Object-level bit allocation and scalable rate control for MPEG-4 video coding

In this work, a novel framework for rate-distortion (R-D) analysis is developed. Based on this framework, an object-level bit allocation scheme is proposed for MPEG-4 video coding to determine the target number of bits for each video object. We then propose a macroblock-level rate control algorithm to achieve the bits target for each video object. The proposed bit allocation and rate control algorithm outperforms the VM8 rate control algorithm by providing more accurate rate regulation and significantly improved picture quality.