Project Scientific Results

Project title: Developing and evaluating a coding scheme based on the principles of competitive rationality and cooperative action in the allocation of bits among subimages

Supported by: CICYT (Spain). Project: TIC2003-00473

Starting and ending dates: from December 2003 to December 2006

Members of the team: J. A. Garcia (Head) and M. C. Aranda and J. Fdez-Valdivia and Xose R. Fdez-Vidal and J. Martinez Baena and R Rodriguez Sanchez

Description: The effectiveness of a coding method can be improved through a space-varying filterbank tree representation of the image, and this property can be conveniently exploited using appropriate bit allocation strategies among the spatial segments of the image. Here we examine the conditions for achieving a rational agreement on the distribution problem by stating axioms that its solution must obey in absence of a priori knowledge about regions of interest. Firstly, a measure of benefit avoiding certain forms of behavioral inconsistency is to be assigned to each possible bit allocation in such a way that each region's preference may be inferred between any two bit allocations from their respective benefits. Secondly, individual regions are to agree on an allocation of bits which is then to be brought about by a joint strategy, but, under what conditions is their agreement rational? Here we will propose a characterization of rational agreement whose solution is an application of a general procedure for cooperative action where each may benefit only on terms which permit proportionately equal benefits to others. Experimental results will be given to evaluate the performance of the strategy of collective rationality for the allocation of bits, based upon a validated predictor for visual distinctness from digital imagery. The general objective is to demonstrate that, in absence of a priori knowledge about regions of interest, this novel scheme for bit allocation can be used with reasonable internal consistency in order to achieve image fidelity superior to that of the state of art in image compression.

Books

• Progressive Image Transmission. The Role of Rationality, Cooperation and Justice
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia
  Book. SPIE Press (2004). ISBN 0-8194-5504-0.

Journal Papers

• Optimal Exploratory Effort to Build Knowledge for Video Transmission
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia
  Optical Engineering (vol. 46(4)), pp. 047401. (2007)

• A Theory of ``Bit Allocation Analysis
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia
  Optical Engineering (vol. 45 (12)), pp. 127401. (2006)

• Emergence of region-based transmission when computation is unconstrained
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia
  Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation (vol. 17 (5)), pp. 1024-1039. (2006)

• Very low bit-rate video coding of moving targets
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia and J. Martinez Baena
  Optical Engineering (vol. 45(3)), pp. 037401. (2006)

• The Power of a Wavelet Coefficient in Progressive Image Transmission
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia and J. Martinez Baena
  Optical Engineering (vol. 44(8)), pp. 087004. (2005)

• The emergence of a region-based approach to image transmission
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia
  Optical Engineering (vol. 44(6)), pp. 067004. (2005)

• Justice in quantizer formation for rational progressive transmission
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia
  Optical Engineering (vol. 43 (9)), pp. 2105-2119. (2004)

• An embedded coder providing better image quality at very low bit rates
  J. A. Garcia and R Rodriguez Sanchez and J. Fdez-Valdivia
  Optical Engineering (vol. 43 (3)), pp. 615-627. (2004)