Fast depth video coding method using adaptive edge classification

In this paper, we propose a fast mode decision algorithm for both the intra prediction and inter prediction in the depth video sequence. The proposed algorithm reduces the complexity of the depth video coding. According to the depth variation, depth video can be classified into depth-continuity and depth-discontinuity regions. From experiments, we determine a threshold value for classifying these regions. Since the depth-continuity region has an imbalance in the mode distribution, we limit the mode candidates to reduce the complexity of the mode decision process. Experimental results show that our proposed algorithm reduces encoding time up to 31% and 98% for the intra and inter frames, respectively, compared to the H.264/AVC standard with negligible PSNR loss and bit rate increase.