TY - JOUR
T1 - A perceptually optimised video coding system for sign language communication at low bit rates
AU - Agrafiotis, Dimitris
AU - Canagarajah, Nishan
AU - Bull, David R.
AU - Kyle, Jim
AU - Seers, Helen
AU - Dye, Matthew
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank DTI (UK) for funding this work.
PY - 2006/8
Y1 - 2006/8
N2 - The ability to communicate remotely through the use of video as promised by wireless networks and already practised over fixed networks, is for deaf people as important as voice telephony is for hearing people. Sign languages are visual-spatial languages and as such demand good image quality for interaction and understanding. In this paper, we first analyse the sign language viewer's eye-gaze, based on the results of an eye-tracking study that we conducted, as well as the video content involved in sign language person-to-person communication. Based on this analysis we propose a sign language video coding system using foveated processing, which can lead to bit rate savings without compromising the comprehension of the coded sequence or equivalently produce a coded sequence with higher comprehension value at the same bit rate. We support this claim with the results of an initial comprehension assessment trial of such coded sequences by deaf users. The proposed system constitutes a new paradigm for coding sign language image sequences at limited bit rates.
AB - The ability to communicate remotely through the use of video as promised by wireless networks and already practised over fixed networks, is for deaf people as important as voice telephony is for hearing people. Sign languages are visual-spatial languages and as such demand good image quality for interaction and understanding. In this paper, we first analyse the sign language viewer's eye-gaze, based on the results of an eye-tracking study that we conducted, as well as the video content involved in sign language person-to-person communication. Based on this analysis we propose a sign language video coding system using foveated processing, which can lead to bit rate savings without compromising the comprehension of the coded sequence or equivalently produce a coded sequence with higher comprehension value at the same bit rate. We support this claim with the results of an initial comprehension assessment trial of such coded sequences by deaf users. The proposed system constitutes a new paradigm for coding sign language image sequences at limited bit rates.
KW - Eye tracking
KW - Foveated video coding
KW - H.264
KW - Rate control
KW - Sign language video coding
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U2 - 10.1016/j.image.2006.02.003
DO - 10.1016/j.image.2006.02.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33746889495
SN - 0923-5965
VL - 21
SP - 531
EP - 549
JO - Signal Processing: Image Communication
JF - Signal Processing: Image Communication
IS - 7
ER -