Dynamic coding of visual information

This paper introduces a novel approach to visual data compression. The approach, named dynamic coding, consists of an effective competition between several representation models used for describing data portions. The image data is represented as the union of several regions each approximated by a representation model locally appropriate. The dynamic coding concept leads to attractive features such as genericness, flexibility, and openness and is therefore particularly suited to a multimedia environment in which many types of applications are involved. Dynamic coding is a general proposal to visual data compression and many variations on the same theme may be designed. They differ by the particular procedure by which the data is segmented into objects and the local representation model selected. As an illustrative example, a video compression scheme based on the principles of dynamic coding is presented. This compression algorithm performs a joint optimization of the segmentation (restricted to a so-called generalized quadtree partition) together with the representation models associated with each data segment. Four representation models are competing namely, fractal, motion compensation, text and graphics, and background modes. Optimality is defined with respect to a rate-distortion tradeoff and the optimization procedure leads to a multicriterion segmentation.