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ITU - Telecommunications Standardization Sector   Document: ITU-LBC-96-148
STUDY GROUP 15
LBC Experts Group
Dallas, USA, April 22-25, 1996

Title:  Goals and Schedule for H.263+

Source: H.263+ Video Group

Contact: Gary J. Sullivan                         Voice: +1 508 623 4324
         PictureTel Corp.  M/S 635                Fax:   +1 508 749-2804
         222 Rosewood Dr.                         Email: garys@pictel.com
         Danvers, MA 01923  USA

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1.  Scope and Goals of H.263+ Effort

The H.263+ development effort is intended for near-term standardization of 
enhancements of the H.263 video coding algorithm for real-time
telecommunication.

These enhancements of H.263 are expected to fall into two basic categories:
a) Enhancing quality within existing applications
b) Broadening the current range of applications

A few examples of enhancements in this framework could be:
a) Improving perceptual compression efficiency
b) Reducing video delay
c) Providing greater resilience to bit errors and data losses

Since H.263+ requires a complete and well-defined standard in the near term,
we expect its work to be confined to examining well-defined, well-developed
proposed enhancements that fit reasonably well into the existing framework
of H.263.  We urge those who can contribute to H.263+ to bring forth their
ideas, and we plan to coordinate our efforts with those of the H.263/L video
efforts for the longer-term and with those responsible for other
recommendations which may be affected by H.263+ (such as H.245).

2.  Workplan

The H.263+ workplan is outlined as follows:
      April '96  Begin accepting and evaluating proposals.
      July  '96  Evaluate proposals.  Begin draft text.
      Nov.  '96  Final proposal evaluations.  Complete draft written.
      Feb.  '97  Final evaluations completed.  Finalized text written.
      April '97  Determination.