Flexible depth map spatial resolution in depth-enhanced multiview video coding

Multiview video plus depth (MVD) has proved to be a promising format enabling various 3D applications. One approach to achieve better MVD compression is to adjust the spatial resolution of depth map based on the content and the application. In this research two schemes are considered: first, multiview video coding accompanied by depth maps to improve the texture coding performance. Second, multiview video plus depth (MVD) coding targeting highest quality for synthesized views. Two algorithms to select the best spatial resolution for each scheme are proposed and the results show 10.8% and 16.5% bitrate reduction compared to the anchor case where depth map resolution is fixed.