3D motion estimation algorithm in 3D video coding

This paper proposes a new solution to improve the quality of depth map in 2D+depth map of 3D video coding. The proposed method based on H.264 variable block size motion estimation for 2D video coding in 3D video. As in the 2D video coding flow, motion estimation is also applied to depth map coding. However, the result of the predicted depth map is not precise enough only through 2D motion estimation. Therefore, a new idea grows, that is 3D motion estimation for 2D and depth video. The third dimensional search is necessary for depth information. The proposed 3D motion estimation raises the quality and the precision of the depth map after prediction, and reduces the coding bitrate. From the simulation results, the high accuracy depth map improves the effect of the 3D video viewing exported by the Depth image based rendering (DIBR) system.