Intermediate view generation for perceived depth adjustment of stereo video

There is significant industry activity on delivery of 3D video to the home. It is expected that 3D capable devices will be able to provide consumers with the ability to adjust the depth perceived for stereo content. This paper provides an overview of related techniques and evaluates the effectiveness of several approaches. Practical considerations are also discussed

RD-Optimized View Synthesis Prediction for Multiview Video Coding

We propose a rate-distortion-optimized framework that incorporates view synthesis for improved prediction in multiview video coding. In the proposed scheme, auxiliary information, including depth data, is encoded and used at the decoder to generate the view synthesis prediction data. The proposed method employs optimal mode decision including view synthesis prediction, and sub-pixel reference matching to improve prediction accuracy of the view synthesis prediction. Novel variants of the skip and direct modes are also presented, which infer the depth and correction vector information from neighboring blocks in a synthesized reference picture to reduce the bits needed for the view synthesis prediction mode. We demonstrate two multiview video coding scenarios in which view synthesis prediction is employed. In the first scenario, the goal is to improved the coding efficiency of multiview video where block-based depths and correction vectors are encoded by CABAC in a lossless manner on a macroblock basis. A variable block-size depth/motion search algorithm is described. Experimental results demonstrate that view synthesis prediction does provide some coding gains when combined with disparity-compensated prediction. In the second scenario, the goal is to use view synthesis prediction for reducing rate overhead incurred by transmitting depth maps for improved support of 3DTV and free-viewpoint video applications. It is assumed that the complete depth map for each view is encoded separately from the multiview video and used at the receiver to generate intermediate views. We utilize this information for view synthesis prediction to improve overall coding efficiency. Experimental results show that the rate overhead incurred by coding depth maps of varying quality could be offset by utilizing the proposed view synthesis prediction techniques to reduce the bitrate required for coding multiview video

On Scalable Lossless Video Coding Based on Sub-Pixel Accurate MCTF

On scalable lossless video coding based on sub-pixel accurate MCTF Sehoon Yea a and William A.Pearlman

Pearlman,“A Wavelet-Based Two-Stage Near-Lossless Coder

In this paper,we investigate a two-stage near-lossless compression scheme. It is in the spirit of “lossy plus residual coding ” and consists of a wavelet-based lossy layer followed by an arithmetic coding of the quantized residual to guarantee a given L ∞ error bound in the pixel domain. Our focus is on the selection of the optimum bit rate for the lossy layer to achieve the minimum total bit rate. Unlike other similar lossy plus lossless approaches using a wavelet-based lossy layer, the proposed method does not require iteration of decoding and the IWT(Inverse Wavelet Transform) to locate the optimum bit rate. We propose a simple method to estimate the optimal bit rate and provide a theoretical justification for it. It is based on the ‘critical rate ’ argument from the Rate-Distortion theory and ‘whiteness ’ of the residual. 1