Author : Uma B.V, Geetha K.S, Prasanna Kumar S.C and Naveen Kumar L

In order to transmit a better quality video in under water acoustic channel, compression schemes with high compression ratio and less time complexities are required. Conventional coding schemes can deliver high compression ratios but need to be optimized for real time embedded applications. This paper discusses about the development and software implementation of a real-time coding scheme for underwater video compression based on H264/MPEG-4 Part-10 coding standard with a compression ratio greater than 200:1 in a low bit rate (between 20 to 50 Kb/s) underwater acoustic channel. The proposed encoder utilizes object-based coding and sprite coding approach for efficient low rate compression. The software is implemented using OpenCV for image acquisition and the main implementation of the software is in C language. The coding scheme is tested on a underwater video sequence to give a compression ratio of 204:1 and a peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) of 41.38 dB, which satisfies the requirements of real-time underwater video transmission with good quality.

Keywords: Compression ratio, H264, OpenCV, PSNR, Underwater Acoustic Channel, Video Compression

Article published in International Journal of Current  Engineering  and Technology, Vol.4,No.3 (June- 2014)