Sharing of motion vectors in 3D video coding

Current investigations in the area of 3D video systems are based on depth map sequences. They are used to determine the compatibility with conventional 2D video systems. Instead of transmitting or storing two 2D video sequences for each eye, 2D video and the appropriate depth information is delivered. If the viewer owns a standard TV set, only the video is displayed. In the case of additionally installed hardware, e.g. stereoscopic display or shutter glasses, a second virtual view are computed based on the depth information. The amount of data for transmitting or storing the additional depth information is limited to 20 percent of the MPEG-2 coded 2D video data stream. This paper shows an approach for compression of the depth map sequences based on MPEG-2 within the predetermined limit by sharing the vectors for motion compensation with the 2D video data.