Video Quality Metrics (VQM) are models used to predict the score that a user would give to the quality of a video visualization. They are widely used in video processing systems, for monitoring end-to-end quality or system troubleshooting for example. In these scenarios, the improvement is quantified based on a certain enhancement of a VQM score and trouble-detection is done based on a certain drop or threshold computed based on a VQM. Yet, whether such improvement or fault-detection is worth a significant increase in power consumption is questionable. Therefore, the goal of this work is to propose a method to predict the uncertainty of the quality metric. In this paper, we propose a framework to evaluate the confidence interval of a VQM for a given content using simple video features. We assess the performance of the framework by using the confidence intervals to predict if two videos are of similar or different quality and show that in most cases our approach performs better than just using a constant confidence interval.

This paper presents one of the first methods allowing the protection of the newly emerging video codec HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). Visual protection is achieved through selective encryption (SE) of HEVC-CABAC binstrings in a format compliant manner. The SE approach developed for HEVC is different from that of H.264/AVC in several aspects. Truncated rice code is introduced for binarization of quantized transform coefficients (QTCs) instead of truncated unary code. The encryption space (ES) of binstrings of truncated rice codes is not always dyadic and cannot be represented by an integer number of bits. Hence they cannot be concatenated together to create plaintext for the CFB (Cipher Feedback) mode of AES, which is a self-synchronizing stream cipher for so-called AES-CFB. Another challenge for SE in HEVC concerns the introduction of context, which is adaptive to QTC. This work presents a thorough investigation of HEVC-CABAC from an encryption standpoint. An algorithm is devised for conversion of non-dyadic ES to dyadic, which can be concatenated to form plaintext for AES-CFB. For selectively encrypted binstrings, the context of truncated rice code for binarization of future syntax elements is guaranteed to remain unchanged. Hence the encrypted bitstream is format-compliant and has exactly the same bit-rate. The proposed technique requires very little processing power and is ideal for playback on hand held devices. The proposed scheme is acceptable for DRM of a wide range of applications, since it protects the contour and motion information, along with texture. Several benchmark video sequences of different resolutions and diverse contents were used for experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm. A detailed security analysis of the proposed scheme verified the validity of the proposed encryption scheme for content protection in a wide range of applications.

In this paper, a novel data hiding strategy is proposed to integrate disparity data, needed for 3D visualization based on depth image based rendering, into a single H.264 format video bitstream. The proposed method has the potential of being imperceptible and efficient in terms of rate distortion trade-off. Depth information has been embedded in some of quantized transformed coefficients (QTCs) while taking into account the reconstruction loop. This provides us with a high payload for embedding of depth information in the texture data, with a negligible decrease in PSNR. To maintain synchronization, the embedding is carried out while taking into account the correspondence of video frames. Three different benchmark video sequences containing different combinations of motion, texture and objects are used for experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm.

This paper presents a novel method for the protection of bitstreams of state-of-the-art video codec H.264/AVC. The problem of selective encryption (SE) is addressed along with the compression in the entropy coding modules. H.264/AVC supports two types of entropy coding modules. Context-adaptive variable length coding (CAVLC) is supported in H.264/AVC baseline profile and context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) is supported in H.264/AVC main profile. SE is performed in both types of entropy coding modules of this video codec. For this purpose, in this paper the encryption step is done simultaneously with the entropy coding CAVLC or CABAC. SE is performed by using the advanced encryption standard (AES) algorithm with the cipher feedback mode on a subset of codewords/binstrings. For CAVLC, SE is performed on equal length codewords from a specific variable length coding table. In case of CABAC, it is done on equal length binstrings. In our scheme, entropy coding module serves the purpose of encryption cipher without affecting the coding efficiency of H.264/AVC by keeping exactly the same bitrate, generating completely compliant bitstream and utilizing negligible computational power. Owing to no escalation in bitrate, our encryption algorithm is better suited for real-time multimedia streaming over heterogeneous networks. It is perfect for playback on handheld devices because of negligible increase in processing power. Nine different benchmark video sequences containing different combinations of motion, texture, and objects are used for experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm.

In this paper, we present a novel approach for active finger-printing of state of the art video codec H.264/AVC. Tardos probabilistic fingerprinting code is embedded in H.264/AVC video signals using spread spectrum watermarking technique. Different linear and non-linear collusion attacks have been performed in the pixel domain to show the robustness of the proposed approach. The embedding has been performed in the non-zero quantized transformed coefficients (QTCs) while taking into account the reconstruction loop.

In this paper, a novel method for fast protection of AVS video coding standard alongwith compression is presented. Here the problems of compression and selective encryption (SE) have been simultaneously addressed for AVS part-2 Jizhun profile. It is performed in the context-based 2D variable length coding (C2DVLC) module of video codec. SE is performed by using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm with the Cipher Feedback (CFB) mode on a subset of codewords. C2DVLC serves the purpose of encryption step without affecting the coding efficiency of AVS by keeping the bitrate unchanged, generating completely compliant bitstream and utilizing negligible computational power. Nine different benchmark video sequences containing different combinations of motion, texture and objects are used for experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm.

This paper presents a new selective and scalable encryption (SSE) method for intra dyadic scalable coding framework based on wavelet/subband (DWTSB) for H.264/AVC. It has been achieved through the scrambling of quantized transform coefficients (QTCs) in all the subbands of DWTSB. To make the encryption scalable, it takes advantage of the prior knowledge of the frequencies which are dominant in different high frequency (HF) subbands, as traditional zigzag scan is not that efficient for them. Thus, by scrambling the scan order of QTCs in the intra scalable coding framework of H.264/AVC, we were able to get encryption and compression for enhancement layers (ELs) simultaneously. Watermarking has been integrated in the proposed architecture to avoid the requirement of separate keys for each spatial layer. The algorithm is better suited for multimedia streaming as the bitrate of the encrypted bitstream is lower than the original bitrate. Besides offering SSE, the proposed algorithm, when applied to different benchmark video sequences, outperformed the standard zigzag scan in terms of bitrate.

This paper presents a novel method for the protection of copyrighted multimedia content. The problem of selective encryption (SE) has been addressed along with compression for the state of the art video codec H.264/AVC. SE is performed in the context-based adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC) module of video codec. For this purpose, CABAC is converted to an encryption cipher by scrambling of equal length binarized code words. In our scheme, CABAC engine serves the purpose of encryption cipher without affecting the coding efficiency of H.264/AVC by keeping the original bitrate, generating completely compliant bitstream and utilizing negligible computational cost. Nine different benchmark video sequences containing different combinations of motion, texture and objects have been subjected to experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm.