System and method for encoding a video sequence using spatial and temporal transforms

A method of processing a sequence of video frames, comprising:

• performing a spatial decomposition transform on the video frames to generate spatially transformed video frames;
• each of the spatially transformed video frames including a plurality of subbands of data, including at least one low spatial frequency subband of data;
• and
• storing the spatially transformed video frames;
• performing a temporal decomposition transform on blocks of the spatially transformed video frames, each block containing a predefined number of the spatially transformed video frames in a sequence corresponding to the sequence of the corresponding video frames, including applying a temporal decomposition transform to the at least one low spatial frequency subband of data in the spatially transformed video frames so as to generate temporally transformed video data for the at least one low spatial frequency subband of data in the spatially transformed video frames;
• and
• encoding, for each block of video frames, the temporally transformed video data and the subbands of data, if any, of the spatially transformed video frames in the block to which the temporal decomposition transform was not applied.

A computer program product for use in conjunction with a computer system, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium and a computer program mechanism embedded therein, the computer program mechanism comprising:

• a spatial transform module for performing a spatial decomposition transform on the video frames to generate spatially transformed video frames;
• each of the spatially transformed video frames including a plurality of subbands of data, including at least one low spatial frequency subband of data;
• and
• a temporal transform module for performing a temporal decomposition transform on blocks of the spatially transformed video frames, each block containing a predefined number of the spatially transformed video frames in a sequence corresponding to the sequence of the corresponding video frames, the temporal transform module applying a temporal decomposition transform to the at least one low spatial frequency subband of data in the spatially transformed video frames so as to generate temporally transformed video data for the at least one low spatial frequency subband of data in the spatially transformed video frames;
• and
• a data encoding module for encoding, for each block of video frames, the temporally transformed video data and the subbands of data, if any, of the spatially transformed video frames in the block to which the temporal decomposition transform was not applied.