Novel prediction schemes for error resilient video coding

A conventional video codec uses encoder reconstruction of previous frames for motion compensated prediction. This is designed to minimize the encoder prediction error and assumes error free transmission. In this paper we use a modified prediction mechanism both at the encoder and decoder and propose techniques to improve the error resilience of H.264/AVC when transmitted over error prone networks. In our schemes we provide greater emphasis on Intra pixels during the formation of the reference frame used for prediction, thereby achieving better resilience. We also incorporate leaky prediction to further improve the robustness. We apply leaky prediction selectively at a macroblock level based on a simple mean square error metric in order to reduce the bit-rate penalty. Substantial performance gains have been observed in simulations. The effectiveness of using leaky prediction can be observed in medium and fast moving video sequences.