3D subband VLBR video coding scheme

A video coder for very low bit rate applications is designed and simulated. It employs a subband analysis technique to first split the video signal into four temporal subbands. Motion detection is performed to classify the co-sited macroblocks of the subbands into temporal activity (TA) macroblocks or no temporal activity (NTA) macroblocks. The base temporal subband is coded using a H.261-like (European COST 211 ter SIM3) coder with the motion estimation replaced by a reduced-motion search algorithm. The higher temporal subbands are vector-quantized. The NTA-macroblocks (except in the baseband) are not coded at all. Simulation results are presented at 9.6 kbits/s at five frames per second for a typical videoconferencing sequence. Comparisons are made with results obtained by the SIM3 coder.<>