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About AMP Lab Projects Downloads Publications People Links
Project - Real-Time Low Bit Rate H.263 Video Codec (1999)
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Khalid Goudeaux |
ksg@andrew.cmu.edu |
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The goal of this project is to develop key video technology for videoconferencing. In addition to developing a standard compliant video codec, we are also performing research in novel techniques that are not specified by the standards, in order to fine-tune and enhance the coding performance for a large variety of applications.
Voice communication of today will be replaced by video communication of tomorrow, and fundamental to realizing this future is real-time compression technology based on ITU-T H.26x standard. The standard defines a syntax and the decoder action, but leaves open the questions of how to implement the encoder. What is the characteristics of a high-quality video codec (encoder and decoder) ? Video quality? Frame rate? Compression ratio? Error resiliency? Or, ill-defined real-world user experience?
CMU H.263 codec is developed in-house with software engineering disciplines - designed to be portable and maintainable and serves as a platform for further video research. Many projects here are built upon CMU H.263 codec platform, and several encoding algorithms have been developed to better the quality of video codec.
Portability
Written in C/C++ with software engineering discipline, our codec can be
compiled by any ANSI-C compatible compiler. The codec can be run on any platform, and have been used on Unix, Windows, TI
C6x, and Trimedia DSP platforms.
Optional Features
In addition to the baseline support, the following optional features have been supported on SQCIF, QCIF, and CIF:
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Advanced Intra Coding mode
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Alternate INTER-VLC mode
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Advanced Prediction mode
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DeBlocking Filter mode
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Independent Segment Decoding mode
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PB-frames mode
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Reference-Picture Selection mode (partial)
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Slice-Structured mode
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Syntax-based Arithmetic Coding mode
Disclaimer: This web page contains the most current public distribution of the CMU H.263+ Decoder. This is currently not based on the most current work of CMU H.263+ codec development. The performance of this public distribution software does not accurately depict the best performance of the CMU H.263+ codec (whether encoder or decoder) due to video hardware, network performance, un-optimized windows programming, etc. Please contact Professor Tsuhan Chen for more information in regards to this codec/decoder.
This release (summer 99) of the decoder takes as input a URL just as you would in the address bar of a web browser. A video window display will output the results of the decoded bitstream as the bits are being read from the Internet. This is an example of the "streaming" capabilities of this implementation of H.263+. The program has been written to give the bitstream decoding process higher priority over the video display process. This will account for any flicker or frame skipping in video display. If you are running the decoder under Windows 95 or 98, have the command prompt window selected to decrease on unnecessary pauses. The pauses are due to the operating system's inability to handle threads efficiently.
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Sample Sequences
Video Sequence Bytes Frame Rate Duration Special Modes Bitrate carphone_qcif.vsl 90,633 10 Hz, QCIF 12.7 s none 55.8 Kbps foreman_qcif.vsl 95,732 10 Hz, QCIF 10 s none 76.6 Kbps foreman_qcife.vsl 92,346 10 Hz, QCIF 10 s SAC 73.9 Kbps foreman_qcifis.vsl 98,642 10 Hz, QCIF 10 s AIC & AIV 78.9 Kbps salesman_qcif.vsl 41,069 10 Hz, QCIF 15 s none 21.9 Kbps salesman_qciff.vsl 38,744 10 Hz, QCIF 15 s AP 20.7 Kbps coastguard_qcif.vsl 108,624 10 Hz, QCIF 10 s none 86.9 Kbps coastguard_qcifjr.vsl 114,867 10 Hz, QCIF 10 s DF & ISD 91.9 Kbps mad_qcifef.vsl 24,513 10 Hz, QCIF 10 s AP & SAC 19.6 Kbps hockey1_cif.vsl 1,389,835 30 Hz, CIF 25 s none 444.7 Kbps hockey2_cif.vsl 1,066,260 30 Hz, CIF 25 s none 341.2 Kbps hall_qcifsli.vsl 88,689 30Hz, QCIF 10s Slice 70.9 Kbps
Click here to download the H.263 video decoder. (Configure the decoder)
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AT&T http://www.att.com/
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C-Cube http://www.c-cube.com/
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Eagle Vision http://www.eaglevision1.com
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Institute for Information Industry (III), Taiwan http://www.iii.org.tw/
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Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan http://www.itri.org.tw/
| Publications |
- Deepak S. Turaga and Tsuhan Chen, "Classification based mode decisions for video over networks," IEEE Trans. Multimedia, Special issue on multimedia over IP.
- Deepak S. Turaga and Tsuhan Chen, "Estimation and Mode Decision for Spatially Correlated Motion Sequences", to be published in IEEE Trans. CSVT.
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Deepak S. Turaga and Tsuhan Chen, "Hierarchical Modeling of Variable Bit Rate Video Sources," Packet Video 2001, Kyongju, Korea, Apr. 30 - May. 1, 2001.
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Deepak S. Turaga and Tsuhan Chen, "I/P Frame Selection Using Classification Based Mode Decision", accepted by ICIP 2001.
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D. Turaga and T. Chen, "Activity-Adaptive Modeling of Dynamic Multimedia Traffic", IEEE Intl. Conf. on Multimedia and Expo., New York, July 2000
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D. Turaga and T. Chen, "Modeling of Dynamic Video Traffic", IEEE Intl. Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Geneva, Switzerland, May, 2000
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M. Alkanhal, D. Turaga and T. Chen, "Correlation based search algorithms for motion estimation", Picture Coding Symposium, Portland, Oregon, Apr 1999
Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Please send them to Ta.