Bitrate-Saving Intra Coding for Depth Video Compression in H.264/MVC Based on D-NOSE Models

The DIBR technique generates a 3-D perception through a 2-D color and a depth map sequences. Compressing depth map sequence is necessary for storage and transmission considerations. However, the tradeoff between bit rate reduction and quality degradation from compression should be addressed. We propose a bit rate-saving intra coding scheme which modifies, prior to compression, each depth map to minimize the prediction errors. Empirical results show that the proposed intra coding scheme can substantially reduce the bit rate while preserving the quality of the rendered virtual view.