such bulky encoders are not suitable for applications like wireless low power surveillance, multimedia sensor networks, wireless PC cameras, mobile camera phones etc. New video coding scheme based on the principle of distributed source coding is looked upon in this paper. This scheme supports a low complexity encoder, at the same time trying to achieve the rate distortion performance of conventional video codecs. Current im-plementation uses LDPC codes for syndrome coding.

CODING-ORIENTED MULTI-VIEW VIDEO COLOR CORRECTION

Color inconsistency between views is an important problem to be solved in multi-view video applications, such as free viewpoint television and other three-dimensional video systems. In this paper, by combining with multi-view video coding, a coding-oriented multi-view video color correction method is proposed. We first separate foreground and background in first Ggroup Oof Ppictures (GOP) by using SKIP coding mode. Then by transferring means and standard deviations in backgrounds, color correction is performed for each frame in GOP, and multi-view video coding is performed and used to renew the backgrounds. Experimental results show the proposed method can obtain better perform-ances in color correction and multi-view video coding.

Deadline-aware network coding for video on demand service over P2P networks

We are interested in providing Video-on-Demand (VoD) streaming service to a large population of clients using peer-to-peer (P2P) approach. Given the asynchronous demands from multiple clients, continuously changing of the buffered contents, and the continuous video display requirement, how to collaborate with potential partners to get expected data for future content delivery are very important and challenging. In this paper, we develop a novel scheduling algorithm based on deadline- aware network coding (DNC) to fully exploit the network resource for efficient VoD service. DNC generalizes the existing net- work coding (NC) paradigm, an elegant solution for ubiquitous data distribution. Yet, with deadline awareness, DNC improves the network throughput and meanwhile avoid missing the play deadline in high probability, which is a major deficiency of the con- ventional NC. Extensive simulation results demonstrated that DNC achieves high streaming continuity even in tight network conditions.

RTP payload format for H.264/SVC scalable video coding

The scalable extension of H.264/AVC, known as scalable video coding or SVC, is currently the main focus of the Joint Video Team’s work. In its present working draft, the higher level syntax of SVC follows the design principles of H.264/AVC. Self-contained network abstraction layer units (NAL units) form natural entities for packetization. The SVC specification is by no means finalized yet, but nevertheless the work towards an optimized RTP payload format has already started. RFC 3984, the RTP payload specification for H.264/AVC has been taken as a starting point, but it became quickly clear that the scalable features of SVC require adaptation in at least the areas of capability/operation point signaling and documentation of the extended NAL unit header. This paper first gives an overview of the history of scalable video coding, and then reviews the video coding layer (VCL) and NAL of the latest SVC draft specification. Finally, it discusses different aspects of the draft SVC RTP payload format, in- cluding the design criteria, use cases, signaling and payload structure.

Interactive transport of multi-view videos for 3DTV applications

The authors propose a novel method for transporting multi-view videos that aims to keep the bandwidth requirements on both end-users and servers as low as possible. The method is based on application layer multicast, where each end point re- ceives only a selected number of views required for rendering video from its current viewpoint at any given time. The set of selected videos changes in real time as the user’s viewpoint changes because of head or eye movements. Techniques for reducing the black-outs during fast viewpoint changes were investigated. The performance of the approach was studied through network experiments.

Overview of the Second Generation AVS Video Coding Standard(AVS2)

AVS2 is a new generation video coding standard developed by the AVS working group. Compared with the first generation AVS video coding standard, known as AVS1, AVS2 significantly improves coding performance by using many new coding technologies, e.g., adaptive block partition and two level transform coding. Moreover, for scene video, e.g. surveillance video and conference vid?eo, AVS2 provided a background picture modeling scheme to achieve more accurate prediction, which can also make object detec?tion and tracking in surveillance video coding more flexible. Experimental results show that AVS2 is competitive with High Effi?ciency Video Coding (HEVC) in terms of performance. Especially for scene video, AVS2 can achieve 39% bit rate saving over HEVC.

A Novel Objective Quality Assessment Method for Video Conferencing Coding

Most recently, due to the demand of immersive communication, region-of-interest-based(ROI) high efficiency video coding(HEVC) approaches in conferencing scenarios have become increasingly important. However, there exists no objective metric, specially developed for efficiently evaluating the perceived visual quality of video conferencing coding. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel objective quality assessment method, namely Gaussian mixture model based peak signal-tonoise ratio(GMM-PSNR), for the perceptual video conferencing coding. First, eye tracking experiments, together with a real-time technique of face and facial feature extraction, are introduced. In the experiments, importance of background, face, and facial feature regions is identified, and it is then quantified based on eye fixation points over test videos. Next, assuming that the distribution of the eye fixation points obeys Gaussian mixture model, we utilize expectation-maximization(EM) algorithm to generate an importance weight map for each frame of video conferencing coding, in light of a new term eye fixation points/pixel(efp/p). According to the generated weight map, GMM-PSNR is developed for quality assessment by assigning different weights to the distortion of each pixel in the video frame. Finally, we utilize some experiments to investigate the correlation of the proposed GMM-PSNR and other conventional objective metrics with subjective quality metrics. The experimental results show the effectiveness of GMM-PSNR.

Video over IP using standard-compatible multiple description coding: an IETF proposal

Standard-compatible multiple description coding (MDC) and layered coding (LC) are efficient ways to ensure erasure resilient, scalable transmission of encoded multimedia sources via RTP, allowing a gradual degradation of the application quality with increasing packet loss rate and decreasing bandwidth/throughput on the network. In this paper we review the stan- dard-compatible framework proposed to IETF. Alternative techniques such as robust source coding and channel coding techniques (ARQ: automatic repeat request, FEC: forward error correction) are presented; their integration into the proposed framework is also discussed. The performances of MDC and LC either coupled with channel coding or not, are summarized by reference to current literature. Typical cases and examples are illustrated.

Multipoint videoconferencing with scalable video coding

We describe a system for multipoint videoconferencing that offers extremely low end-to-end delay, low cost and complexity, and high scalability, alongside standard features associated with high-end solutions such as rate matching and per- sonal video layout. The system accommodates heterogeneous receivers and networks based on the Internet Protocol and relies on scalable video coding to provide a coded representation of a source video signal at multiple temporal and spatial resolutions as well as quality levels. These are represented by distinct bitstream components which are created at each end-user encoder. Depending on the specific conferencing environment, some or all of these components are transmitted to a Scalable Video Conferencing Server (SVCS). The SVCS redirects these components to one or more recipients depending on, e.g., the available network con- ditions and user preferences. The scalable aspect of the video coding technique allows the system to adapt to different network conditions, and also accommodates different end-user requirements (e.g., a user may elect to view another user at a high or low spatial resolution). Performance results concerning flexibility, video quality and delay of the system are presented using the Joint Scalable Video Model (JSVM) of the forthcoming SVC (H.264 Annex G) standard, demonstrating that scalable coding outper- forms existing state-of-the-art systems and offers the right platform for building next-generation multipoint videoconferencing systems.