Feedback-free and hybrid distributed video coding using neural networks

Distributed Video Coding (DVC) is a new class of video coding techniques with the aim of coding the decentralized video sources. While the Stanford Wyner-Ziv codec is a well-known architecture in DVC literature, one of its main drawbacks is the presence of a feedback channel from the decoder to the encoder. This feedback channel makes the use of the codec impractical in some applications. Since the only application of the feedback channel is in requesting more parity bits from the encoder, it could be omitted if the encoder estimates the required parity bits and sends them at once. In this paper, a new method of bitrate estimation using a neural network trained by a new set of features is proposed. In addition, a Hybrid mode is proposed that reduces computational complexity at the decoder in a conventional Wyner-Ziv codec.