Foveation embedded DCT domain video transcoding

Video transcoding is a key technology to support video communications over heterogeneous networks. Although quite a bit of research effort has been made in video transcoding due to its wide applications, most video transcoding techniques proposed in the literature are optimized based on the simple mean squared error (MSE) metric which does not correlate well with the human visual perception. In this paper, foveation, a property of the HVS, is exploited in video transcoding. The proposed foveation embedded DCT domain video transcoding can reduce the bit rate without compromising visual quality or achieve better subjective quality for a given bit rate by shaping the compression distortion according to the foveated contrast sensitivity function of the HVS. In addition, fast algorithms for video foveation filtering and DCT domain inverse motion compensation are developed, which significantly improve the efficiency of video transcoding.