H.264/AVC-Based Depth Map Sequence Coding Using Improved Loop-filter

Research has been widely carried out on three dimensional television (3DTV) system using Depth-Image-Based Rendering (DIBR) techniques. The depth data is a kind of important 3D data, transmitted along with 2D texture data. At present, coding of depth map sequence takes existing H.264/AVC standard as a major means. As a key method to improve the video visual quality, loop-filter technology of H.264/AVC standard exerts great impact on the compressed depth map as well as the visual effects of stereo video. This paper proposes an improved loop-filter algorithm based on H.264/AVC, which solves the severe quality degradation problem existing in loop-filter for depth map sequence coding. While improving the coding quality, the proposed algorithm can greatly reduce the storage cost and computation complexity.