Video coding system and method for noisy signals

Abstract

A video coding system and method enable communication of a noisy video signal over communications channels, such as low capacity channels (e.g., telephone lines), by efficiently decomposing the video signal into an underlying structure component and a texture component using subband decomposition. Because much of a texture component is random noise, the texture component lends itself to temporal decimation. This predicament results in a texture frame being encoded and transmitted once every D.sub.t frames and allows texture frames to be sent at a lower rate than underlying structure frames. Because the underlying structure component contains most of the information related to structure, it is decimated in the spatial domain, which allows for maximum data transfer. The texture component and underlying structure component are then coded for transmission over the communications channel, such as a low capacity conventional telephone line, using a method which exploits the characteristic noise and the quasiperiodic nature of the signal.