Wyner-Ziv coding of light fields for random access

Image-based rendering data sets, such as light fields, require efficient compression due to their large data size, but also easy random access when rendering from the data set. Efficient compression usually depends upon prediction between images, which creates dependencies between them, conflicting with the requirement of having easy random access. In this paper we propose to eliminate prediction at the encoder by using Wyner-Ziv coding for compressing the light field images. The images are independently encoded by a Wyner-Ziv encoder. At the receiver, previously reconstructed images are used by the Wyner-Ziv decoder as side information to exploit similarities among images. Simulation results show significant compression performance gains compared to conventional independent image coding while maintaining random access capabilities.