Error Concealment using Data Hiding in Wireless Image Transmission

The transmission of image/video over unreliable medium like wireless networks generally results in receiving a damaged image/video. In this paper, a novel image error concealment scheme based on the idea of data hiding and Set Partitioning In Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) coding is investigated. In the encoder side, the coefficients of wavelet decomposed image are partitioned into “perfect trees”. The SPIHT coder is applied to encode each per-fect tree independently and generate an efficiently compressed reference code. This code is then embedded into the coefficients of another perfect tree which is located in a different place, using a robust data hiding scheme based on Quantization Index Modulation (QIM). In the decoder side, if a part of the image is lost, the algorithm extracts the embedded code for reference trees related to this part to reconstruct the lost information. Performance results show that for an error prone transmission, the proposed technique is promising to efficiently conceal the lost areas of the transmitted image.