Geometry-Adaptive Block Partitioning for Video Coding

Frame partitioning is a process of key importance in efficient video coding. Most recent video compression technologies, like H.264/AVC, use tree based frame partition. This reveals to be more efficient than simple uniform block partition, typically used in older video coding standards like MPEG-2 or H.263. However, tree based frame partition still does not code efficiently enough video information, as is unable to capture the geometric structure of 2D data. During last years, several works have been developed, mainly in the domain of still image representation and coding, in order to solve such limitations. An example is the use of wedge partitions. Based on these, in this paper, we study a way to better represent and code 2D video data by taking its 2D geometry into account. Our study is developed as an extension of H.264/AVC. Geometry-adaptive partitions are used to improve intra and inter prediction modes. Results obtained with the investigated method show that both better R-D and visual performance can be achieved.