Complexity Scalable Hybrid End-To-End Distortion Estimation For Conversational Video Streaming

in conversational video streaming applications, periodic I-frame coding is not allowed due to strict low delay requirement. For this scenario, we propose a novel hybrid paradigm, which takes advantage of both accurate pixel-level estimation and efficient block-level estimation. Specifically, error propagated (EP) distortion from the last N coded frames are exactly calculated per pixel for high accuracy, while EP effect beyond the frame limit N are estimated per macroblock for low complexity. By varying the frame limit, flexible trade-offs between complexity and performance can be achieved, rendering our scheme especially suitable for wireless video streaming, where stringent power resource is always a challenge. Simulation results justify the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid ED estimation scheme.