Low bitrate video tele-conferencing requires adapting algorithms that may work perfectly well in a high-bitrate situation. When a slow transmission rate is unacceptable, compromise must be reached among the demands of speed, bandwidth limits and image quality. In this paper we present an approach to low bitrate video tele-conferencing by focusing attention on important information. We show that by selectively degrading the quality of less important regions, more important regions can be sent without loss of quality but with greatly reduced bandwidth requirements. A prototype system has been developed to demonstrate the concept. The experimental results show significant savings of required bandwidth for video subjected to the changes.
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