INTERIM Bual Repo#R
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
.* L, '. .. .. ." r . INTERIM BuAL REpo#r I B.W. J319Es (NASA-CE- 166225) S'IOCY OF CCCL~Jb?CBIICNS N83- !777!, 1AI.P CCHFRFSSICI EE11C3S Interin Einal ReFCrt (COY-COCE, Ioc,, EIountain View, Calif.) 267 p HC A I;/!IF AOI CSCL I7E !llnclas i G3/32 32908 Prepared for MAAMfE RESEARCH CEIWEIi MOF'FETT FEU), CALIFOFNU, 94035 NASA TECHNICAL MONITOR Larry B. Hofman COM-CODE, INC. 305 EASY ST. NO.9 IQN. VlEW I CALIFORNIA 94043 - .. , .. SECTION A SUMMARY REPQRT SECTION B VIDEO CCMPFESSION SECTION C LANDSAT IMAGE PRCCESSING SECTION D SATELLITE CaMEINNICATIONS f L SEXTION A SUMMARY REPORT This section provides a brief suaunary report of the work accolnplished under the "Study of Communications .Data Compression Methods", under NASA contract NAS 2-9703. The results are fully explained in subsequent sections on video canpression, Landsat image processipa, and satellite commnications . The first task of contract NAS 2-9703 was to extend a simple monochrome conditional replenishment system to higher compression and to higher motion levels, by incorporating spatially adaptive quantizers and field repeating. Conditional replenishment combines intraframe and interframe compression, and bath areas were to be investigated. The gain of conditional replenishment depends on the fraction of the image changing, since only changed parts of the image need to be transmitted. If the transmission rate is set so that only one-fourth of the image can be transmitted in each field, greater change fractions will overload the system. To accomplish task I, a computer simulation was prepared which incorporated 1) field repeat of changes, 2) a variable change threshold, 3) frame repeat for high change, and 4) two mcde, variable rate Hadamard intraframe quantizers. The field repeat gives 2 :1 coupresaion in moving areas without noticeable degradation. Variable change threshold allas some flexibility in dealing with varying change rates, but the threshold variation must be limited for acceptable performance. 2:l frame repeat provides 15 frames per second, and is acceptable, but L:1 repeat is objectionably degraded. The two mode Hadammd quantizers use a 2 bit per picture element (bpp) edge subpicture quantizer and a 1 bpp flat subpicture quantizer. For the Reasoner image, the two mode variable rate performance at 1.25 bpp is comparible to single mode performance at 2 bp?, but the gains depend on the fraction of changed blocks using each mode. The goal of task I was to achieve performance free of artifacts at 1/4 bpp. The simulated systeln achieves this, for scenes with less than 50 percent motion. The different compression ratios for changed parts of the image are 2:l for conditional replenishment, 2:l for field repeat, 2:l for frame repeat, and b:l for intraframe Hadamard compression (all edge mcde). The total com5ined comp- ression ratio is 32:l, which reduces the.origina1 3 bpp to 1/4 bpp. If the fraction changing exceeds 50 percent, additional frame repeats occur, with a limit of 4:1 for 100 percent chawe. 1 Task If of the statement of workwas to extend conditional replenishment to color video. This was accomplished by modrpYing the monochrome simulation program to process both monochrome and color. The I and Q color signals are quantized using 1/4 bpp in the edge mode, and 1/'8 bpp in the flat mode, so that color transmission requires 25 percent higher transmission rate than monochrome. Changes and modes are detecfed using only the I or monochrome signal, which introduces some artifacts. I Certain related aspects of video compression were investigated in conjunc- i .- tion with these tasks. Frame interlace is a compression method which has some aspects of intraframe compression, and some aspects of interframe compression. Using previously available data, a report was prepared to compare the hardware requirements and performance of field and frame compression. It was concluded that the frame interlace gains about 1/2 bpp in compression, at a cost of 4 or 7 bit-frames of memory, depending on implementation. I). Hein and N. Abmed, under a grant from NASA-ARC, recently developed a method for deriving the discrete cosine transform from the Hadamard transforn. This method is being implemented at NASA-ARC. In cooperation with D. Hein, transforms intermediate between the discrete cosine and Hadamard transforn in complexity and performance were devised and investigated. Theoretical and experimental results shav that transforms with simplified implementation can provide part of the gains of the discrete cosine transform over the Hadamrd. Monochrome and color conditional replenishment using several frame repeats was processed using frame averaging. Repeated franes were replaced by composite frames, formed by averaging the two transmitted frames closest in sequence. Frame averaging makes a small improvement in material using three frame repeats, or 10 frames per second, but introduces strange blurring and shape changing in material using five repeats, or 6 frames per second. Task I11 of the contract was to investigate image compression for the trans- mission of Landsat images, with emphasis on using spectral correlation. The pro- posal noted that cluster coding was a sucessful compression method using spectral correlation, but had high complexity. A new method, "picture element replication", was simulated. A table of previously transmitted elements is maintained at the transmitter and receiver . laen the inage element to be transmitted is within f. , .I - a small error distance of an element in the table, the location of the table elemeut is transmitted, instead of the element value. The table element replaces the original element in the image. When no tablebelement is sufficiently . similar to the elemezlt to be transmitted, the exact element value is transmitted, and inserted in the table. Transmission rate is reduced because the number of table elements is much smaller the number of all possible elements. Picture element replication was analized theoretically. The expected error is a hmn fraction of the error bound used to select table elements. If the table size is sufficiently large, the transmission rate is only one or two bpp mare than required to transmit a table entry. Increasing table size reduces error and increases rate in a known wqy. Additional compression can be gained by using a one bit word for a replicated element. Picture element replication was simulated, and tested with two images used in other work done for NASA-ARC. The new method was found superior to the previous spatial compression methods, and comparable to cluster coding. Picture element replication is auch sircpler in implementation than cluster coding, and is suitable for the transuission of stored data via satellite to a remote site. In conjunction with this task, a survey of Landsat classification metbods was made* There are several potentially useful techniques reported in the literature. Methods of nonparametric classification, including nearest neighbor, can reduce the human int ;-vention required by normal distribution, maximum liklihood classifiers. Spatial-spectral classifiers can produce classified images similar to those produced by hmsn image interpreters. Task IV of the statenent of work was to investigate signal processing, channel geometry, and demand assignment for satellite communication. The proposal stated the intention to re-giew operational systems, and to evaluate a technique to improve the bandwidth efficiency of satellite comunicat ions. The technique selected for study, which is mentioned in the recent literature, is four dimensional signal design. The report on four dimensional bandwidth efficient modulation reviews the advantages of higher dimensional signal design, compared to conventional multi-level amplitude phase shift keying. The potential gain of four dimensional signal design is estimted using the capacity bound. 3 Two new classes uf signal designs are introduced, which counter the disadvantages of amplitude phase shift keying. One class of designs is based on the densest four dimensional lattice, and is c&ectured to approach the optimum desigls. At transmission rates needed far bandwidth efficient modulation, 2 to 3 bits per dimension, the new designs increase rate 0.6 bits per dimension at fixed ' signal to noise, or allow 2 to 4 dl3 signal reduction at fixed rate. The four dimensional receivers are not much more complex than conventional receivers. In the review of' systems, the TRW "Mobile Multiple Access Study" was examhed. The study observed that continuously variable slope delta mod'ilation was nearly competitive with frequency modulation (M). Several other papers on satellite communication, as:! several pair budgets, were reviewed. It seems generally accepted that frequency division multiple access (FDMA) provides more channels in a given bandwidth than tine division or code division. Demand assign- ment of channels by a central station can achieve 100 percent useage, while contention systems are limited to lower efficiency. Of special interest were two Comsat papers. Campanella and others concluded that digital voice uodulation and FT.1 have similar performance for single channel per carrier voice channels. Welti and Kwan also found digital cmpetitive, and considered some four dimen- sional methods in their comparison. Some results of this study will be published. The operation of an earlier conditional replenishment system was described in two papers given at the August 1977 SPIE convention and at the decernber 1977 PI%C meeting. The study