A robust, scalable, object-based video compression technique for very low bit-rate coding

This paper describes an object-based video coding scheme (OBVC) that was proposed by Texas Instruments to the emerging ISO MPEG-4 video compression standardization effort. This technique achieves efficient compression by separating coherently moving objects from stationary background and compactly representing their shape, motion, and the content. In addition to providing improved coding efficiency at very low bit rates, the technique provides the ability to selectively encode, decode, and manipulate individual objects in a video stream. This technique supports all three MPEG-4 functionalities tested in the November 1995 tests, namely, improved coding efficiency, error resilience, and content scalability. This paper also describes the error protection and concealment schemes that enable robust transmission of compressed video over noisy communication channels such as analog phone lines and wireless links. The noise introduced by the communication channel is characterized by both burst errors and random bit errors. Applications of this object-based video coding technology include videoconferencing, video telephony, desktop multimedia, and surveillance video.