A new H.264/AVC error resilience model based on Regions of Interest

Video transmission over the Internet can sometimes be subject to packet loss which reduces the end-user's quality of experience (QoE). Solutions aiming at improving the robustness of a video bitstream can be used to subdue this problem. In this paper, we propose a new region of interest-based error resilience model to protect the most important part of the picture from distortions. We conduct eye tracking tests in order to collect the region of interest (RoI) data. Then, we apply in the encoder an intra-prediction restriction algorithm to the macroblocks belonging to the RoI. Results show that while no significant overhead is noted, the perceived quality of the video's RoI, measured by means of a perceptual video quality metric, increases in the presence of packet loss compared to the traditional encoding approach.