Macroblock-based adaptive in-scale prediction for scalable video coding

This paper extends the so called generalized in-scale coding technique developed in our previous work to a macroblock-based adaptive in-scale motion compensation framework for H.264/MPEG-4 SVC (scalable video coding). In this framework, the in-scale technique is employed to generate predictions for video frames at high resolution layers, which can utilize both temporal correlation and cross-resolution correlation simultaneously. The lowpass content of a high resolution frame is predicted from its lower resolution layer and the highpass content is predicted from neighboring frames at the same resolution layer. For quality and resolution combined scalability, the prediction from lower resolution layer is not always better than temporal prediction. The inscale technique is thereby employed adaptively at macroblock level according to the local characteristics of video signal. Techniques for motion estimation and mode decision are also investigated. Experimental results demonstrate that the scheme proposed in this paper can outperform H.264/MIPEG-4 SVC significantly. The coding performance is quite promising especially for high-fidelity video coding.