Abstract: A method for encoding frames of input video, including the following steps: processing the input video to produce a compressed base layer bitstream; processing the input video to produce a compressed enhancement layer bitstream; identifying a region of interest in a video frame; and enhancing the quality of the region of interest by providing additional bits for coding said region.

Abstract: A method for decoding an encoded signal that includes an encoded control portion and an encoded video portion, includes the following steps: providing a plurality of inverse transform functions; decoding the encoded signal to recover the control portion; selecting one of the inverse transform functions in accordance with the recovered control portion; and decoding encoded video portion with the selected inverse transform function.

Abstract: A method for encoding an image-representative signal, including the following steps: for shapes of the image, applying a transform to a segment of pixels of the shape to obtain a low pass transform component and a high pass transform component; and for segments with an odd number of pixels, including the odd pixel in the low pass transform component and excluding the odd pixel from the high pass transform component.

Abstract: A video encoding method and apparatus for adapting a video input to a bandwidth of a transmission channel of a network that includes determining the number N enhancement layer bitstreams capable of being adapted to the bandwidth of the transmission channel of a network. A base layer bitstream is encoded from the video input wherein a plurality of enhancement layer bitstreams are encoded from the video input. The enhancement layer bit-streams are based on the base layer bitstream, wherein the plurality of enhancement layer bitstreams complements the base layer bitstream and the base layer bitstream and N enhancement layer bitstreams to are transmitted to the network.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for adaptive entropy coding and decoding of a stream of indices representative of information, including the following steps: establishing, at both an encoder and a decoder, respective coding tables to have codes corresponding to indices; finding, in the encoder table, codes corresponding to indices of the stream of indices, and sending the found codes to the decoder for recovery of the indices corresponding to the sent codes; determining an overall frequency of occurrence of individual indices in the stream of indices; determining a measure of how currently individual indices have occurred in the stream of indices; and adaptively modifying the encoder and decoder tables in accordance with the measure of how currently individual indices have occurred and the frequency of occurrence.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed for encoding and decoding an input signal representative of video or audio information. A form of the method includes the following steps: processing the input signal to produce a sequence of vectors representative of the input signal; implementing a lattice vector quantization procedure on individual vectors of the sequence to identify a lattice point of a lattice that is closest to the individual vector and to obtain an index value representative of a labelling of the identified lattice point, the lattice vector quantization procedure including a multi-level allocation of groups of reserved indices, and selection of the index value for the individual vector within a group of reserved indices. The index signals representative of the index values are stored and/or transmitted, and then recovered for decoding. The decoding is operative to obtain a recovered sequence of vectors, and the sequence of vectors can be processed to produce an output signal.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for encoding and decoding an input signal representative of video or audio information. A form of the encoding includes the following steps: processing the input signal to produce a sequence of vectors representative of the input signal; implementing a lattice vector quantization procedure on individual vectors of the sequence to identify a lattice point of a lattice that is closest to the individual vector and to obtain an index value representative of a labelling of the identified lattice point, the lattice vector quantization procedure including a multi-level allocation of groups of reserved indices, and selection of the index value for the individual vector within a group of reserved indices. The index signals representative of the index values are stored and then recovered for decoding, or transmitted before decoding. The decoding is operative to obtain a recovered sequence of vectors, and the sequence of vectors can be processed to produce an output signal.

Abstract: A system is disclosed for monitoring strain on a structure, such as a bridge. A plurality of battery powered wireless monitoring units are adapted for attachment to the structure, each or the units including: a sensing transducer for producing signals representative of strain, processing circuitry for processing strain-representative signals, the processing circuitry including a rain flow counter, storage for storing, as processed signals, accumulated rain flow counts of predetermined magnitudes, and a transmitter for wireless transmission of the processed signals to a receiver.

Abstract: A technique for encoding and decoding an image includes the following steps: subsampling the image to obtain a number of subsampled frames of spatially offset image-representative signals; transforming each of the subsampled frames to obtain a corresponding number of frames of transform coefficient-representative signals; forming vector-representative signals from corresponding coefficient-representative signals of the respective frames of coefficient-representative signals; performing a thresholding operation on the vector-representative signals to obtain thresholded vector-representative signals; vector quantizing the thresholded vector-representative signals to obtain encoded signals; storing the encoded signals; and decoding the encoded signals to obtain a recovered version of the image.

Abstract: In a vector transform coding (VTC) scheme for image and video compression, a multi-layered codebook structure and a dynamic bit-allocation scheme in the vector transform domain are employed. The main advantage of this technique is that distortion is controlled by dynamically allocating more bits to vectors causing larger distortions and less bits to vectors causing smaller distortions.

Abstract: A method for decomposing signals into efficient time-frequency representations for data compression and recognition which uses adaptable wavelet basis functions and concentrates a signal or image's information to a higher degree than methods based on the discrete fourier transform, the discrete cosine transform, the standard wavelet transform and known adaptive transform techniques. The purpose of the present invention is to enable data signals and images to be stored and transmitted very efficiently. The time-frequency plane is broken up into subspaces. The method determines the optimum basis function for each of the subspace regions. Basis functions are chosen such that much of the information in the signal is contained in a small number of coefficients. The resulting coefficients form a set that represents the signal in the most concentrated manner.

Abstract: A technique for encoding and decoding an image includes the following steps: subsampling the image to obtain a number of subsampled frames of spatially offset image-representative signals; transforming each of the subsampled frames to obtain a corresponding number of frames of transform coefficient-representative signals; forming vector-representative signals from corresponding coefficient-representative signals of the respective frames of coefficient-representative signals; performing a thresholding operation on the vector-representative signals to obtain thresholded vector-representative signals; vector quantizing the thresholded vector-representative signals to obtain encoded signals; storing the encoded signals; and decoding the encoded signals to obtain a recovered version of the image.