Efficient Macroblock Mode Derivation in ESS Based on Local Characteristics of Video Objects

To improve the efficiency of inter-layer prediction on macblock (MB) mode in extended spatial scalability (ESS), a mode complexity parameter derived from local MBs in the base layer is used to early terminate the MB mode derivation in the enhancement layer. Novel criteria to merge enhancement-layer 4times4 blocks into a large MB sub-partition are also proposed. Experimental results show that our method can averagely increase the number of MBs in 16 times 16 mode in the enhancement layer more than 30% and reduce the number of MBs in small size partition mode with almost no rate-distortion efficiency loss compared to joint video team (JVT)-V108 under the test conditions specified in JVT-V302.