SBIR-STTR Award

The technology for reliable real-time video communication between air cockpit to base, cockpit to cockpit and missiles to cockpit is of great importance in modern electronic warfare. Since the channel bandwidth for such a video-link is highly restricted due to limited transmission power and security require- ment, efficient video compression technique is essential. It is also desirable to incorporate error control and recovery mechanism for data protection and to allow real-time operations. Thus, there are three areas requiring technological breakthrough: data reduction, coding speed and error resiliency. Novel approaches for solving these problems and integration of different modules into a system are detailed in this proposal. This proposal consists of work plans for both Phase I and Phase I Option. In Phase 1, we will investigate state-of-the-art low bit rate video coding, which is mainly based on the H.263 standard, and develop a fast motion estimation algorithm for real-time processing. We will also focus on incorporating error control and recovery technology into the video coding scheme so that it is robust to the channel errors in wireless communication. In Phase I Option, we will establish a wireless communication channel model and perform extensive simulation and conduct a performance evaluation. The same technology also finds many commercial applications, including multimedia transmission, teleconferencing, videophone, high-definition TV (HDTV), and CD-ROM storage. We plan to utilize the work in Phase I to develop a prototype hardware for handling real video test data in Phase 11, and demonstrate the developed hardware in existing Navy tactical aircraft and transfer the technology to commercial applications such as mobile multimedia communication and cellular videophone in Phase 111.

Reliable real-time video/audio communications through a wireless channel is of great importance in modern information warfare. Robust low bit rate video transmission has been examined throughly in our Phase I study. Recommendation II.263 with a subband decomposition was adopted as the baseline coding scheme, fast motion vector search algorithms were developed and error control and recovery mechanism for data protection was incorporated in Phase I, while system simulation for various wireless noisy channels is to be carried out in Phase I Option. One major contribution in Phase I is the development of a scalable video transmission method. This proposal consists of work plans for both Phase II and Phase II Option. We will focus on three key areas in Phase II: (1) robust audio transmission and audio/video synchronization, (2) multiple access and call setup for wireless communication, (3) scalable audio/video transmission through heterogeneous and dynamically changing wired networks such as the Internet. Even though the type of noise in the source/channel coding are common and can be conveniently tested with existing infrastructures. In Phase II Option, we will work on system integration, prototyping, and simulators. The new technology finds many military and commercial applications including multimedia personal communication systems (MPCS), teleconferencing, videophone, etc. We plan to utilize the work in Phases I and II to develop a software/hardware integrated system for handling real audio/video test data and demonstrate the developed system in existing Navy tactical aircraft and transfer the technology to commercial applications such as mobile multimedia communication and cellualr videophone in Phase III.

Benefits:
Military: TV camera with remote viewing for guidance, communications, reconnaisance, surveillance and other uses with sensors that are ground-based or mounted on UAV, missiles, guided bombs, aircraft, ships, submarines, and other platforms. Commercial: mobile multimedia transmission, cellular videophone, teleconferencing, wireless ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) networks and interactive video through internets.

Keywords:
Wireless Video CDMA Internets Call Setup Multimedia Communications Wireless Audio Scalable Coding Error-Resilient Coding