Efficient Lossy Compression of Video Sequences of Automotive High-Dynamic Range Image Sensors for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems and Autonomous Vehicles

In this paper, we introduce an efficient lossy coding procedure specifically tailored for handling video sequences of automotive high-dynamic range (HDR) image sensors in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADASs) for autonomous vehicles. Nowadays, mainly for security reasons, lossless compression is used in the automotive industry. However, it offers very low compression rates. To obtain higher compression rates, we suggest using lossy codecs, especially when testing image processing algorithms in software in-the-loop (SiL) or hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) conditions. Our approach leverages the high-quality VP9 codec, operating in two distinct modes: grayscale image compression for automatic image analysis and color (in RGB format) image compression for manual analysis. In both modes, images are acquired from the automotive-specific RCCC (red, clear, clear, clear) image sensor. The codec is designed to achieve a controlled image quality and state-of-the-art compression ratios while maintaining real-time feasibility. In automotive applications, the inherent data loss poses challenges associated with lossy codecs, particularly in rapidly changing scenes with intricate details. To address this, we propose configuring the lossy codecs in variable bitrate (VBR) mode with a constrained quality (CQ) parameter. By adjusting the quantization parameter, users can tailor the codec behavior to their specific application requirements. In this context, a detailed analysis of the quality of lossy compressed images in terms of the structural similarity index metric (SSIM) and the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) metrics is presented. With this analysis, we extracted some codec parameters, which have an important impact on preservation of video quality and compression ratio. The proposed compression settings are very efficient: the compression ratios vary from 51 to 7765 for grayscale image mode and from 4.51 to 602.6 for RGB image mode, depending on the specified output image quality settings. We reached 129 frames per second (fps) for compression and 315 fps for decompression in grayscale mode and 102 fps for compression and 121 fps for decompression in the RGB mode. These make it possible to achieve a much higher compression ratio compared to lossless compression while maintaining control over image quality.