Automatic two-layer video object plane generation scheme and its application to MPEG-4 video coding

The new video coding standard MPEG-4 provides content-based functionality and low bit-rate video compression. We focused on the “sprite coding” supported MPEG-4 Version 1 Main profile in order to achieve “VHS quality video on 2B (128kbps)” for narrow-band transmission such as the Internet. Automatic VOP (Video Object Plane) generation technologies are being studied as one of the most important issues of MPEG-4 object coding. This paper proposes a two-layer VOP generation scheme with some core algorithms such as GME (Global Motion Estimation), foreground moving object extraction, and background sprite generation. This paper also describes a shape information reduction method for foreground objects. Using this method, shape information is compressed by 90%. Experiments are conducted on VOP generation and video coding with MPEG-4. Coding efficiency is 3-4 times higher than that of typical existing video coding schemes at the same subjective image quality.