Efficient Motion and Disparity Estimation Optimization for Low Complexity Multiview Video Coding

Zhaoqing PAN, Yun ZHANG, Sam KWONG

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

337 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The use of variable block-size motion estimation (ME), disparity estimation (DE), and multiple reference frames selection aims to improve the coding efficiency of multiview video coding (MVC), however, this is at the cost of high computational complexity of these advanced coding techniques, which are not suitable for real-time video broadcasting applications. In this paper, we propose an efficient ME and DE algorithm for reducing the computational complexity of MVC. Firstly, according to the characteristics of the coded block pattern and rate distortion (RD) cost, an early DIRECT mode decision algorithm is proposed. Then, based on the characteristics of the initial search point in the ME/DE process and the observation that the best point is center-biased, an early ME/DE termination strategy is proposed. If the ME/DE early termination is not satisfied, the ME/DE search window will be reduced by applying the optimal theory. At last, two block matching search strategies are proposed to predict the best point for the ME/DE. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve 50.05% to 77.61%, 64.83% on average encoding time saving. Meanwhile, the RD performance degradation is negligible. Especially, the proposed algorithm can be applied to not only the odd views but also the even views.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7095565
Pages (from-to)166-176
Number of pages11
JournalIEEE Transactions on Broadcasting
Volume61
Issue number2
Early online date27 Apr 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 1963-12012 IEEE.

Keywords

  • Disparity estimation (DE)
  • Early termination
  • Motion estimation (ME)
  • Multiview video coding (MVC)
  • Optimal stopping theory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Efficient Motion and Disparity Estimation Optimization for Low Complexity Multiview Video Coding'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this