PRISM: A video coding paradigm with motion estimation at the decoder.

We describe PRISM, a video coding paradigm based on the principles of lossy distributed compression (also called source coding with side information or Wyner-Ziv coding) from multiuser information theory. PRISM represents a major departure from conventional video coding architectures (e.g., the MPEGx, H.26x families) that are based on motion-compensated predictive coding, with the goal of addressing some of their architectural limitations. PRISM allows for two key architectural enhancements: (1) inbuilt robustness to "drift" between encoder and decoder and (2) the feasibility of a flexible distribution of computational complexity between encoder and decoder. Specifically, PRISM enables transfer of the computationally expensive video encoder motion-search module to the video decoder. Based on this capability, we consider an instance of PRISM corresponding to a near reversal in codec complexities with respect to today's codecs (leading to a novel light encoder and heavy decoder paradigm), in this paper. We present encouraging preliminary results on real-world video sequences, particularly in the realm of transmission losses, where PRISM exhibits the characteristic of rapid recovery, in contrast to contemporary codecs. This renders PRISM as an attractive candidate for wireless video applications.