Multi-view depth video coding using depth view synthesis

Depth information indicates the distance of an object in the three dimensional (3D) scene from the camera view-point, typically represented by eight bits. Since the depth map is useful in various multimedia applications, such as three dimensional television (3DTV) and free-viewpoint television (FTV), we need to acquire a single or multi-view depth maps and process them effectively. In this paper, we propose a new coding scheme for multi-view depth video data using depth view synthesis. We first apply a 3D warping method to synthesize a virtual depth image for the current view using the multi-view depth information. We also propose a hole filling method to compensate for the holes generated during the depth map synthesis process. Finally, we utilize the synthesized depth map for the current view as an additional reference frame in encoding the current depth map. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm achieves approximately 0.69 dB of PSNR gain on average, compared to JMVM 1.0.