Unequal error protection of video based on motion vector characteristics

1. A method for data transmission, comprising the acts of:

receiving a multimedia stream through an electronic medium, the stream comprising a plurality of motion vectors;

extracting one or more vectors from the multimedia stream;

analyzing the one or ore extracted motion vectors;

partitioning the multimedia stream into a plurality of data types based at least in part on the analysis of the extracted motion vectors; and

adding a plurality of error protection units to the multimedia stream based on the analysis of the extracted motion vectors.

2. A method for data transmission, comprising the steps of:

receiving a video stream through an electronic medium, the stream comprising a plurality of motion vectors;

extracting one or more vectors from the video stream;

assigning an importance to the motion vectors;

based on the importance, partitioning the video stream into a plurality of data types; and

based on the importance, adding a plurality of error protection units to the partitioned video stream.

3. A method for data transmission, comprising the steps of:

generating a video transmission;

converting the video transmission to a video stream, the video stream comprising a plurality of vectors;

extracting one or more vectors from the video stream;

assigning an importance to the extracted motion vectors;

based on the assigned importance, partitioning the video stream into a plurality of data types; and

based on the assigned importance, adding a plurality of error protection units to the video stream.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of assigning an importance to each vector; and wherein the step of adding further comprises adding the error protection units based on the importance.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of sending the multimedia stream with the error protection units over an electronic medium.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the multimedia stream is a video stream.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the multimedia stream is in the MPEG format.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the vectors are used to form one or more data elements from the group consisting of: a total energy (or variance) data element, a mean or variance data element, a global direction measure data element, and a plurality of small random motion data elements; and wherein the error protection units are added to the multimedia stream based on the data elements.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the steps of selecting a plurality similar vectors from the vectors based on a direction and adding the error protection units based on the similar vectors.

10. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising the step of sending the video stream with the error protection units over an electronic medium.

11. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the video stream is in the MPEG format.

12. The method as recited in claim 2 wherein the vectors are used to form one or more data elements from the group consisting of: a total energy (or variance) data element, a mean or variance data element, a global direction measure data element, and a plurality of small random motion data elements; and wherein error protection units are added to the video stream based on the data elements; and wherein the video stream is partitioned based on the data elements.

13. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising the steps of selecting a plurality of similar vectors from the vectors based on a direction and adding the error protection units based on the similar vectors.

14. The method as recited in claim 3 further comprising the step of sending the video stream with the error protection units over an electronic medium.

15. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein the video stream is in the MPEG format.

16. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein the vectors are used to form one or more data elements from the group consisting of: a total energy (or variance) data element, a mean or variance data element, a global direction measure data element, and a plurality of small random motion data elements; and wherein error protection units are added to the video stream based on the data elements; and wherein the video stream is partitioned based on the data elements.

17. The method as recited in claim 3 further comprising the steps of a plurality of similar vectors from the vectors based on a direction and adding the error protection units based on the similar vectors.

18. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising the step of adding UEP to the multimedia stream based on the vectors.

19. The method as recited in claim 2 further comprising the step of adding UEP to the video stream based on the vectors.

20. The method as recited in claim 3 further comprising the step of adding UEP to the video stream based on the vectors.

21. A system comprising:

a motion-vector extractor for one or more motion vectors from a video stream;

a video stream partitioner for partitioning the video stream based on an assigned importance to the extracted one or more motion vectors;

an error-protection controller for adding error protection to the video stream based on an assigned importance to the extracted one or more motion vectors;

an analysis software tool for assigning the importance to each of the motion vectors, controlling the error-protection controller to add error protection based on the assigned importance, and controlling the video stream partitioner for partitioning the video stream based on the a signed importance; and

a transmitter for sending the video stream to a device.

22. A computer-readable medium, having stored thereon, computer executable process steps operative to control computer to document source files, the steps comprising:

receiving a multimedia stream through an electronic medium, the stream comprising a plurality of motion vectors;

extracting one or more vectors from the multimedia stream;

analyzing the one or more extracted motion vectors;

partitioning the multimedia stream into a plurality of data types based at least in part on the analysis of the extracted motion vectors; and

adding a plurality of error protection units to the multimedia stream based on the analysis of the extracted motion vectors.

23. A computer-readable medium, having stored thereon, computer executable process steps operative to control computer to document source files, the steps comprising:

receiving a video stream through an electronic medium, the stream comprising a plurality of vectors;

assigning an importance to the motion vectors;

extracting one or more vectors from the video stream;

based on the importance, partitioning the video stream into a plurality of data types; and

based on the importance, adding a plurality of error protection units to the partitioned video stream.

24. A computer-readable medium, having stored thereon, computer executable process steps operative to control computer to document source files, the steps comprising:

generating a video transmission;

converting the video transmission to video stream, the video stream comprising a plurality of motion vectors;

extracting one or more vectors from the video stream;

based on the importance, partitioning the video stream; and

based on the importance, adding a plurality of error protection units to the video stream.

25. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of data types in which the multimedia stream is partitioned into comprise texture data, scene data and motion data.

26. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein the plurality of data types in which the video stream is partitioned into comprise texture data, scene data and motion data.

27. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the plurality of data types in which the video stream is partitioned into comprise texture data, scene data and motion data.