Efficient disparity vector prediction schemes with modified P frame for 2D camera arrays

An efficient disparity estimation algorithm for multi-view video sequences, recorded by a two-dimensional camera array in which the cameras are spaced equidistantly, is presented. Because of the strong geometrical relationship among views, the disparity vectors of a certain view can for most blocks be derived from the disparity vectors of other views. A frame constructed using that idea is called a D frame in this work. Three new prediction schemes which contain D frames are proposed for encoding 5 × 3 multi-view video sequences. The schemes are applied to several multi-view image sequences taken from a camera-array and they are compared in terms of quality, bit-rate and complexity. The experimental results show that the proposed prediction schemes significantly decrease the complexity of the encoder at a very low cost of quality and/or bit-rate.

► The complexity of the multi-view video encoder needs to be very low.
► There is a strong geometrical correlation among views captured by a 2D camera array.
► The disparity vectors of a certain view can for most blocks be derived.
► Disparity estimation can be skipped for some blocks.
► The encoder complexity can be decreased at a very low RD cost.