Fast prediction algorithm for multiview video coding

Abstract

he H.264/multiview video coding (MVC) standard has been developed to enable efficient coding for three-dimensional and multiple viewpoint video sequences. The inter-view statistical dependencies are utilized and an inter-view prediction is employed to provide more efficient coding; however, this increases the overall encoding complexity. Motion homogeneity is exploited here to selectively enable inter-view prediction, and to reduce complexity in the motion estimation (ME) and the mode selection processes. This has been accomplished by defining situations that relate macro-blocks’ motion characteristics to the mode selection and the inter-view prediction processes. When comparing the proposed algorithm to the H.264/MVC reference software and other recent work, the experimental results demonstrate a significant reduction in ME time while maintaining similar rate-distortion performance.