Very low bit rate segmented video coding for visual telephony

A new video coding method is proposed for application to very low bit rate coding of monochrome video. The new method depends on second generation image coding techniques. Specifically each frame of the video sequence is segmented into regions with closed boundaries which correspond to edges of objects within the frame. Novel contour motion estimation and also motion compensated coding are then introduced to achieve the very low bit rates required for transmission of visual telephony image sequences. The results show that the 256×256 “Miss America” sequences can be compressed to allow a transmission rate of lower than 64 kbits per second at a frame rate of 10 per second with acceptable quantity. Our eventual aim is to provide video telephone over plain old telephone services (POTS) at a rate lower than 10 kbit per second with reasonable quality