Fast Macroblock Mode Selection Algorithm for B Frames in Multiview Video Coding

Abstract

Intensive computational complexity is an obstacle of enabling multiview video coding for real-time applications. In this paper, we present a fast macroblock (MB) mode selection algorithm for B frames which are based on the computational complexity analyses between the MB mode selection and reference frame selection. Three strategies are proposed to reduce the coding complexity jointly. First, the temporal correlation of MB modes between current MB and its temporal corresponding MBs is utilized to reduce computational complexity in determining the optimal MB mode. Secondly, Lagrangian cost of SKIP mode is compared with that of Inter16×16 modes to early terminate the mode selection process. Thirdly, reference frame correlation among different Inter modes is exploited to reduce the number of reference frames. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can promote the encoding speed by 3.71~7.22 times with 0.08dB PSNR degradation and 2.03% bitrate increase on average compared with the joint multiview video model.