Inspired by the facts that retinal cells actually segregate the visual scene into different attributes (e.g., spatial details, temporal motion) for respective neuronal processing, we propose to first decompose the input video into respective spatial texture frames (STF) at its native spatial resolution that preserve the rich spatial details, and the other temporal motion frames (TMF) at a lower spatial resolution that retain the motion smoothness; then compress them together using any popular video coder; and finally synthesize decoded STFs and TMFs for high-fidelity video reconstruction at the same resolution as its native input. This work simply applies the bicubic resampling in decomposition and HEVC compliant codec in compression, and puts the focus on the synthesis part. For resolution-adaptive synthesis, a motion compensation network (MCN) is devised on TMFs to efficiently align and aggregate temporal motion features that will be jointly processed with corresponding STFs using a non-local texture transfer network (NL-TTN) to better augment spatial details, by which the compression and resolution resampling noises can be effectively alleviated with better rate-distortion efficiency. Such "Decomposition, Compression, Synthesis (DCS)" based scheme is codec agnostic, currently exemplifying averaged $\approx$1 dB PSNR gain or $\approx$25% BD-rate saving, against the HEVC anchor using reference software. In addition, experimental comparisons to the state-of-the-art methods and ablation studies are conducted to further report the efficiency and generalization of DCS algorithm, promising an encouraging direction for future video coding.
Recently, learned image compression techniques have achieved remarkable performance, even surpassing the best manually designed lossy image coders. They are promising to be large-scale adopted. For the sake of practicality, a thorough investigation of the architecture design of learned image compression, regarding both compression performance and running speed, is essential. In this paper, we first propose uneven channel-conditional adaptive coding, motivated by the observation of energy compaction in learned image compression. Combining the proposed uneven grouping model with existing context…
Efficient Learned Image Compression without Entropy Coding
Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University（清华大学电子工程系）；Department of Automation, Tsinghua University（清华大学自动化系）；State Key Laboratory of Space Network（空间网络与通信国家重点实验室）；Beijing National Research Center for Information Science（北京信息科学国家研究中心）
Scalable coding, which can adapt to channel bandwidth variation, performs well in today's complex network environment. However, the existing scalable compression methods face two challenges: reduced compression performance and insufficient scalability. In this paper, we propose the first learned fine-grained scalable image compression model (DeepFGS) to overcome the above two shortcomings. Specifically, we introduce a feature separation backbone to divide the image information into basic and scalable features, then redistribute the features channel by channel through an information rearrangeme…
Trit-plane coding enables deep progressive image compression, but it cannot use autoregressive context models. In this paper, we propose the context-based trit-plane coding (CTC) algorithm to achieve progressive compression more compactly. First, we develop the context-based rate reduction module to estimate trit probabilities of latent elements accurately and thus encode the trit-planes compactly. Second, we develop the context-based distortion reduction module to refine partial latent tensors from the trit-planes and improve the reconstructed image quality. Third, we propose a retraining sch…
We propose in this paper a new paradigm for facial video compression. We leverage the generative capacity of GANs such as StyleGAN to represent and compress a video, including intra and inter compression. Each frame is inverted in the latent space of StyleGAN, from which the optimal compression is learned. To do so, a diffeomorphic latent representation is learned using a normalizing flows model, where an entropy model can be optimized for image coding. In addition, we propose a new perceptual loss that is more efficient than other counterparts. Finally, an entropy model for video inter coding…
Stereo Image Coding for Machines with Joint Visual Feature Compression
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Tianjin University（天津大学电气与信息工程学院）；Santa Clara University（圣克拉拉大学）；School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学计算机科学与技术学院）
Nanjing University（南京大学）；Hangzhou Normal University（杭州师范大学）
This work extends the Multiscale Sparse Representation (MSR) framework developed for static Point Cloud Geometry Compression (PCGC) to support the dynamic PCGC through the use of multiscale inter conditional coding. To this end, the reconstruction of the preceding Point Cloud Geometry (PCG) frame is progressively downscaled to generate multiscale temporal priors which are then scale-wise transferred and integrated with lower-scale spatial priors from the same frame to form the contextual information to improve occupancy probability approximation when processing the current PCG frame from one s…
Deep learning methods are increasingly being applied in the optimisation of video compression algorithms and can achieve significantly enhanced coding gains, compared to conventional approaches. Such approaches often employ Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) which are trained on databases with relatively limited content coverage. In this paper, a new extensive and representative video database, BVI-DVC, is presented for training CNN-based video compression systems, with specific emphasis on machine learning tools that enhance conventional coding architectures, including spatial resolution an…
Los Alamos National Laboratory（洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室）；New Mexico Consortium（新墨西哥联盟）；Southern Illinois University Carbondale（南伊利诺伊大学卡本代尔分校）
Bottleneck autoencoders have been actively researched as a solution to image compression tasks. However, we observed that bottleneck autoencoders produce subjectively low quality reconstructed images. In this work, we explore the ability of sparse coding to improve reconstructed image quality for the same degree of compression. We observe that sparse image compression produces visually superior reconstructed images and yields higher values of pixel-wise measures of reconstruction quality (PSNR and SSIM) compared to bottleneck autoencoders. % In addition, we find that using alternative metrics …
In point cloud compression, exploiting temporal redundancy for inter predictive coding is challenging because of the irregular geometry. This paper proposes an efficient block-based inter-coding scheme for color attribute compression. The scheme includes integer-precision motion estimation and an adaptive graph based in-loop filtering scheme for improved attribute prediction. The proposed block-based motion estimation scheme consists of an initial motion search that exploits geometric and color attributes, followed by a motion refinement that only minimizes color prediction error. To further i…
With the deployment of neural networks on mobile devices and the necessity of transmitting neural networks over limited or expensive channels, the file size of the trained model was identified as bottleneck. In this paper, we propose a codec for the compression of neural networks which is based on transform coding for convolutional and dense layers and on clustering for biases and normalizations. By using this codec, we achieve average compression factors between 7.9-9.3 while the accuracy of the compressed networks for image classification decreases only by 1%-2%, respectively.
Variational autoencoders (VAEs) have witnessed great success in performing the compression of image datasets. This success, made possible by the bits-back coding framework, has produced competitive compression performance across many benchmarks. However, despite this, VAE architectures are currently limited by a combination of coding practicalities and compression ratios. That is, not only do state-of-the-art methods, such as normalizing flows, often demonstrate out-performance, but the initial bits required in coding makes single and parallel image compression challenging. To remedy this, we …
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University（国立阳明交通大学）；CNIT（意大利国家电信联盟）；University of Brescia（布雷西亚大学）
This paper presents an end-to-end learning-based video compression system, termed CANF-VC, based on conditional augmented normalizing flows (CANF). Most learned video compression systems adopt the same hybrid-based coding architecture as the traditional codecs. Recent research on conditional coding has shown the sub-optimality of the hybrid-based coding and opens up opportunities for deep generative models to take a key role in creating new coding frameworks. CANF-VC represents a new attempt that leverages the conditional ANF to learn a video generative model for conditional inter-frame coding…
This paper proposes a learning-based video compression framework for variable-rate coding on YUV 4:2:0 content. Most existing learning-based video compression models adopt the traditional hybrid-based coding architecture, which involves temporal prediction followed by residual coding. However, recent studies have shown that residual coding is sub-optimal from the information-theoretic perspective. In addition, most existing models are optimized with respect to RGB content. Furthermore, they require separate models for variable-rate coding. To address these issues, this work presents an attempt…
The paper presents a new approach to multiview video coding using Screen Content Coding. It is assumed that for a time instant the frames corresponding to all views are packed into a single frame, i.e. the frame-compatible approach to multiview coding is applied. For such coding scenario, the paper demonstrates that Screen Content Coding can be efficiently used for multiview video coding. Two approaches are considered: the first using standard HEVC Screen Content Coding, and the second using Advanced Screen Content Coding. The latter is the original proposal of the authors that exploits quarte…
UCVC: A Unified Contextual Video Compression Framework with Joint P-frame and B-frame Coding
School of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Peking University（北京大学电子与计算机工程学院）；Peng Cheng Laboratory（鹏城实验室）；Migu Culture Technology Co., Ltd（咪咕文化科技有限公司）
The end-to-end learning-based video compression has attracted substantial attentions by paving another way to compress video signals as stacked visual features. This paper proposes an efficient end-to-end deep video codec with jointly optimized compression and enhancement modules (JCEVC). First, we propose a dual-path generative adversarial network (DPEG) to reconstruct video details after compression. An $α$-path facilitates the structure information reconstruction with a large receptive field and multi-frame references, while a $β$-path facilitates the reconstruction of local textures. Both …
Most of the existing neural video compression methods adopt the predictive coding framework, which first generates the predicted frame and then encodes its residue with the current frame. However, as for compression ratio, predictive coding is only a sub-optimal solution as it uses simple subtraction operation to remove the redundancy across frames. In this paper, we propose a deep contextual video compression framework to enable a paradigm shift from predictive coding to conditional coding. In particular, we try to answer the following questions: how to define, use, and learn condition under …
University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Rice University（莱斯大学）
The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) processing chain starts with a critical acquisition stage that provides raw data for reconstruction of images for medical diagnosis. This flow usually includes a near-lossless data compression stage that enables digital storage and/or transmission in binary formats. In this work we propose a framework for joint optimization of the MRI reconstruction and lossy compression, producing compressed representations of medical images that achieve improved trade-offs between quality and bit-rate. Moreover, we demonstrate that lossy compression can even improve the r…
Efficient Dynamic-NeRF Based Volumetric Video Coding with Rate Distortion Optimization
Institute of Image Communication and Network Engineering（图像通信与网络工程研究所）；Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）；College of Electronics and Information Engineering（电子信息工程学院）；Sichuan University（四川大学）
Generative Latent Coding for Ultra-Low Bitrate Image and Video Compression
MoE Key Laboratory of Brain-inspired Intelligent Perception and Cognition, University of Science and Technology of China（脑启发式智能感知与认知联合实验室，中国科学技术大学）；Microsoft Research Asia（微软亚洲研究院）
Conceptual coding has been an emerging research topic recently, which encodes natural images into disentangled conceptual representations for compression. However, the compression performance of the existing methods is still sub-optimal due to the lack of comprehensive consideration of rate constraint and reconstruction quality. To this end, we propose a novel end-to-end semantic prior modeling-based conceptual coding scheme towards extremely low bitrate image compression, which leverages semantic-wise deep representations as a unified prior for entropy estimation and texture synthesis. Specif…
Beihang University（北京航空航天大学）；Beijing Institute of Technology（北京理工大学）；The University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；Tencent（腾讯）
The previous deep video compression approaches only use the single scale motion compensation strategy and rarely adopt the mode prediction technique from the traditional standards like H.264/H.265 for both motion and residual compression. In this work, we first propose a coarse-to-fine (C2F) deep video compression framework for better motion compensation, in which we perform motion estimation, compression and compensation twice in a coarse to fine manner. Our C2F framework can achieve better motion compensation results without significantly increasing bit costs. Observing hyperprior informatio…
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)（韩国科学技术院）
Recently, deep image compression has shown a big progress in terms of coding efficiency and image quality improvement. However, relatively less attention has been put on video compression using deep learning networks. In the paper, we first propose a deep learning based bi-predictive coding network, called BP-DVC Net, for video compression. Learned from the lesson of the conventional video coding, a B-frame coding structure is incorporated in our BP-DVC Net. While the bi-predictive coding in the conventional video codecs requires to transmit to decoder sides the motion vectors for block motion…
The University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；Beijing Institute of Technology（北京理工大学）；Beihang University（北京航空航天大学）
In the learning based video compression approaches, it is an essential issue to compress pixel-level optical flow maps by developing new motion vector (MV) encoders. In this work, we propose a new framework called Resolution-adaptive Flow Coding (RaFC) to effectively compress the flow maps globally and locally, in which we use multi-resolution representations instead of single-resolution representations for both the input flow maps and the output motion features of the MV encoder. To handle complex or simple motion patterns globally, our frame-level scheme RaFC-frame automatically decides the …
Segmentation-based image coding methods provide high compression ratios when compared with traditional image coding approaches like the transform and sub band coding for low bit-rate compression applications. In this paper, a segmentation-based image coding method, namely the Binary Space Partition scheme, that divides the desired image using a recursive procedure for coding is presented. The BSP approach partitions the desired image recursively by using bisecting lines, selected from a collection of discrete optional lines, in a hierarchical manner. This partitioning procedure generates a bin…
Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology（东京都立产业技术高等专门学校）；Tokyo Metropolitan University（东京都立大学）
We propose a novel JPEG XT image compression with hue compensation for two-layer HDR coding. LDR images produced from JPEG XT bitstreams have some distortion in hue due to tone mapping operations. In order to suppress the color distortion, we apply a novel hue compensation method based on the maximally saturated colors. Moreover, the bitstreams generated by using the proposed method are fully compatible with the JPEG XT standard. In an experiment, the proposed method is demonstrated not only to produce images with small hue degradation but also to maintain well-mapped luminance, in terms of th…
A variety of new and powerful algorithms have been developed for image compression over the years. Among them the wavelet-based image compression schemes have gained much popularity due to their overlapping nature which reduces the blocking artifacts that are common phenomena in JPEG compression and multiresolution character which leads to superior energy compaction with high quality reconstructed images. This paper provides a detailed survey on some of the popular wavelet coding techniques such as the Embedded Zerotree Wavelet (EZW) coding, Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Tree (SPIHT) coding…
Peking University（北京大学）；Peng Cheng Lab（鹏城实验室）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；City University of Hong Kong（香港城市大学）
In recent years, the image and video coding technologies have advanced by leaps and bounds. However, due to the popularization of image and video acquisition devices, the growth rate of image and video data is far beyond the improvement of the compression ratio. In particular, it has been widely recognized that there are increasing challenges of pursuing further coding performance improvement within the traditional hybrid coding framework. Deep convolution neural network (CNN) which makes the neural network resurge in recent years and has achieved great success in both artificial intelligent a…
Neural image compression (NIC) has outperformed traditional image codecs in rate-distortion (R-D) performance. However, it usually requires a dedicated encoder-decoder pair for each point on R-D curve, which greatly hinders its practical deployment. While some recent works have enabled bitrate control via conditional coding, they impose strong prior during training and provide limited flexibility. In this paper we propose Code Editing, a highly flexible coding method for NIC based on semi-amortized inference and adaptive quantization. Our work is a new paradigm for variable bitrate NIC. Furthe…
Inter-LPCM: Learning-based Inter-Frame Predictive Coding for LiDAR Point Cloud Compression
School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University（控制科学与工程学院，山东大学）；Key Laboratory of Machine Intelligence and System Control, Ministry of Education（教育部机器智能与系统控制重点实验室）；School of Computer Science and Technology, Shandong University（计算机科学与技术学院，山东大学）；School of Engineering and Sustainable Development, De Montfort University（工程与可持续发展学院，德蒙福特大学）
We propose a very simple and efficient video compression framework that only focuses on modeling the conditional entropy between frames. Unlike prior learning-based approaches, we reduce complexity by not performing any form of explicit transformations between frames and assume each frame is encoded with an independent state-of-the-art deep image compressor. We first show that a simple architecture modeling the entropy between the image latent codes is as competitive as other neural video compression works and video codecs while being much faster and easier to implement. We then propose a nove…
Nanyang Technological University（南洋理工大学）；City University of Hong Kong（香港城市大学）
Recent imaging technologies are rapidly evolving for sampling richer and more immersive representations of the 3D world. And one of the emerging technologies are light field (LF) cameras based on micro-lens arrays. To record the directional information of the light rays, a much larger storage space and transmission bandwidth are required by a LF image as compared with a conventional 2D image of similar spatial dimension, and the compression of LF data becomes a vital part of its application. In this paper, we propose a LF codec that fully exploits the intrinsic geometry between the LF sub-view…
Takushoku University（拓殖大学）；Tokyo Metropolitan College of Industrial Technology（东京都立产业技术高等专门学校）；Tokyo Metropolitan University（东京都立大学）
An efficient two-layer coding method using the histogram packing technique with the backward compatibility to the legacy JPEG is proposed in this paper. The JPEG XT, which is the international standard to compress HDR images, adopts two-layer coding scheme for backward compatibility to the legacy JPEG. However, this two-layer coding structure does not give better lossless performance than the other existing methods for HDR image compression with single-layer structure. Moreover, the lossless compression of the JPEG XT has a problem on determination of the coding parameters; The lossless perfor…
Unviersity of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）
As a commonly-used image compression format, JPEG has been broadly applied in the transmission and storage of images. To further reduce the compression cost while maintaining the quality of JPEG images, lossless transcoding technology has been proposed to recompress the compressed JPEG image in the DCT domain. Previous works, on the other hand, typically reduce the redundancy of DCT coefficients and optimize the probability prediction of entropy coding in a hand-crafted manner that lacks generalization ability and flexibility. To tackle the above challenge, we propose the learned lossless JPEG…
