Standard-compliant multiple description image coding by spatial multiplexing and constrained least-squares restoration

Abstract

We propose a practical standard-compliant multiple description (MD) image coding technique. Multiple descriptions of an image are generated in the spatial domain by an adaptive prefiltering and uniform down sampling process. The resulting side descriptions are conventional square sample grids that are interleaved with one the other. As such each side description can be coded by any of the existing image compression standards. A side decoder reconstructs the input image by first decompressing the down-sampled image and then solving a least-squares inverse problem, guided by a two-dimensional windowed piecewise autoregressive model. The central decoder is algorithmically similar to the side decoder, but it improves the reconstruction quality by using received side descriptions as additional constraints when solving the underlying inverse problem. Compared with its predecessors the proposed image MD technique offers the lowest encoder complexity, complete standard compliance, competitive rate-distortion performance, and superior subjective quality.