Low-bit motion estimation with edge enhanced images for lowpower MPEG encoder

PurposeOur purpose was to perform an in vivo validation of ultrasound imaging for intrafraction motion estimation using the Elekta Clarity Autoscan system during prostate radiation therapy. The study was conducted as part of the Clarity-Pro trial (NCT02388308).Methods and MaterialsInitial locations of intraprostatic fiducial markers were identified from cone beam computed tomography scans. Marker positions were translated according to Clarity intrafraction 3-dimensional prostate motion estimates. The updated locations were projected onto the 2-dimensional electronic portal imager plane. These Clarity-based estimates were compared with the actual portal-imaged 2-dimensional marker positions. Images from 16 patients encompassing 80 fractions were analyzed. To investigate the influence of intraprostatic markers and image quality on ultrasound motion estimation, 3 observers rated image quality, and the marker visibility on ultrasound images was assessed.ResultsThe median difference between Clarity-defined intrafraction marker locations and portal-imaged marker locations was 0.6 mm (with 95% limit of agreement at 2.5 mm). Markers were identified on ultrasound in only 3 of a possible 240 instances. No linear relationship between image quality and Clarity motion estimation confidence was identified. The difference between Clarity-based motion estimates and electronic portal–imaged marker location was also independent of image quality. Clarity estimation confidence was degraded in a single fraction owing to poor probe placement.ConclusionsThe accuracy of Clarity intrafraction prostate motion estimation is comparable with that of other motion-monitoring systems in radiation therapy. The effect of fiducial markers in the study was deemed negligible as they were rarely visible on ultrasound images compared with intrinsic anatomic features. Clarity motion estimation confidence was robust to variations in image quality and the number of ultrasound-imaged anatomic features; however, it was degraded as a result of poor probe placement.

움직임 추정은 동영상 압축에서 영상 화질과 인코더 속도에 대하여 중요한 역할을 하지만, 많은 수행 시간을 요구한다. H.264/AVC에서 움직임 추정에 소요되는 수행 시간을 줄이면서 화질을 유지하기 위하여 본 논문에서는 정화소와 부화소 움직임 추정 기법을 제안하였다. 본 논문에서는 정화소 움직임 추정을 위하여 계층적인 탐색 기법을 사용하였고, 정확한 움직임 추정을 위하여 블록 크기에 따라 부화소 움직임 추정 패턴을 적응적으로 결정하였다. 제안한 정화소 움직임 추정 탐색 기법은 대칭적 십자가-엑스 탐색 패턴, 다중 사각형 탐색 패턴, 다이아몬드 탐색 패턴들로 이루어져 있다. 이 탐색 패턴들은 블록 움직임이 수직으로 크거나 블록 움직임이 크면서 규칙적인 영상에서 국부적 최소화 문제를 해결하고 움직임 추정에 소요되는 시간을 줄이기 위하여 탐색 영역 내에 탐색 점들을 규칙적, 대칭적으로 배치하였다. 제안한 부화소 움직임 추정 탐색 기법은 부화소 움직임 추정을 위하여 기존의 전역 부화소 탐색 패턴, 중앙 편향적 부화소 탐색 패턴과 제안한 부화소 움직임 탐색패턴들을 사용한다. 그리고 블록의 크기에 따라 3가지의 부화소 탐색 패턴들 중 한 패턴이 부화소 움직임 추정을 위해 적응적으로 결정된다. 블록의 크기에 따라 적응적으로 부화소 탐색 패턴이 결정되므로 보다 정확하게 부화소 움직임 추정을 수행할 수 있다. 제안한 기법을 전역 탐색 기법과 비교하였을 때 약 5.2배의 속도 향상을 가져왔으며, 영상 화질에 있어서 약 0.01 (dB)정도 성능 저하를 보였다. 반면에, 비대칭 다중육각형 탐색 기법과 비교하였을 때 움직임 추정 속도와 화질에 있어서 각각 약 1.2배와 약 0.02 (dB)정도 향상을 보였다. Motion estimation (ME) plays an important role in digital video compression. But it limits the performance of image quality and encoding speed and is computational demanding part of the encoder. To reduce computational time and maintain the image quality, integer pel and fractional pel ME methods are proposed in this paper. The proposed method for integer pel ME uses a hierarchical search strategy. This strategy method consists of symmetrical cross-X pattern, multi square grid pattern, diamond patterns. These search patterns places search points symmetrically and evenly that can cover the overall search area not to fall into the local minimum and to reduce the computational time. The proposed method for fractional pel uses full search pattern, center biased fractional pel search pattern and the proposed search pattern. According to block sizes, the proposed method for fractional pel decides the search pattern adaptively. Experiment results show that the speedup improvement of the proposed method over Unsymmetrical cross Multi Hexagon grid Search (UMHexagonS) and Full Search (FS) can be up to around <TEX>$1.2{\sim}5.2$</TEX> times faster. Compared to image quality of FS, the proposed method shows an average PSNR drop of 0.01 dB while showing an average PSNR gain of 0.02 dB in comparison to that of UMHexagonS.

본 논문에서는 기존의 영상/비디오 압축 기술을 홀로그램의 특성을 반영하여 변형한 압축 기술을 제안한다. 본 논문에서는 컴퓨터 생성 홀로그램 기법(computer-generated hologram, CGH)을 이용하여 디지털 홀로그램을 획득한다. 제안한 기술은 디지털 홀로그램의 전처리 기술, CGH로 생성한 홀로그램의 공간영역 분할, 2D-DCT를 이용한 주파수 변환, 주파수 영역에서의 움직임 예측과 차영상 생성 등이다. 이 데이터들을 H.264/AVC 코덱, BinHex과 같은 무손실 부호화 기술, 자체 제작한 선형양자화기를 이용하여 압축한다. 실험결과 10:1의 압축률에서 25.4 dB, 100:1에서 16.5 dB의 복원결과를 보였다. This paper proposes a hologram data compression scheme that uses the existing image/video compression techniques, in which the existing techniques are modified appropriately to fit to the characteristics of hologram. In this paper we use CGH as the hologram data. The proposed scheme uses the generation characteristics of a CGH to consist of a pre-processing, spatial segmentation of a CGH, frequency-transformation with 2D-DCT (2-dimensional discrete cosine transform), and motion estimation and residual image generation in the frequency-domain. It uses H.264/AVC, the lossless compressor BinHex, and a linear quantizer that we have made. From the experiments the proposed scheme showed the image quality of about 25.4 dB at the compression ratio of 10:1 and about 16.5dB at 90:1 compression ratio.

The H.264 video coding standard exhibits high performance in terms of compression and image quality compared to the other existing standard such as H.263, MPEGX. This improved performance is achieved due to the mainly enormous computations in multiple mode motion estimation and compensation. Recent research tried to reduce the computational time using predictive motion estimation, early zero motion vector detection, fast motion estimation, fast mode decision etc. These approaches successfully reduce the computational time by degrading the image quality. Phase correlation technique is used to find the shift between two pictures. In this paper we used phase correlation technique to indicate the motion information between current and reference block and then we devise an algorithm to predict the motion estimation block size. Using phase correlation we are able to successfully predict the motion estimation mode directly instead of using exhaustive motion estimation by all possible modes, thus we save a huge amount of computational time. The experimental results show that we can save around 50% time in motion estimation without degrading the image quality.

Adaptive fractional motion and disparity estimation skipping in MV-HEVC

This paper reviews the energy efficiency of several popular block-matching motion estimation algorithms that can be used in wireless video sensor network applications. Full search motion estimation provides the best image quality but requires high computing power. Therefore, only fast search algorithms are considered for deployment in wireless video sensor networks, which generally operate in remote, battery-constrained areas. However, the image quality of fast search algorithms also needs to be considered in the comparison. In this paper, those block-matching algorithms are compared using two criteria: 1) computing cost/energy consumption, and 2) image quality. The purpose of this review is to select the most energy efficient algorithm that retains image quality and can be applied to wireless video sensor network video compression applications.

Head motion during PET brain imaging can cause significant degradation of image quality. Several authors have proposed ways to compensate for PET brain motion to restore image quality and improve quantitation. Head restraints can reduce movement but are unreliable; thus the need for alternative strategies such as data-driven motion estimation or external motion tracking. Herein, the authors present a data-driven motion estimation method using a preprocessing technique that allows the usage of very short duration frames, thus reducing the intraframe motion problem commonly observed in the multiple frame acquisition method. The list mode data for PET acquisition is uniformly divided into 5-s frames and images are reconstructed without attenuation correction. Interframe motion is estimated using a 3D multiresolution registration algorithm and subsequently compensated for. For this study, the authors used 8 PET brain studies that used F-18 FDG as the tracer and contained minor or no initial motion. After reconstruction and prior to motion estimation, known motion was introduced to each frame to simulate head motion during a PET acquisition. To investigate the trade-off in motion estimation and compensation with respect to frames of different length, the authors summed 5-s frames accordingly to produce 10 and 60 s frames. Summed images generated from the motion-compensated reconstructed frames were then compared to the original PET image reconstruction without motion compensation. The authors found that our method is able to compensate for both gradual and step-like motions using frame times as short as 5 s with a spatial accuracy of 0.2 mm on average. Complex volunteer motion involving all six degrees of freedom was estimated with lower accuracy (0.3 mm on average) than the other types investigated. Preprocessing of 5-s images was necessary for successful image registration. Since their method utilizes nonattenuation corrected frames, it is not susceptible to motion introduced between CT and PET acquisitions. The authors have shown that they can estimate motion for frames with time intervals as short as 5 s using nonattenuation corrected reconstructed FDG PET brain images. Intraframe motion in 60-s frames causes degradation of accuracy to about 2 mm based on the motion type.

Cardiac x-ray CT imaging is still challenging due to heart motion, which cannot be ignored even with the current rotation speed of the equipment. In response, many algorithms have been developed to compensate remaining motion artifacts by estimating the motion using projection data or reconstructed images. In these algorithms, accurate motion estimation is critical to the compensated image quality. In addition, since the scan range is directly related to the radiation dose, it is preferable to minimize the scan range in motion estimation. In this paper, the authors propose a novel motion estimation and compensation algorithm using a sinogram with a rotation angle of less than 360°. The algorithm estimates the motion of the whole heart area using two opposite 3D partial angle reconstructed (PAR) images and compensates the motion in the reconstruction process. A CT system scans the thoracic area including the heart over an angular range of 180° + α + β, where α and β denote the detector fan angle and an additional partial angle, respectively. The obtained cone-beam projection data are converted into cone-parallel geometry via row-wise fan-to-parallel rebinning. Two conjugate 3D PAR images, whose center projection angles are separated by 180°, are then reconstructed with an angular range of β, which is considerably smaller than a short scan range of 180° + α. Although these images include limited view angle artifacts that disturb accurate motion estimation, they have considerably better temporal resolution than a short scan image. Hence, after preprocessing these artifacts, the authors estimate a motion model during a half rotation for a whole field of view via nonrigid registration between the images. Finally, motion-compensated image reconstruction is performed at a target phase by incorporating the estimated motion model. The target phase is selected as that corresponding to a view angle that is orthogonal to the center view angles of two conjugate PAR images. To evaluate the proposed algorithm, digital XCAT and physical dynamic cardiac phantom datasets are used. The XCAT phantom datasets were generated with heart rates of 70 and 100 bpm, respectively, by assuming a system rotation time of 300 ms. A physical dynamic cardiac phantom was scanned using a slowly rotating XCT system so that the effective heart rate will be 70 bpm for a system rotation speed of 300 ms. In the XCAT phantom experiment, motion-compensated 3D images obtained from the proposed algorithm show coronary arteries with fewer motion artifacts for all phases. Moreover, object boundaries contaminated by motion are well restored. Even though object positions and boundary shapes are still somewhat different from the ground truth in some cases, the authors see that visibilities of coronary arteries are improved noticeably and motion artifacts are reduced considerably. The physical phantom study also shows that the visual quality of motion-compensated images is greatly improved. The authors propose a novel PAR image-based cardiac motion estimation and compensation algorithm. The algorithm requires an angular scan range of less than 360°. The excellent performance of the proposed algorithm is illustrated by using digital XCAT and physical dynamic cardiac phantom datasets.

The purpose of this work was to develop a physical phantom for testing the accuracy of cardiac wall motion estimation algorithms, and to use the phantom to evaluate several motion estimation and reconstruction methods, including a simultaneous image reconstruction/wall motion estimation algorithm we have developed. Our approach was to attach radioactive markers to the myocardial wall of a dynamic cardiac phantom and to trace the motion of the markers throughout the cardiac cycle via gated SPECT acquisition. Then, without moving the phantom, and after the markers were allowed to decay to negligible levels, the myocardium was injected with 99mTc and a gated SPECT scan was acquired. From the gated myocardial emission data, two wall motion estimation methods were evaluated. The first method was by applying an optical flow algorithm to an optimized OSEM reconstruction of the myocardial emission data. The second was by applying our simultaneous image reconstruction/motion estimation algorithm to the myocardial emission data. The error in the estimated motion fields was described by the average Euclidean distance between the motion of the markers and the estimated motion. Values of 0.15 and 0.14 were found for the average Euclidean distance for the optical flow method applied to OSEM and the simultaneous method, respectively. Image quality was also evaluated and, in agreement with our previous findings, the simultaneous method produced myocardial images with improved noise characteristics and better uniformity in terms of the activity distribution within the myocardium.

Accurate motion estimation at high acceleration factors enables rapid motion-compensated reconstruction in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) without compromising the diagnostic image quality. In this work, we introduce an attention-aware deep learning-based framework that can perform non-rigid pairwise registration for fully sampled and accelerated MRI. We extract local visual representations to build similarity maps between the registered image pairs at multiple resolution levels and additionally leverage long-range contextual information using a transformer-based module to alleviate ambiguities in the presence of artifacts caused by undersampling. We combine local and global dependencies to perform simultaneous coarse and fine motion estimation. The proposed method was evaluated on in-house acquired fully sampled and accelerated data of 101 patients and 62 healthy subjects undergoing cardiac and thoracic MRI. The impact of motion estimation accuracy on the downstream task of motion-compensated reconstruction was analyzed. We demonstrate that our model derives reliable and consistent motion fields across different sampling trajectories (Cartesian and radial) and acceleration factors of up to 16x for cardiac motion and 30x for respiratory motion and achieves superior image quality in motion-compensated reconstruction qualitatively and quantitatively compared to conventional and recent deep learning-based approaches. The code is publicly available at https://github.com/lab-midas/GMARAFT.

Fine granularity scalable video encoder is important for obtaining good image quality for Internet video. However, it may need a very long motion estimation time. In this paper, we present a novel structure to correctly reduce the number of motion estimations in fine granularity scalable video encoder. Besides, we also propose an improved motion estimation algorithm which approximates to the performance of the existing four-step search algorithm but has better image qualities. All proposed methods have been tested on several video sequences. The experimental results confirm the efficiency of these methods.

To develop a robust motion estimation method for free-breathing body MRI using dense coil arrays. Self-navigating pulse sequences can measure subject motion without using external motion monitoring devices. With dense coil arrays, individual coil elements can provide localized motion estimates. An averaged motion estimate over all coils is often used for motion compensation. However, this motion estimate may not accurately represent the dominant motion within the imaging volume. In this work, a coil clustering method is proposed to automatically determine the dominant motion for dense coil arrays. The feasibility of the proposed method is investigated in free-breathing abdominal MRI and cardiac MRI, and compared with manual motion estimate selection for respiratory motion estimation and electrocardiography for cardiac motion estimation. Automated motion estimation achieved similar respiratory motion estimation compared to manual selection (averaged correlation coefficient 0.989 and 0.988 for abdominal MRI and cardiac MRI, respectively), and accurate cardiac triggering compared to electrocardiography (averaged temporal variability 17.5 ms). The proposed method can provide accurate automated motion estimation for body MRI using dense coil arrays. It can enable self-navigated free-breathing abdominal and cardiac MRI without the need for external motion monitoring devices. Magn Reson Med 76:197-205, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In an H.264 video encoder, motion estimation (ME) is the most time-consuming component. The ME process consists of two stages, integer pixel search and fractional pixel search. Since the complexity of integer pixel search has been greatly reduced by numerous fast ME algorithms, the computation overhead required by fractional pixel ME has become relatively significant. To reduce the complexity of fractional pixel ME, we propose a prediction-based directional fractional pixel ME algorithm. We utilize more accurate motion vector predictions and directional search to achieve better computation reduction. We further propose an early termination method to decrease the amount of search. Experimental results show that, compared to the full search sub-pel ME and the fast sub-pel ME proposed in H.264, the proposed method can reduce up to 84% and 74% of fractional pixel search points respectively, with a negligible degradation in quality.

Information security is an important aspect of information. The importance of the value of information in every aspect can result in attempts to transfer access or theft of data and information by unauthorized parties. One technique for securing data and information is by applying the digital image steganography technique. Many methods can be used in steganography, some of which are Least Significant Bit (LSB), Pixel Value Differencing (PVD), and Modulus Function (MF). Good steganography must produce a stego-image with an image quality that is not different from the original image or what is called a cover image and has the storage capacity to store confidential data and is resistant to robustness. The purpose of this study was to compare the LSB, MF, and PVD methods to serve as alternatives to the use of steganography techniques. The results of this study indicate that the LSB method has the best image quality compared to the MF and PVD methods. For storage capacity, the PVD algorithm has a better capacity than the LSB and MF methods. Meanwhile, the robustness of the LSB, PVD, and MF methods has resistance to cropping with a percentage of 10% at the bottom of the stego-image.

In recent years, internet revolution resulted in an explosive growth in multimedia applications. The rapid advancement of internet has made it easier to send the data/image accurate and faster to the destination. Besides this, it is easier to modify and misuse the valuable information through hacking at the same time. Digital watermarking is one of the proposed solutions for copyright protection of multimedia data. A watermark is a form, image or text that is impressed onto paper, which provides evidence of its authenticity. In this paper an invisible watermarking technique (least significant bit) and a visible watermarking technique is implemented. This paper presents the general overview of image watermarking and different security issues. Various attacks are also performed on watermarked images and their impact on quality of images is also studied. In this paper, Image Watermarking using Least Significant Bit (LSB) algorithm has been used for embedding the message/logo into the image. This work has been implemented through MATLAB. Keywords - Watermarking, Least Significant Bit (LSB), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR).