Source Requantization: Successive Degradation and Bit Stealing

We consider source requantization in two forms -- successive degradation (i.e., source fidelity reduction) and bit stealing (i.e., information embedding) -when no forward planning has been done to facilitate the requantization. We focus on finite-alphabet sources with arbitrary distortion measures as well as the Gaussian-quadratic scenario. For the successive degradation problem, we show an achievable distortion-rate trade-off for non-hierarchically structured rate-distortion achieving codes, and compare it to the distortion-rate trade-off of successively refinable codes. We further consider source requantization in the form of bit stealing, whereby an information embedder acts on a quantized source, producing an output at the same rate. Building on the successive degradation results, we develop achievable distortion-rate trade-offs. Two cases are considered, corresponding to whether the source decoder is informed of any bit stealing or not. In the latter case, the embedder must produ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2002
• Where: DCC
• Authors: Aaron S. Cohen, Stark C. Draper, Emin Martinian, Gregory W. Wornell
• Keywords: Achievable Distortion-rate Trade-off, Computer Graphics, DCC 2002, Successive Degradation, Successive Degradation Problem