A Unified Rate-Distortion Analysis Framework for Transform Coding

Zhihai He, Member, IEEE, and Sanjit K. Mitra, Life Fellow, IEEE

Abstract

In our previous work, we have developed a rate-dis-tortion
(R-D) modeling framework H.263 video coding by
introducing the new concepts of characteristic rate curves and
rate curve decomposition. In this paper, we further show it is
a unified R-D analysis framework for all typical image/video
transform coding systems, such as EZW, SPIHT and JPEG image
coding; MPEG-2, H.263, and MPEG-4 video coding. Based on
this framework, a unified R-D estimation and control algorithm is
proposed for all typical transform coding systems. We have also
provided a theoretical justification for the unique properties of
the characteristic rate curves. A linear rate regulation scheme is
designed to further improve the estimation accuracy and robust-ness,
as well as to reduce the computational complexity of the R-D
estimation algorithm. Our extensive experimental results show
that with the proposed algorithm, we can accurately estimate the
R-D functions and robustly control the output bit rate or picture
quality of the image/video encoder.