Depth-guided inpainting algorithm for Free-Viewpoint Video

Free-Viewpoint Video (FVV) is a novel technique which creates virtual images of multiple direction by view synthesis. In this paper, an exemplar-based depth-guided inpainting algorithm is proposed to fill disocclusions due to uncovered areas after projection. We develop an improved priority function which uses the depth information to impose a desirable inpainting order. We also propose an efficient background-foreground separation technique to enhance the accuracy of hole filling. Furthermore, a gradient-based searching approach is developed to reduce the computational cost and the location distance is incorporated into patch matching criteria to improve the accuracy. The experimental results have shown that the gradient-based search in our algorithm requires a much lower computational cost (factor of 6 compared to global search), while producing significantly improved visual results.