Structure unanimity multiple description coding

A novel multiple description coding framework, called structure unanimity multiple description coding, is proposed in this paper. Each wavelet coefficient is first decomposed into an odd position coefficient made from the bits in the odd positions and an even position coefficient made from the bits in the even positions. These two types of coefficients form the odd image and the even image, respectively, which are next encoded, and then transmitted using two different channels. Since the two images share the same hierarchical tree structure, only coefficient values in the redundancy parts need to be coded, resulting in improved coding efficiency. To meet the requirements of the packet switching network, these two images are rearranged in tree blocks, and the tree blocks in the even image and odd image are grouped to form the row and column packets, respectively. These packets are next separately dispatched through diverse channels. Since the row and the column packets have limited intersections, even with simultaneous loss of row and column packets, the proposed system exhibits good error resilient ability. Experimental results have verified the improved performance of the proposed algorithm. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.