An MPEG-like pyramidal video coder

In this paper, we propose an MPEG-like video coder using a 3-dimensional (3D) adaptive pyramid. In the 3D adaptive pyramid, the temporal or spatial contraction is selected using the corresponding prediction differences. A video codec is designed using the 3D adaptive pyramid and intra-frame vector quantization. Encoding errors introduced at the upper levels are fed-forward to the lower levels of the pyramid which makes lossless coding possible. The proposed pyramidal video coder has a number of similarities with the MPEG-I video compression standard. Simulation results for the CCITT standard test sequences indicate that the 3D adaptive pyramid reduces the lossless bit rate by a factor of two. Excellent subjective quality as well as objective quality (PSNR value of 36.6 db) are obtained at a bit rate less than Ti rate (i.e. 1.544 Mb/s). Furthermore, smooth transition is achieved in the case of scene changes without sacrificing picture quality.