Efficient multi-reference frame selection algorithm for hierarchical B pictures in multiview video coding

Multiple reference frame prediction technology is adopted in Multiview Video Coding (MVC) to explore temporal and inter-view redundancies of multiview videos, resulting in extremely high encoding complexity by searching the best reference frame indices and the best reference directions for each macroblock (MB). In order to reduce MVC coding computations while keeping the coding efficiency and thus to advance MVC in real-time multimedia broadcasting applications, we propose a Fast Multi-reference Frame Selection Algorithm (FMFSA) for hierarchical B picture prediction structure in this paper. Due to high spatial correlations within a MB, there is a high probability for smaller MB partition modes selecting the same reference frame and direction as B16 $\times$ 16 does. Therefore, the reference information of latter checked MB partition modes can be directly set according to the reference information of previous examined mode. Experimental results on MVC show that the proposed FMFSA can achieve 68.34% $\sim$ 79.01% total encoding time reduction while the average bit rate increase and peak signal-to-noise ratio degradation are within 0.54% and 0.04 dB, respectively for test multiview sequences with various motion properties and camera arrangements. © 2006 IEEE.