New HEVC prediction modes for 3D holoscopic video coding

Holoscopic imaging is an advantageous solution for glassless 3D video systems, which promises to revolutionize the 3D market in the near future. Besides freeing the user from wearing any viewing device, it supports full motion parallax, improving this way the users' viewing experience. However, in order to provide 3D holoscopic content with convenient visual quality in terms of resolution and 3D perception, ultra-high resolution acquisition and display devices are required. Consequently, efficient video coding tools to deal with this large amount of data become of paramount importance. The recent standardization project called High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) addresses the requirements of high resolution video coding, but does not yet address the specific characteristics of 3D holoscopic content. To remedy this situation, this paper proposes to incorporate new prediction modes in HEVC to explore the particular structure of 3D holoscopic content, in order to further improve the performance of HEVC for this type of content. Experimental results, based on the HEVC test model version 4.0 are presented and clearly show the advantages of using this approach.