Rate-distortion optimized region-based video coder

In this paper, we present an efficient region-based video coding scheme. The region partioning is optimized according to a rate-distortion criterion in order to achieve constant bit-rate or constant quality. This optimization is led through a labeling for each image of an initial segmentation map using regions merging, regions' label relaxation and quantization variation. Results obtained show the performance of this coding scheme compared to MPEG and H263 codecs.