VIDEO SIGNALS TRANSPARENCY IN CONSEQUENCE OF 3D-DCT TRANSFORM

Tom Frza, Stanislav Hanus Institute of Radio Electronics, Brno University of Technology Purkyova 118, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic, Tel.: +420-541149126, Fax: +420-541149244 E-mail: fryza@feec.vutbr.cz, hanus@feec.vutbr.cz Abstract: The contribution deals with the frame transparency of two video sequences as a product of the 3D-DCT transform. Principle of the 3D-DCT transform is based on the correlation between several frames in the temporal dimension. The obvious disadvantage of this transform is represented by video sequences mixing inside this group of frames. The method of transparency elimination founded on the 3D-DCT encoder and decoder modification is introduced in this paper. 1 INTRODUCTION The 3D-DCT (Three-Dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform) is a video data compress method applies on a group of frames. The main goal of this method is to eliminate a correlation inside each frame and in a temporal dimension as well. The input data stream is divided into n frames (in our case n=8) as shown in Fig. 1. These groups of n frames are completely independent to each other. The problem appears when one group contains several types of video sequences. In consequence, particular frames compound images from different video sequences. In this paper the situation of a cut of two different sequences inside encoder input is engaged with help of the transparency reduction method. The paper is divided into two major parts. In the first part, Section 2, the method of transparency reduction is presented. The second part, Section 3, is devoted to the real video sequences simulation. Comments and results are given in the last section.

previous eight frames

eight frames with cut

next eight frames

Figure 1: Video sequence with cut. 2 TRANSPARENCY REDUCTION In the next text the evaluation of the 3D-DCT algorithm is proposed. The goal is to separate different video sequences and to perform the 3D-DCT transform with one video type only. The principle is shown in Fig. 2 and is as follows: according to a detection of a cut position, one encoder input (so-called video cube) is divided in two. The first contains samples from the first video sequence only and the second is composed with data from the second sequence. Remaining samples of new video cubes are appended with a constant of particular value. The choice of this constant (named attenuation level) is discus in the next text.

The 3D-FDCT (Forward Three-Dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform) is performed to these two video cubes. On the decoder side the 3D-IDCT (Inverse Three-Dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform) is affected as well and the output data stream is formed according to the known cut position.

3D-FDCT 3D-IDCT

Figure 2: Principle of transparency reduction. 3 SIMULATION RESULTS Test video sequence composed of two different video sequences is proposed for the simulation. Dimensions of both are 240 x 352 pixels (quantised by 3x8 bits) and first have duration of five and second of three color frames. First of them, named tramway, contains a slowly moving tramway. Second, named street, represents a heavy traffic in a street in Brno (Czech Republic). The cut is thus situated between fifth and sixth frame. In order to compare the compression quality, two most common criteria were used: CR (Compress Ratio) and NRMSE (Normalized Root Mean Square Error). In consequence of simplification, we use the definition of the CR given by Chrom [1]: CR = nbAll , nbC (7)

where nbAll is the number of all pixels in the video sequence and nbC is the number of nonzero 3D-DCT coefficients. By Prado [3] the equation of NRMSE is given by:
nbAll

NRMSE =

(s
i =1

i =1 nbAll

si )
2 i

(s )

(8)

where si is the intensity of an original picture element and si is the intensity of a picture element after decompression. Four test situations were effected: three distinct attenuation levels were chosen 0, 127 and -128 and one simulation without transparency reduction was performed as well. In consequence of highlighting the frame transparency, higher threshold level (threshold level=10) was used [2]. The considered method has one important advantage and couple of disadvantages: transparency elimination, increase coder complexity, increase bit rate and decrease picture luminance.

In Fig. 3 5 are shown part of original and decompressed video sequences. All frames have size of 85 % and all represent border frames, i.e. fifth and sixth frames of test sequence.

a) b) Figure 3: Border frames of original video sequence.

a) b) Figure 4: Border frames of decompressed video sequence without transparency reduction.

a)

b)

Figure 5: Border frames of decompressed video sequence with transparency reduction.

Comparison of considered methods is shown in Tab. 1 and Fig. 6, where attenuation level represents value of added samples in input video cubes, CR is compress ratio, NRMSE normalised root mean square error and CNR means CR/NRMSE ratio. Table 1: Comparison of considered methods (threshold level = 10)
tramway-street attenuation level [-] 0 127 -128 500 400 CNR [-] 300 200 100 0 0 127 -128 attenuation level [-]

240 x 352 x 8 CR [-] 27.65 25.42 25.48 38.87 NRMSE [-] 0.08415 0.10322 0.10294 0.08504 CNR [-] 329 246 248 457

Figure 6: CR/NRMSE ratio of considered methods. The detriment of the NRMSE is that it not respects the motion in the video sequences and the transparency in several frames as well. From above mentioned table ensue the best quality of the decompressed sequence was accomplished without the transparency reduction. However, this contribution is focus in frame fading and from this point of view with the attenuation level equals 0 the best conditions were obtained. 4 CONCLUSION The 3D-DCT (Three-Dimensional Discrete Cosine Transform) has a serious disadvantage if the video sequences cut is presents in the input data. In this case, the frame transparency is performed. The aim of this paper was to eliminate transparency of the different video sequences inside the input of the 3D-DCT encoder. The different enhancements of the 3D-DCT encoder and decoder have been proposed. Two different video sequences have been applied for the simulation as well. The first sequence contains slow motion in front of the static background and the second one represents fast moving cars. REFERENCES [1] CHROM, I. Compression of Digital Video Signals. Postgraduate Thesis. Institute of Radio Electronics, FEI Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic, 2001. [2] FRZA, T. Compression of Video Signals by 3D-DCT Transform. Diploma Thesis. Institute of Radio Electronics, FEKT Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic, 2002. [3] PRADO, J., NICOLAS, J.M. Techniques Numeriques en Traitement de Signal. Elective course papers. Department of Signal and Image Processing. ENST Paris, France, 1999.