A low bit rate segmented video codec with hybrid motion estimation and inherent bit rate control capability

In this paper a segmented video codec with hybrid motion estimation and inherent bit rate control capability is presented. The first frame in the data is always encoded in intraframe mode, while the rest of the frames are encoded in interframe mode. The interframe encoding is based on (1) hybrid conventional/perspective block motion vector estimation and coding, and (2) coding of the prediction error (Displaced Frame Difference, “DFD”) using segmented image coding techniques. We present a way to partition the DFD in moving and static regions and we explain how this classification strategy can be used as a means to control the bit rate. The simulation results show that the hybrid motion estimation technique outperforms the conventional full search block-matching method by improving the overall PSNR for reduced bit rate, and that the bit rate control strategy, although simple, is very efficient for monitoring both the bit rate and the quality degradation.