Video plus depth compression for mobile 3D services

Abstract

This paper presents a study on video plus depth compression using available MPEG standards and its optimization for mobile 3D services. Video plus depth enables 3D television, but as mobile services are subject to various limitations, including bandwidth, memory, and processing power, efficient compression as well as low complexity view synthesis is required. Two MPEG coding standards are applicable for video plus depth coding, namely MPEG-C Part 3 and H.264 Auxiliary Picture Syntax. These methods are evaluated with respect to the limitations of mobile services and the achievable quality for rendering the second stereo view from compressed video plus depth. In conclusion video plus depth is an interesting alternative to conventional stereo video for mobile 3D services. The results indicate that depth can be compressed at significantly lower bitrates than a secondary video, however at the expense of increased complexity for rendering the second view at the decoder.