Probability Model-Based Early Merge Mode Decision for Dependent Views Coding in 3D-HEVC

Abstract

As a 3D extension to the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, 3D-HEVC was developed to improve the coding efficiency of multiview videos. It inherits the prediction modes from HEVC, yet both Motion Estimation (ME) and Disparity Estimation (DE) are required for dependent views coding. This improves coding efficiency at the cost of huge computational costs. In this article, an early Merge mode decision approach is proposed for dependent texture views and dependent depth maps coding in 3D-HEVC based on priori and posterior probability models. First, the priori probability model is established by exploiting the hierarchical and interview correlations from those previously encoded blocks. Second, the posterior probability model is built by using the Coded Block Flag (CBF) of the current coding block. Finally, the joint priori and posterior probability model is adopted to early terminate the Merge mode decision for both dependent texture views and dependent depth maps coding. Experimental results show that the proposed approach saves 45.2% and 30.6% encoding time on average for dependent texture views and dependent depth maps coding while maintaining negligible loss of coding efficiency, respectively.