A New Scalable Multi-View Video Coding Configuration for Robust Selective Streaming of Free-Viewpoint TV

Free viewpoint TV (FTV) is a new media format that allows a user to change his/her viewpoint freely. To this effect, multi-view video must be coded to satisfy two conflicting requirements: (i) achieve high compression efficiency, and (ii) allow view switching with low delay. This paper proposes a new encoding configuration for scalable multi-view video coding, which achieves a compromise between the two requirements. In the new scalable multi-view configuration, the base layer is encoded with inter-view prediction at a minimum acceptable quality, while enhancement layers for each view only depend on their respective base layers (with no interview prediction). Thus, the base layer shall be served to all users, while enhancement layers shall be served selectively to users depending on their channel bandwidth and viewing direction. We compare the compression efficiency of the proposed method with those of non-scalable multi-view coding (MVC) and simulcast (H.264/AVC of each view independently) solutions.