System and method for video compression with artifact dispersion control

A method of managing artifact dispersion in a compressed representation of an image or video segment, the method comprising the steps performed by a computer system of:

• recording the image or video segment as a sequence of frames, each of said frames comprising a plurality of pixels organized in an array of pixel locations;
• decomposing each of said frames into an array of non-overlapping contiguous rectangular regions for measuring properties in each of said rectangular regions;
• detecting at least one connected component having an area within the rectangular regions within one of said frames which said connected component of the rectangular regions differs from an area within a previous frame corresponding to the area of said at least one connected component when subjected to a frame differencing algorithm having a given threshold value T.sub.R ;
• mapping all said rectangular regions immediately surrounding and contiguous with said at least one connected component of rectangular regions to define a first concentric layer of contour within said one of said frames;
• mapping a second concentric layer of contour within said one of said frames, wherein said second concentric layer comprises rectangular regions surrounding and contiguous with said first concentric layer of contour;
• selecting, through an iterative sequence, threshold values for each of said first and second contour layers wherein a threshold value T.sub.1 for the first concentric contour layer is equal to or different than the threshold value T.sub.R, and the second contour layer has a threshold value T.sub.2 which is equal to or different than the threshold value T.sub.1 for the first contour layer;
• and
• applying compression protocol as a function of the variable threshold values of each region of connected rectangular regions and each contour layer wherein the artifact display in each frame reconstructed from said compressed representation of said image or video segment comprising each region and contour layer exhibits managed artifact dispersion.