An adaptive deblocking algorithm for low bit-rate video

The paper presents an effective and fast postprocessing technique for blocking artifacts removal in low bit-rate video. The technique utilizes one-dimensional filtering based on the characteristics of the decoded video, without any knowledge about the coding parameters. In the first phase it performs detection of presence of the blocking artifacts, while in the second phase adaptive directional filtering is applied. The procedure includes estimation of spatial activity and prediction of the spatial distribution of the quantization errors. Experiments performed on MPEG-compressed low bit-rate video demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in suppressing blocking artifacts and the ability of the algorithm to preserve the image sharpness.