Vector Restoration for Video Coding

Abstract

We present a novel concept, vector restoration, for motion compensated predictive coding of video. Conventional predictive coders generate predictions of the input signal and encode the residual signal. Here, the predicted images are operated upon directly with the goal of restoring the original images at the decoder. The predicted images are processed in a piecewise manner using restoration functions chosen from a codebook. Compression is achieved by transmitting only an index of the chosen restoration function for each image region. We describe the manner in which the restoration functions are generated and chosen. Vector restoration is shown to outperform residual vector quantization and transform-based coders. This superiority is due to vector restoration's ability to adaptively exploit the non-trivial correlation between the predicted and residual images.