Mesh-based motion-compensated interpolation for side information extraction in distributed video coding

This paper addresses the problem of side information generation in distributed video compression (DVC) schemes. Intermediate frames constructed by motion-compensated interpolation of key frames are used as side information to decode Wyner-Ziv frames. The limitations of block-based translational motion models call for new motion models. This article studies the benefits of mesh-based motion-compensated (MC) interpolation for side information extraction in DVC. A hybrid block-based and mesh-based solution addressing the problem of motion discontinuities and occlusions is also described. The increased correlation between the side information and the Wyner-Ziv encoded frames leads to performance gains which can reach up to I dB with respect to block-based solutions.