High Efficiency Video Coding and its 3D extension: A research perspective

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is jointly developed by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC) of the ISO/IEC Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). At the present time, HEVC development is at its finalizing stages and achieving a 50% bit-rate reduction as compared to that of the current H.264/AVC video coding standard. Significant increase in resolution and perceptual quality can be expected for home and mobile video applications with future devices and content using HEVC. Beyond 2D video, the work for the 3D extension of HEVC has begun. In this paper, we look at HEVC and its 3D extension and discuss future research challenges addressing them. We explain the essential HEVC coding tools, and highlight the ones giving high coding gains. Finally, we highlight some of our current research related to HEVC.