An efficient partition scheme for depth-based block partitioning in 3D-HEVC

Abstract

In the development of a 3D video extension of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard, namely 3D-HEVC, Depth-based Block Partitioning (DBBP) is employed to code texture videos in dependent views by utilizing coded depth information of an independent view. With the DBBP, a proper partition mode is determined with the coded depth information, which divides the current texture block into two regions and thereafter allows for fine-grained motion compensation of foreground and background separately. In the DBBP, the original partition method consists of two steps specifically, i.e. threshold calculation and matched filtering based on down-sampling, which is relatively high complex and redundant with a segment mask generation process. Accordingly, a simple yet more effective partition scheme for the DBBP coding is proposed in this paper, based on the available binary segment mask. While reducing computational complexity significantly, the proposed method also demonstrates bitrate saving for all the dependent texture views and synthesized views under common test conditions (CTC) configuration specified in the 3D-HEVC.