View synthesis distortion model based frame level rate control optimization for multiview depth video coding

• The view synthesis model is investigated to indicate the importance of each frame in the depth video.
• The model parameter of view synthesis model is varied along the frame index.
• The view synthesis distortion model is incorporated in the bargain game theoretic model.
• The overall rate control algorithm improves the virtual view quality of depth video coding.

Quality of virtual view image is one of the important issues in multiview depth video coding (MDVC). When people enjoy three dimensional (3D) applications, they may have an unpleasant perceptual experience if the virtual view has low image quality. Thus, high virtual view image quality is mostly expected in the rate control optimization for MDVC with limited channel bandwidth and buffer resources. In this paper, a view synthesis distortion model is proposed first to indicate the importance of each frame in the depth video. Second, to achieve a balance between virtual view image quality and buffer constraint, the proposed view synthesis distortion model is incorporated in the bargain game theoretic model to handle the frame level bit allocation problem for Hierarchical B-picture (HBP) structure. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed rate control algorithm achieves 0.18 dB BDPSNR gain in average compared to the benchmark. The average mismatch of the proposed algorithm is only 0.71%.