A new family of embedded multiple description scalar quantizers [image coding applications]

A new family of embedded multiple description scalar quantizers (EMDSQ) that support the progressive transmission of images over variable-bandwidth error-prone channels is proposed in this paper. A control mechanism that allows for tuning the redundancy between the two descriptions for each quantization level is also designed. The employed mechanism enables control of the tradeoff between the coding efficiency and error-resilience, and provides an increased robustness by improving the error resilience in the most important layers of the embedded bit-streams. Instantiations of the proposed family are incorporated in a wavelet-based embedded coding system, and the redundancy-control mechanism is practically demonstrated. Experimental results show that the proposed EMDSQ outperform the state-of-the-art multiple description uniform scalar quantizers (MDUSQ) previously proposed in the literature for error-resilient progressive image transmission.