Abstract: In accordance with certain aspects of the present invention, methods and apparatuses are provided according to a seamless bitstream switching scheme. The seamless switching scheme can be used with scalable video bitstreams, and can take advantage of both the high coding efficiency of non-scalable bitstreams and the flexibility of scalable bitstreams. Small bandwidth fluctuations can be accommodated by the scalability of the bitstreams, while large bandwidth fluctuations can be tolerated by switching among scalable bitstreams. The flexible and effective scheme for seamless switching among scalable bitstreams significantly improves the efficiency of scalable video coding over a broad bit rate range.

Abstract: A three-dimensional (3D) shape-adaptive discrete wavelet transform (SA-DWT) is provided for efficient object-based video coding. In a first stage, a one-dimensional SA-DWT is performed along the temporal direction among pixels that have temporal correspondence. The correspondence can be established by motion estimation or other matching approaches. SA-DWT in the temporal direction is used to treat emerging pixels, terminating pixels or pixels that have colliding correspondence pixels. After the temporal SA-DWT transform, the resulting temporal wavelet coefficients are placed in the spatial positions corresponding to the original pixels to maintain the spatial correlation within each frame. Then, in a second stage, a two-dimensional SA-DWT is applied to the temporal SA-DWT coefficients within each frame. The 3D SA-DWT can handle arbitrarily shaped video objects while providing flexible spatial and temporal scalability as in any wavelet-based coding scheme.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for classifying regions of an image, based on the relative “importance” of the various areas and to adaptively use the importance information to allocate processing resources and input image formation.

Abstract: Methods and arrangement are provided for compressing and transporting image-based rendering (IBR) data using alignment and three-dimensional (3D) wavelet transform techniques, and selectively decompressing portions of the resulting compressed data to render various two-dimensional (2D) views of a 3D scene. A compression engine compresses the IBR data using a 3D wavelet transform and outputs a compressed bitstream comprising encoded frequency coefficients associated with the IBR data. This compressed bitstream can then be provided to a separate decompression engine that selectively decodes portions of the compressed bitstream based on an access request for image data associated with a desired view from a rendering engine. Through a mixed cache, the progressive inverse wavelet synthesis (PIWS) engine decompresses the decoded portions with minimum calculation, and provides the decompressed IBR data to the rendering engine.

Abstract: An apparatus and a concomitant method for using M-ary pyramid decomposition in combination with N-scale tiling to reduce the computational complexity in determining motion vectors for block-based motion estimation is disclosed.

Abstract: A power control scheme for a wireless network communication system that includes a base station and multiple wireless mobile device dynamically adjusts transmission power of a mobile device in conjunction with adjusting its bit allocation in source coding and channel coding to minimize its total power consumption while maximizing the system capacity in terms of the total effective transmission rates received by the base station. The base station sets a target signal quality value for each mobile station, and the target values are determined by the base station such that the total effective data rate from all the mobile devices is maximized under constraints of the total received power and the error protection level requirements for the mobile devices.

Abstract: A method and system for managing admission to a network considers the packet delay of the network in making an admission decision. The packet delay of the network is periodically probed. To avoid disturbing or impairing the traffic of the network, a sequence of probing packets is sent to the network at an irregular interval. Responses to the probing packets are analyzed to obtain delay information of the network. If the delay information is insufficient to make an admission decision, then the packet loss rate of the network is measured and considered.

Abstract: A system for content (e.g., streaming media) is presented comprising a server, to provide media content on request through a wireline network, coupled to a wireless host through a network gateway. The network gateway establishes a communication channel from the server to the wireless host through both a wireline network and a wireless network, wherein the communication channel includes a transport layer protocol with control parameters for network elements of each of the wireline network and the wireless network. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Abstract: A method comprising receiving media data in a compressed, digital domain, analyzing motion vectors associated with the received media content while in the compressed digital domain and identifying one or more objects in the received media data based, at least in part, on the motion vector analysis.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for classifying regions of an image, based on the relative “importance” of the various areas and to adaptively use the importance information to allocate processing resources and input image formation.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for encoding zerotrees in a wavelet-based coding technique. The method uses a depth-first pattern for traversing the zerotree, i.e., each branch of the tree, from parent to child to grandchild and so on, is fully traversed before a next branch is traversed. The depth-first tree traversal pattern is used to quantize the coefficients of the tree as well as to assign symbols to the quantized coefficients. The method assigns one of three symbols to each node: ZEROTREE ROOT, VALUED ZEROTREE ROOT, and VALUE. By using three symbols and the efficient tree traversal pattern, the method is substantially more efficient at encoding a zerotree than the prior art. Additionally, this concept is applied to the encoding of “vector” zerotrees.

Abstract: A motion-compensated video encoding scheme employs progressive fine-granularity layered coding to encode macroblocks of video data into frames having multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video. Some of the enhancement layers in a current frame are predicted from different quality layers in reference frames. The video encoding scheme estimates drifting errors during the encoding and chooses a coding mode for each macroblock in the enhancement layer to maximize high coding efficiency while minimizing drifting errors.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for encoding, illustratively, a video information stream to produce an encoded information stream according to a group of frames (GOF) information structure where the GOF structure and, optionally, a bit budget are modified in response to, respectively, information discontinuities and the presence of redundant information in the video information stream (due to, e.g., 3:2 pull-down processing).

Abstract: An implementation of a technology, described herein, for transmitting compressed network transport-layer-protocol headers in a speedy, efficient, inferentially synchronized, and robust manner. An implementation, described herein, models the transmission of compressed headers to the congestion procedure of the network transport-layer protocol (e.g., TCP's). Doing so, the sender of the compressed headers can infer whether the receiver correctly received them. Unlike the slow direct synchronization employed by conventional schemes, this implementation of the present claimed invention inferentially synchronizes by modeling after the congestion procedure of the network transport-layer protocol. This is inherently faster than direct synchronization. Since the implementation performs well over both noiseless and noisy links, it is particularly suited to use over wireless communications channels. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent.

Abstract: An apparatus and a concomitant method for using M-ary pyramid decomposition to reduce the computational complexity in determining motion vectors for block-based motion estimation is disclosed.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for encoding, illustratively, a video information stream to produce an encoded information stream according to a group of frames (GOF) information structure where the GOF structure and, optionally, a bit budget are modified in response to, respectively, information discontinuities and the presence of redundant information in the video information stream (due to, e.g., 3:2 pull-down processing).

Abstract: A cross-layer architecture is provided for delivering multiple media streams over 3G W-CDMA channels in adaptive multimedia wireless networks. A resource management mechanism dynamically allocates resources among different media streams adapted to channel status and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. By taking the time-varying wireless transmission characteristics into account, an allocation of resources is performed based on a minimum-distortion or minimum-power criterion. Estimates of the time-varying wireless transmission conditions are made through measurements of throughput and error rate. Power and distortion minimized bit allocation schemes are used with the estimated wireless transmission conditions to for dynamically adaptations in transmissions.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for recursively optimizing the rate control of a hierarchical subband coding system that offers spatial, quality and/or complexity scalabilities. The rate control method recursively adjusts the quantizer scale for each layer of a subband tree, i.e., a subband decomposed image.

Abstract: A scalable layered video coding scheme that encodes video data frames into multiple layers, including a base layer of comparatively low quality video and multiple enhancement layers of increasingly higher quality video, adds error resilience to the enhancement layer. Unique resynchronization marks are inserted into the enhancement layer bitstream in headers associated with each video packet, headers associated with each bit plane, and headers associated with each video-of-plane (VOP) segment. Following transmission of the enhancement layer bitstream, the decoder tries to detect errors in the packets. Upon detection, the decoder seeks forward in the bitstream for the next known resynchronization mark. Once this mark is found, the decoder is able to begin decoding the next video packet. With the addition of many resynchronization marks within each frame, the decoder can recover very quickly and with minimal data loss in the event of a packet loss or channel error in the received enhancement layer bitstream.

Abstract: A resource allocation of multiple compressed AV streams delivered over the Internet is disclosed that achieves end-to-end optimal quality through a multimedia streaming TCP-friendly transport (MSTFP) protocol that adaptively estimates the network bandwidth while smoothing the sending rate. Resources allocated dynamically according to a media encoding distortion and network degradation algorithm. A scheme is also disclosed for dynamically estimating the available network bandwidth for streaming of objects, such as MPEG-4 multiple video objects, in conjunction with the MSTFP protocol. The scheme can account for packet-loss rates to minimize end-to-end distortion for media delivery.