An efficient algorithm for hierarchical compression of video

This paper addresses the problem of collaborative video over “heterogeneous” networks. Current standards for video compression are not designed to deal with this problem. We define an additional set of metrics (i.e., in addition to the standard rate versus distortion measure) to evaluate compression algorithms for this application. We then present an efficient algorithm for video compression in such an environment. The algorithm is a novel combination of the discrete wavelet transform and hierarchical vector quantization. It is unique in that both the encoder and the decoder are implemented with only table lookups and are amenable to efficient software and hardware solutions