A HIERARCHICAL ENCODING METHOD AND APPARATUS EMPLOYING BACKGROUND REFERENCES FOR EFFICIENTLY COMMUNICATING IMAGE SEQUENCES

摘要

To improve reproduction of images transmitted over a narrow-band channel (20), image frames are first arranged in a hierarchy of decimation levels. A first error signal is generated by comparing corresponding levels of decimated background data with current image data, and second error data is generated by comparing corresponding levels of frame-predicted warped data also with the current image data. These two error signals are then compared to determine which data more closely represents the current image data. In another embodiment, motion compensation is used.