A PRACTICAL COURSE IN DIGITAL VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS BASED ON MATLAB

The outline of new course in video coding is presented in which the ba sic concepts are reinforced by way of a series of graded MATLAB exerci ses. Following a brief overview of the motion-compensated discrete cos ine transform (DCT) encoder, a number of exercises are described in wh ich the student obtains an understanding of image correlations and ent ropy and the concepts involved in predictive encoding. The data compac tion properties of the discrete cosine transform are then illustrated together with interframe motion-estimation and motion-compensated pred iction. All aspects of the evolving video encoder are then integrated by way of a simplified encoder syntax that is based upon the standard Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) syntax. This allows students to ex change digital bit-streams and decode image sequences that have been e ncoded by fellow students. Advanced topics such as fast motion estimat ion techniques, error resilience, and other coding approaches are brie fly discussed.