Side Information Refinement for Transform domain Distributed Video Coding

A new side information refinement method for transform domain distributed video coding (DVC) is proposed. In DVC, side information is the frame constructed from key frames which are intra coded. It is utilized as the initial estimate of source symbols of Wyner-Ziv coded frame which is not transmitted to the decoder. Errors in the estimated frames are to be corrected by the decoder using the parity bits which are the only information received from the encoder. Quality of decoder generated side information is one of the most important factors deciding the overall performance of the decoder. A new refinement method of improving the quality of side information of the DVC decoder is proposed. The side information frame is refined at the end of each transform band decoding stage followed by a conventional bi-directional motion estimation and compensation technique. Proposed side information refinement technique consequently improves the quality of final reconstructed pictures.