Optimal exploratory effort to build knowledge for video transmission

The study of the dynamics of an exploratory effort to build knowledge for progressive transmission shows that if initial knowledge about information of interest is large, most exploration to increase the knowledge base can be postponed to higher bit rates, with independence of transmission costs. On the contrary, if proved knowledge is initially small, high exploratory effort must occur at extremely low bit rates so as to increase the inventory of proved knowledge about relevant visual information. From the dynamics of exploratory effort, it follows a hierarchical quantizer partition tree at a near optimal level of exploratory effort until near the end of the progressive transmission without the necessity for any additional exploratory effort. We show an example of the application of this hierarchical quantizer partition tree for progressive transmission of video sequences, where interquantizer prioritization follows a novel hierarchical bit allocation algorithm. (C) 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.