Low bit rate video coding for mobile multimedia communications

In this paper we first describe the objectives of the Delft Mobile Multimedia Communications project. Next, the subject of lossy contour compression is considered in more detail as it is an essential component of most object or region-based compression techniques for low bit rate video coding. We propose an optimized B-splines approximation approach, which results in a 40 percent higher compression than the lossless conditional chain code method. Achieved rates are, depending on the tolerable deviation between original and coded contour, in the order of 0.70 to 0.90 bit per contour pixel.