Error resilient image communication using content-based multiple description coding

Abstract

Multiple description coding has been studied as an approach for transmission of images over error prone environments. The multiple description coding method proposed takes into account the content of the image and provides the least amount of degradation, caused by loss of descriptors, for those areas of the image which are of greater interest. This is achieved by employing a nonlinear geometrical transform to add redundancy mainly to the area of interest followed by a partitioning of the non-linearly transformed image into sub-images which are coded and transmitted over separate channels. Simulations show that this approach yields exceptional performance even when only one descriptor is received. Moreover the method proposed can be implemented through pre- and postprocessing of the image data, without modification to the source codecs (e.g., JPEG).