A belief-propagation based fast Intra coding algorithm for the H.264/AVC FRExt coder

The paper presents a complexity reduction strategy for the spatial Intra prediction of the H.264/AVC FRExt coder. The algorithm relies on selecting a reduced set of prediction modes according to their probabilities, which are estimated adopting a Belief-Propagation procedure. The resulting coding modes are then employed to find the optimal partitioning. Experimental results show that the proposed method permits saving up to 63% of the computational complexity required by an exhaustive rate-distortion optimization with a negligible loss in performance. Moreover, it guarantees an accurate control of the computational complexity with respect to other methods.