Introducing the Perception-Distortion Tradeoff into the Rate-Distortion Theory of General Information Sources

TL;DR

This paper integrates the perception-distortion tradeoff into classical rate-distortion theory, clarifying the relationship among information rate, distortion, and perception for general sources in lossy source coding.

Contribution

It extends rate-distortion theory by incorporating perception, providing a unified framework for understanding tradeoffs in lossy source coding.

Findings

Formalizes the perception-distortion tradeoff within rate-distortion theory

Clarifies the interplay among rate, distortion, and perception for general sources

Provides theoretical insights into lossy source coding with perceptual considerations

Abstract

Blau and Michaeli recently introduced a novel concept for inverse problems of signal processing, that is, the perception-distortion tradeoff. We introduce their tradeoff into the rate distortion theory of lossy source coding in information theory, and clarify the tradeoff among information rate, distortion and perception for general information sources.