title: Improved lossless intra coding for H.264/MPEG-4 AVC.
abstract: A new lossless intra coding method based on sample-by-sample differential pulse code modulation (DPCM) is presented as an enhancement of the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard. The H.264/AVC design includes a multidirectional spatial prediction method to reduce spatial redundancy by using neighboring samples as a prediction for the samples in a block of data to be encoded. In the new lossless intra coding method, the spatial prediction is performed based on samplewise DPCM instead of in the block-based manner used in the current H.264/AVC standard, while the block structure is retained for the residual difference entropy coding process. We show that the new method, based on samplewise DPCM, does not have a major complexity penalty, despite its apparent pipeline dependencies. Experiments show that the new lossless intra coding method reduces the bit rate by approximately 12% in comparison with the lossless intra coding method previously included in the H.264/AVC standard. As a result, the new method is currently being adopted into the H.264/AVC standard in a new enhancement project.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, Korea 143-747. yllee@sejong.ac.kr
authors.forename: Yung-Lyul
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Ki-Hun
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Gary J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003196:Computer Graphics; D044962:Data Compression / Q000379:methods*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014741:Video Recording / Q000379:methods*