A GPU based real-time video compression method for video conferencing

Recent years have seen a great increase in the everyday use of real-time video communication over the internet through video conferencing applications. Limitations on computational resources and network bandwidth require video encoding algorithms that provide acceptable quality on low bitrates and can support various resolutions inside the same stream. In this work, the authors present a scalable video coding algorithm based on the contourlet transform that incorporates both lossy and lossless methods, as well as variable bitrate encoding schemes in order to achieve compression. Furthermore, due to the transform utilized, it does not suffer from blocking artifacts that occur with many widely adopted compression algorithms. The proposed algorithm is designed to achieve real-time performance by utilizing the vast computational capabilities of modern GPUs, providing satisfactory encoding and decoding times at relatively low cost. These characteristics make this method suitable for applications like video conferencing that demand real-time performance. The performance and quality evaluation of the algorithm shows that the proposed algorithm achieves satisfactory quality and compression ratio.