Low-Complexity Depth Coding by Depth Sensitivity Aware Rate-Distortion Optimization

In this paper, a low-complexity coding approach is explored for depth video under the framework of high efficiency video coding based 3-D video coding standard. Unlike the existing low-complexity coding approaches that optimize motion search and mode decision, the major technical innovation of this paper is to incorporate depth sensitivity fidelity (DSF) into the rate-distortion optimization (RDO) process. Specifically, a quantitative maximum tolerable depth distortion is derived to measure the DSF, and jointly estimate the view synthesis distortion to account for the DSF. Then, a DSF-aware RDO scheme is proposed by developing new quantization parameter and Lagrangian multiplier determination strategies. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the computational complexity of encoding without significant view synthesis performance loss.