Flexible slice structure for ROI coding

At current video coding layer, video data can be divided into different coding layers, e.g. sequence, picture, slice and macroblock. A coding layer contains same properties of video data. At slice layer, a certain amount of macroblocks are grouped to a slice, and coded as raster order within the slice. The slice structure can be used at rate control, error resilience and video transmission areas. Base on the concept of slice, the slice structure is extended at this paper. A so-called slice set structure groups slices that have some same properties together. The slices within a slice set can share and exchange data. Due to this superior feature, the proposed slice set structure can be used at ROI coding, and further improve error resilience capability.