Spatial error concealment based on directional decision and intra prediction

The paper presents a novel spatial error concealment algorithm based on directional decision and intra prediction. Unlike previous approaches that simultaneously recover the pixels inside a missing macroblock (MB), we propose to recover them 4×4 block by 4×4 block. Each missing 16×16 MB in an intra frame is first divided into 16 blocks, each with size 4×4, then recovered block by block using Intra_4×4 prediction. Previously-recovered blocks can be used in the recovery process afterwards. The principle advantage of this approach is the improved capability of recovering MB with edges and the lower computational complexity. The proposed algorithm has been tested on the H.264/AVC reference software JM7.2. Experimental results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed method.