EWF Based Unequal Error Protection Scheme for ROI Coded Images

Abstract

Region of interest (ROI) is the spatial region of an image or video scene that attracts observers mostly interest. Therefore, ROI calls for more transmission protection level than that of the background (BG) in an image or a video scene. Unequal error protection (UEP) coding can be utilized to provide unequal transmission protection level for ROI and BG in an image or video scene. Expanding window fountain (EWF) codes are capable of providing flexible and efficient UEP property and protecting particular spatial regions of an image or video scene according to their importance. In this study, we propose a novel EWF based UEP scheme for ROI coded image over binary erasure channel (BEC). The results of the simulation and theoretical analysis show that the proposed EWF based UEP scheme for ROI coded image can significantly enhance the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) of ROI compared with EEP scheme in the overhead region of and efficiently utilize bandwidth while ensuring satisfactory quality of service (QoS) of ROI.