A Complexity Reduction Scheme for Depth Coding in 3D-HEVC

Abstract

3D-high efficiency video coding (3D-HEVC) is the next-generation compression standard for multiview system applications, which has recently been approved by MPEG and VCEG as an extension of HEVC. To improve the compression efficiency of depth map, several compression tools have been developed for a better representation depth edges. These supplementary coding tools together with existing prediction modes can achieve high compression efficiency, but require a very high complexity that restricts the encoders from ongoing application. In this paper, we introduce a fast scheme to reduce complexity of depth coding in inter and intramode prediction procedure. A simulation analysis is performed to study intra and intermode distribution correlations in the depth compression information. Based on that correlation, we exploit two complexity reduction strategies, including early SKIP and adaptive intra prediction selection. Experimental results demonstrate that our scheme can achieve a complexity reduction up to 63.0%, without any noticeable loss of compression efficiency.