A hybrid constrained unequal error protection and data hiding scheme for packet video transmission

A novel hybrid scheme with constrained unequal error protection (UEP) and data hiding is proposed; it maximizes the perceptual quality of the video at the end user to compensate for the effects of channel losses. The technique involves: (1) implementing a forcing function which weighs the objective perceptual quality of the video frame based on a hidden mark signal to give optimum protection level in the packet; (2) utilizing a data hiding mechanism to embed second level wavelet approximation coefficients of the frame in itself. An optimum UEP in the transmitted packets is sought using a constrained optimization approach. Simulation results show that the proposed technique outperforms existing non-adaptive error concealment approaches in improving the perceptual quality, especially for higher loss probabilities.