Perceptual quality feedback based progressive frame-level refreshing for robust video communication

In this paper, we propose an encoder side error resilience technique, namely the progressive group of picture (PGOP), which is well suited for rate controlled real-time video transmission over wireless channels. The PGOP scheme can be seen as an alternative approach to the group of picture (GOP) that uses periodic intra-frames (I-frames) for low bit-rate channels. This is because: (1) the PGOP scheme can completely stop error propagation in a timely manner; (2) the PGOP scheme avoids the bit rate unevenness problem of I-frames by a progressive intra-updating method. We further apply the PGOP scheme in a novel video perceptual quality feedback framework, and design an on-line algorithm both to help shape the bit rate and to explore the maximum recovery capability of PGOP. The performance of our scheme is demonstrated in a wireless LAN channel. It is to be noted that the PGOP can additionally provide the random access functionality and the technique is applicable to all inter frame based video standards, e.g., MPEG-4.