Least-Squares Directional Intra Prediction in H.264/AVC

A new intra-prediction mode for the H.264/AVC standard is proposed. Each pixel within a block is predicted by a weighted sum of its neighbours, according to an Nth order Markov linear model. The weights are obtained through a least-squares estimate from reconstructed data in the neighbouring blocks, so that no overhead is necessary to convey the weights to the decoder. Results show significant improvements in H.264/AVC compression for images that are rich in directional structures, and moderate improvements for the other images and sequences tested.